Ready to role
In a career that spans blockbusters, biopics, zany comedies and even a reality series about cars, Robert Downey Jr’s performance in The Sympathizer is his most versatile yet, writes
WITH his ginger curls, bright blue eyes and skin freckled with sun damage, Robert Downey Jr is utterly unrecognisable when he barrels into the opening frames of
The Sympathizer.
Downey Jr’s appearance as Claude – a brash American CIA agent who is stationed in Vietnam during the war and its aftermath – proves to be the fi rst in his series of impressive transformations in this new series based on the 2016 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen.
By the time the fi nal credits roll on the seven- episode series, Downey Jr will also appear as three more nameless ( yet memorable) characters: an ageing conservative congressman, a bald intellectual and an egotistical fi lmmaker.
The HBO series, which is also produced by the Academy Award-winning actor and his wife Susan Downey, offers a unique perspective of the Vietnam War as told through the eyes of a halfFrench, half-Vietnamese soldier called The Captain ( played by Australian actor Hoa Xuande).
Early on, an undercover Claude tells The Captain he “will be whoever I need to be” to get the job done for the CIA. Little does he know, the person he’s speaking to is a North Vietnamese double agent who is posing as a South Vietnamese soldier and secretly working against the Americans.
This fracturing of identity is the theme of The Sympathizer, where nobody is who they appear to be. For Downey Jr, that sleight of hand comes naturally. The 59-year-old – whose first credited acting role was in his director father’s 1970 fi lm Pound – has been disguising himself on our screens for decades, whether with Charlie Chaplin’s moustache and bowler hat in 1992’s Chaplin, the iconic mask in Iron Man or controversial blackface make-up in the film industry spoof Tropic Thunder.
This latest project is just the latest in a long line that allow Downey Jr to make the best of his chameleon credentials, as showcased by these other starring roles:
Oppenheimer (Binge)
Christopher Nolan’s three-hour 2023 film about the creation of the atomic bomb cleaned up at this year’s Academy Awards. Downey Jr’s towering performance as Lewis Strauss, the nemesis of pioneering atomic weapons scientist J Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), won him the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, plus the BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards.
Ally McBeal (Disney+)
Downey Jr’s arrival as series star Calista Flockhart’s love interest, smooth-talking lawyer Larry Paul, in 2000 brought audiences
(and critics) back to the comedy series in its fourth season. His charismatic performance netted him a Golden Globe and universal praise, but when he was arrested for allegedly being under the influence of drugs in 2001, series creator David E Kelley had to pivot on plans to wrap the season with Ally and Larry’s wedding and instead send the character packing. The show never recovered from his absence, and was axed in 2002.
Air America (Stan)
This 1990 action comedy sees Downey Jr and Mel Gibson playing a pair of maverick pilots who get caught up in a drug smuggling operation during the Vietnam War. The two actors became firm friends on the set, and when Downey Jr’s career was on the wane 13 years later, Gibson personally paid the insurance so that he could star in The Singing Detective, paving the way for the actor’s return to Hollywood.
Tropic-Thunder (Paramount+) While Ben Stiller-helmed comedies aren’t generally considered Oscar bait, this 2008 film earnt Downey Jr a second nod( his first being for Chaplin) as a white Australian actor playing an African American soldier in a film about the Vietnam War (which he reportedly modelled on Daniel Day-Lewis, Russell Crowe and Colin Farrell).
Iron Man (Disney+)
It’s now hard to imagine anyone except Downey Jr playing the quick-witted billionaire Tony Stark, but Marvel Studios was initially reluctant to cast him. Director Jon Favreau, who also plays Stark’s right-hand-man Happy, championed the actor until the studio caved, launching the start of a cinematic juggernaut in 2008. Downey Jr would go on to play the flawed superhero in nine more films, culminating in his dramatic fi nale in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame.
Downey’ s Dream Cars( Binge)
In this fly- on-the-wall series, Downey Jr dips his toe into the reality TV realm to take you inside his impressive garage. Despite being a devoted rev head with an enviable collection of classic vehicles, he’s concerned about the environmental impact of his luxury fleet, so with the help of experts, he overhauls his vehicles so that he can cruise the Hollywood Hills without guilt.
Sherlock Holmes (Netflix)
This 2009 Guy Ritchie version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective stories features a frenetic pace, witty dialogue and a cast of lovable rogues.
The duo of Downey Jr as Holmes and Jude Law as his loyal sidekick Dr John Watson take a far more physical approach to their sleuthing than other incarnations.
THE SYMPATHIZER
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