The sympathizer: how that “fuckfuck” steakhouse scene came about

[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Sympathizer Episode 3, “Love It or Leave It.”]

The most interesting aspect of the new HBO drama The sympathizer – Robert Downey Jr. playing a number of different characters – reaches its peak in Episode 3, “Love It or Leave It.” And even cast member Sandra Oh had questions about a key sequence: During a roundtable interview with her, series star Hoa Xuande and members of the press, she turned to Xuande mid-interview to ask her herself about the details. “Did you rehearse everything? Who did you start with?

She was asking specifically about what the cast and producers called “the rotisserie scene,” where four of Downey's different characters come together for an increasingly surreal conversation with The Captain (Xuande), a Vietnamese double agent trying to orient yourself in the chaos. after the Vietnam War. A clear digital trick is involved in bringing together Downey's various characters (CIA agent Claude, Professor Hammer, filmmaker Niko and Congressman Ned) for a sequence that required three days of filming but was essential to the film. production.

According to executive producer Susan Downey, “Robert never wanted [the multiple roles] be some kind of misleading idea. I didn't want it to just be, 'Oh, this was my Peter Sellers moment.' I need to have a real reason why a single actor plays these four roles.'”

That reason arose, said co-showrunner Don McKellar, from conversations about how “there's a recurring motif in the Captain's life: these kinds of condescending characters from the American establishment who offer something to the Captain and offer to help him and then end up betraying him.” or being misleading. These quirky archetypes of the American establishment, who work together, have a common interest, are all members of the same club, as we showed in Episode 3. And so we thought, how do we evoke that? characters without, you know, hitting him over the head with dialogue?

Hence the idea of ​​multicasting, which according to executive producer Niv Fichman made the author of the source material, Viet Thanh Nguyen, jealous because “he couldn't do that in a book.”