Robert Downey Jr.: Why is he playing four roles in his new series The Sympathizer?

Robert Downey Jr.: Why is he playing four roles in his new series The Sympathizer?

The mini-series The Sympathizer is an event in more ways than one. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning adaptation is a co-creation of Park Chan-wook, the South Korean director of Old Boy and Mademoiselle. In this spy story set at the end of the Vietnam War, Hoa Juandea and Robert Downey Jr. lend their features to several different characters.

Robert Downey Jr. Power 4!

This process, used by chameleon actors like Peter Sellers and Mike Myers, explores a new side of the acting talents of Robert Downey Jr., who earlier this year was awarded the Oscar for best supporting actor, the latter this time in four times in the film. The roles of a CIA agent, a professor, an elected representative of Congress or even a film director.

Why was Robert Downey Jr. given four roles in the series? The decision was made by Park Chan-wook and co-creator Don McKellar while writing the series. In order for each character to embody a different aspect of American society, the South Korean filmmaker came “To the conclusion that the same actor would be needed to play these characters so that the audience could clearly grasp the idea.”

“We wanted these characters to be different, but without falling into the cartoon side” Added by Don McKellar to our colleagues at The Hollywood Reporter. “We wanted to investigate the man behind it all, because in a way all four are connected. In the series, as an actor, Robert Downey Jr. also participated as a producer.

Four completely improvised roles?

This dual role gave him more freedom to play and allowed him to do a lot of improvisation on set. The work method was considered confusing, but still rewarded his partner Hoa Juande. But the performance of “RDJ” was not limited to improvisation, according to screenwriter Don McKellar:

I think when people talk about improvisation, it gives the impression of being selfish, but it’s not, and I also told him that I want to protect him, because people will believe that he improvised all his dialogues, but in reality. He followed the script in its broad outlines. And some of his craziest lines sound like they were improvised but were actually written into the script.

Episodes of The Sympathizer miniseries can be seen every Monday exclusively on Prime Video with a paid subscription to Warner Pass.

Discover the list of series currently available on the platform!

Source: Allocine

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