The espionage thriller series The Sympathizer has added more to its cast. Joining Robert Downey Jr. (Avengers: Endgame) in the HBO and A24 series is Sandra Oh (Killing Eve), Kieuh Chinh (Dynasty) and Nguyen Cao Ky Duyen (Paris By Night).
The Sympathizer is “an espionage thriller and cross-culture satire about the struggles of a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy during the final days of the Vietnam War and his resulting exile in the United States.” It is an adaptation of the book of the same name by Viet Thanh Nguyen.
Oh will play Ms. Sofia Mori, “a liberated feminist who in the midst of a love triangle begins to awaken to the complexity of her own Asian American identity.”
Chinh will play the Major’s Mother. “Homesick for Vietnam, she doesn’t find an easy fit with her new circumstances, in contrast to her son who has jumped in feet first.”
Ky Duyen is Madame, “the General’s wife and elegant and commanding matriarch who’s desperate to keep her daughter modest and her husband from unraveling as they restart their lives as refugees.”
The Sympathizer will also feature Hoa Xuande, Fred Nguyen Khan, Toan Le, Vy Le and Alan Trong in its main cast with RDJ portraying “multiple supporting roles as the main antagonists, all of whom represent a different arm of the American establishment.”
The series, which is a co-production between HBO and A24, comes from Oldboy director Park Chan-wook, who serves as co-showrunner with Don McKellar as the latter directs the episodes. RDJ will executive produce with Chan-wook and McKellar alongside Susan Downey and Amanda Burrell for Team Downey. Producing through Rhombus Media will be Niv Fichman and Kim Ly.
The Sympathizer is currently filming in Los Angeles and Thailand.
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