Cory Stillman
The Australian actor Hoa Xuande has had to put on an American accent for roles before, but his performance as The Captain in HBO’s miniseries The Sympathizer was an altogether different challenge.
“With this specific character, I wanted to lean into this idea that the character…he has studied in America, he has watched American movies, he has really embraced that culture,” says Xuande. “He really has this ardent fixation on what it means to be an American, and so he really leans into that ideal.”
The Captain is a North Vietnamese plant in the South Vietnamese army, who is forced to relocate to the U.S. and report his findings back to his comrades in the Viet Cong. As that premise may suggest, The Captain’s allegiances are complicated, as is his identity. The Captain’s accent is not just American, it is aggressively American.
Xuande references John Wayne as an inspiration for his voice in the show. Once he slipped into the perfect American accent, Xuande maintained that style of speaking even between takes. It was a level of commitment that surely impressed Xuande’s co-star and idol Robert Downey Jr, who plays five different characters in The Sympathizer.
“Robert just has millions of characters pouring out of him every single day, and before you even meet him on set he is already chopping and changing,” says Xuande. “He’s just such a fun, lovable, down-to-earth, silly kind of actor, that he just makes you feel so warm and welcomed.”
Of course, that warmth stands in contrast with the antagonistic nature of Downey Jr’s varied work on the show. At times, he is a smarmy mentor to The Captain, and at other times, he is an ignorant Congressman. No matter the scene, Xuande reveled in those “pinch me” moments of working opposite a megastar at the height of his craft.
“It reminded me to keep things fun and keep things fresh,” says Xuande.
Indeed, things were often fun and fresh on the set of The Sympathizer, with legendary director Park Chan-wook at the helm. Listen to my full conversation with Xuande below to hear his thoughts on working with the Korean auteur, as well as a few other directors with whom he’d love to collaborate.
You can stream The Sympathizer on Max today.
Comments
Loading…