{"id":76041,"date":"2024-02-15T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/15\/how-robert-downey-jr-helped-the-sympathizer-pull-off-an-audacious-ferocious-adaptation\/"},"modified":"2024-02-15T14:30:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T14:30:00","slug":"how-robert-downey-jr-helped-the-sympathizer-pull-off-an-audacious-ferocious-adaptation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/15\/how-robert-downey-jr-helped-the-sympathizer-pull-off-an-audacious-ferocious-adaptation\/","title":{"rendered":"How Robert Downey Jr. Helped \u2018The Sympathizer\u2019 Pull Off an Audacious, Ferocious Adaptation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"has-dropcap\">It didn\u2019t take long for <strong>Park Chan-wook<\/strong> to realize his <em>Sympathizer<\/em> star <strong>Robert Downey Jr.<\/strong> was a kindred spirit. The iconic South Korean filmmaker, known for genre-busting films like <em>Oldboy<\/em> and <em>Decision to Leave,<\/em> made his name by toying with tone, smashing together wild humor and brutal violence, and subverting expectations from frame to frame. And when Downey took on the task of playing a bunch of different characters in HBO\u2019s new limited series (premiering April 14), the Oscar-nominated actor too kept everyone on their toes. \u201cI was astounded by how quickly he was able to come up with a very different performance\u2014he\u2019d do a different improv for each and every take,\u201d Park says. \u201cEven when I had a good-enough take, I had to fall back and suppress myself from asking for more. It was unbelievable to see.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure data-testid=\"IframeEmbed\" class=\"IframeEmbedWrapper-sc-dRedg hZcniq iframe-embed\">\n<div data-testid=\"IframeEmbedContainer\" class=\"IframeEmbedContainer-hptgUZ hSLYci\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"IframeEmbedContent-cMdiev csnuAY IframeEmbedContent\" height=\"113\" width=\"200\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" title=\"Embedded Frame\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/f3HSTmG5Lhc\" allow=\"autoplay *; encrypted-media *; clipboard-write; autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Such unpredictability, it turns out, is precisely what you need to adapt <em>The Sympathizer,<\/em> <strong>Viet Thanh Nguyen<\/strong>\u2019s Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning 2015 novel about an unnamed Vietcong spy\u2013slash\u2013refugee settling into Los Angeles near the end of the Vietnam War. The book took gonzo turns toward different moods and ideas in its exploration of fraught cultural duality and the overwhelming force of Americanism. The South Vietnam\u2013born Nguyen challenged popular narratives of the war, and more broadly, painted a fascinating portrait of a young man caught between two worlds\u2014and far more genres. Some would call the novel \u201cunfilmable;\u201d others might be willing to take risks, honor the text\u2019s spirit, and never get complacent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Co-showrunner <strong>Don McKellar<\/strong> was intimidated by the prospect. In fact, \u201cI had a hard time picturing it actually before Chan-wook\u2019s name was mentioned,\u201d he says. He and Park, Nguyen\u2019s \u201cdream director\u201d for an adaptation, had collaborated in the past and synced up to helm <em>The Sympathizer<\/em> together. \u201cIt\u2019s angry and satiric and very intelligent and also not afraid to tackle big themes\u2014but it\u2019s also very playful in a way that\u2019s sort of surprising for the heavy subject matter,\u201d McKellar says of the book. \u201cOur main strategy was to replicate that voice cinematically by bringing in Park Chan-wook, because he really shares that sensibility. His work has that edge. He can do satire, he can be devastating, but he also has this playfulness and this wit.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/the-sympathizer-hbo-exclusive-preview-robert-downey-jr-awards-insider\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It didn\u2019t take long for Park Chan-wook to realize his Sympathizer star Robert Downey Jr. was a kindred spirit. The iconic South Korean filmmaker, known for genre-busting films like Oldboy and Decision to Leave, made his name by toying with tone, smashing together wild humor and brutal violence, and subverting expectations from frame to frame. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[27,1238,1575,216,6515],"class_list":{"0":"post-76041","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrity","8":"tag-awards","9":"tag-exclusives","10":"tag-first-look","11":"tag-robert-downey-jr","12":"tag-vietnam-war"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}