“It felt like I won the lottery.”
Hoa Xuande recalls the emotions he went through when showrunner Don McKellar told him he landed the lead role of secret communist spy The Captain in the HBO limited series “The Sympathizer.” He had first auditioned for the role in January 2022, and nine months later, after several callbacks over Zoom, a trip to South Korea to meet with legendary director Park Chan-wook and a final meeting with both Park and McKellar in Los Angeles, he was being told he would star in the series. “It was a lot of sleepless nights,” he says. “I was doubting myself. I couldn’t believe it.”
And it’s no wonder Xuande was in disbelief. Based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel of the same name, which received endless praise from critics and won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, “The Sympathizer” was already making waves. A heart-racing and uniquely introspective story about the ramifications of the Vietnam War, the adaptation rights had been picked up by Park and industry heavy hitters A24, Team Downey (Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey’s production company) and HBO.
The process began with a worldwide casting call open to all industry hopefuls, inviting Vietnamese talent of any and all experience levels to apply. Duy Nguyen, who plays Man, Xuande’s direct supervisor and childhood best friend, says the opportunity seemed too good to be true. “This is a scam. … HBO, A24, Park Chan-wook [and] Robert Downey Jr.?” he jokes. “They’re going to make me pay a fee to audition.”
But, it was far from a con. The final cast saw industry newcomers like Toan Le (The General), Ky Duyen (The Madame) and Vy Le (Lana) sharing the screen with veteran Vietnamese actors like Kiều Chinh (Major’s Mother). Director Phanxinê also joined the series in his first acting role…
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