In The Sympathizer, the adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen's novel about a communist Vietnamese spy on American soil, the presence of Robert Downey Jr. is disconcerting. He plays different characters, all of them antagonists of the protagonist played by Hoa Xuande, and not exactly in a restrained way. . This, however, has an explanation: if his interpretation is parodic it is because he responds to an audiovisual tradition that is offensive to minorities.
“I feel that the exploitation and appropriation and marginalization of communities is something that I have witnessed over decades in this medium of film and television,” the actor explained during a presentation of the HBO Max series in Los Angeles.
So, in response to all the times that a person, for example, Asian, has been stereotyped and caricatured, Park Chan-wook's production offers a parody of the American that is accompanied by the overacting of the actor who won the Oscar for best supporting actor for Oppenheimer.
"How would you like to represent all the different ways that you have witnessed these types of degrading acts that take place in society, in the media, in the way that one culture assumes that the other must be small and just part of "His story?" he asked the audience made up of the specialized press.
This is an explanation that helps to understand Downey Jr's role in multiple roles in The Sympathizer, whether from a CIA agent with a cigar in his mouth and a road motorcycle to an open-shirted businessman who considers that all citizens with slanted eyes They are exactly the same. Whether this approach to the character works, considering that he is striking next to Xuande's Captain, is another matter.
