Robert Downey Jr. in HBO’s “The Sympathizer”: the thousand faces of an actor who knew how to reinvent himself

In 1985, when he was only 20 years old, Robert Downey Jr. He joined the cast of the hit comedy show “Saturday Night Live.” In one of the ‘sketches’ in which he participated, he called himself ‘Suitcase Boy’ and he was just that: a guy stuffed inside a suitcase, from which only his head stuck out. “It was really ridiculous. “Funny only for me and my friends,” the actor eventually confessed.

Downey Jr. didn’t last even a year on the show. That year, the series recorded its worst ratings and “Rolling Stone” magazine described him as “the worst actor in the history of ‘Saturday Night Live’.” Fate, however, is sometimes responsible for putting things in their place. On March 10, when Downey Jr. won his first Oscar – for best supporting actor for “Oppenheimer” – he also became the first “Saturday Night Live” star to win an Academy Award. It wasn’t that bad, after all.

Beyond the anecdotal, this disparity of situations has been a constant in the life of the New York actor. From being the protagonist of “Chaplin” (1992) to becoming the iconic Iron Man in no less than nine Marvel movies. Or from leading a life marked by scandal in the 90s – for possession of drugs and weapons, and spending a year in prison – to being one of the highest-paid actors in the film industry.

Thus, Downey Jr. could be said to be a notable example of reinvention. Despite having flirted with the most resounding failure at various times in his life, he always managed to recover. And when he seemed pigeonholed into the role of the steel-armored superhero, he also knew how to step aside looking for other roles. His performance in “Oppenheimer” by the antagonist Lewis Strauss is, beyond the awards, a clear demonstration of what you can achieve with your talent.

Which does not prevent, by the way, that he can return to the highly profitable Marvel empire, as he recently admitted. “Iron Man is too integral a part of my DNA. “That role chose me,” he said in an interview with “Esquire.”

A CHAMELEON ROLE

While he decides whether to become a superhero again, the 59-year-old actor aims to surprise us again with another versatile role. We talk about his work in “The Sympathizer,” an ambitious new miniseries which premiered last Sunday on HBO and the Max platform.

Based on the novel of the same name by Viet Thanh Nguyen (and winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize), “The Sympathizer” tells the story of a Vietnamese spy who, in 1975, must move to the United States and deal with his double identity as a migrant and as a mole. ‘. The lead role is played by Australian-Vietnamese actor Hoa Xuande, while Downey Jr. embodies various villains in an impressive display of physical transformations that make it almost unrecognizable.

The first reviews of “The Sympathizer” are quite positive. In part, because Its creative mind is the South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wookrecognized for acclaimed films such as “Old Boy” (2003), “Thirst” (2009), “The Decision to Leave” (2022), among other works that maintain him as one of the mainstays of contemporary Asian cinema.

Downey Jr. has even had to shave his head to make his role more believable. There are already those who, perhaps too early, They nominate him for the television awards season. The truth is that he seems to be living his golden age.