An unrecognizable Robert Downey Jr. (right) with Hoa Xuande in “The Sympathizer” —PHOTO COURTESY OF HBO GO
Not even his career-defining portrayal of Tony Stark aka Iron-Man can put Robert Downey Jr.’s thespic gifts in a pigeonhole. Any movie aficionado worth his salt is aware of the actor’s other prized portrayals onscreen, far removed from the multiverse of superheroes that the 58-year-old actor is famous for.
The most notable of his performances see Robert embodying as much of Charlie Chaplin’s mischief as his melancholy in Richard Attenborough’s “Chaplin” or poking fun at method acting as a movie star who surgically dyes his skin to portray an African-American Vietnam veteran in Ben Stiller’s “Tropic Thunder”—both of which earned him much-deserved Oscar citations.
Without a doubt, Robert is convincing whether it’s a role as harrowing as that of a drug addict (in “Less Than Zero”), a journalist glorifying brutality (“Natural Born Killers”) or a private eye with a keen sense of problem-solving skills (“Sherlock Holmes”).
Pulitzer-winning novel
In “The Sympathizer,” his eagerly anticipated upcoming limited series for HBO/HBO Go, Rhombus Media and A24 (“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “The Whale,” “Aftersun”), Robert is almost unrecognizable as he dives deep into a string of vanishing acts that shows him essaying multiple roles, as footage and an early photo from “The Sympathizer” demonstrate! How’s that for a stretch?
Based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer-winning novel, “The Sympathizer” is an espionage thriller and cross-culture satire about the struggles of a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy during the final days of the Vietnam War and his resulting exile in the United States.
What’s making the project even more exciting is the fact that it is helmed by South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook (“Oldboy,” “Decision to Leave”). Aside from Robert and Sandra Oh, the cast also includes Hoa Xuande, Fred Nguyen Khan, Toan Le, Vy Le, Alan Trong, Vy Le and Ky Duyen.
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