“I really had to prepare”: Even Playing Iron Man For 11 Years Couldn’t Prepare Robert Downey Jr. for the “exhausting” Experience He’d Have on His Emmy-Nominated Show
- Robert Downey Jr. played four distinct characters in 'The Sympathizer.'
- For the actor, the role in the show was even more exhausting than playing Iron Man.
- He meticulously prepared for each character, making sure they were distinct and real.
Robert Downey Jr. is having a fantastic year in 2024! He has achieved a rare milestone by not only winning an Oscar for his role in Oppenheimer but also receiving an Emmy nomination for his work in The Sympathizer. He’s a superstar on both the big and small screens!
RDJ spent over a decade as Iron Man, but his TV show, The Sympathizer, was a whole different ballgame. In this show, he juggled four completely different characters, which was way more exhausting than being Tony Stark. No doubt, even Iron Man himself would need a break after this.
Playing Four Roles in The Sympathizer was Exhausting For Robert Downey Jr.
In The Sympathizer, Robert Downey Jr. pulls off something pretty amazing—he plays four completely different characters: a CIA spy named Claude, Professor Hammer (who loves Asian-American Studies), Ned Godwin (a congressman who just can’t stop talking about war), and Oscar-winning filmmaker Niko Damianos.
It seems like a one-man show where Downey becomes everyone, proving he’s not just a great actor, but also a master of disguise! “It was a bear,” the Iron Man star said of the roles on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast. He continued:
It was exhausting. I really had to prepare. In a lot of ways, it was the ultimate in extremes: You can’t fake it if you haven’t prepared for each one individually, and you also want to kind of make it seem like you’re rolling off a log. Depending on the day, I would stick exactly to the script verbatim, or I would see occasionally — or more than occasionally — an opportunity to vamp a little bit.
The 59-year-old really went all out preparing for these roles. He had to dig deep into each character’s backstory to make sure they were believable and distinct from each other. For the CIA spy, the actor likely had to learn all about secret missions, and for the professor, he would have needed to get the hang of academic jargon and cultural nuances.
However, the tricky part was making sure all these characters didn’t just feel real on their own but also worked well together in the same scenes. Juggling these roles while making it look easy—Downey Jr. nailed it and turned it into a showstopper!
Will there be a Season 2 of The Sympathizer?
In a chat with TheWrap, producers Amanda Burrell and Susan Downey talked about the chance of making a second season. Burrell was excited about it, saying she and the book’s author, Viet Thanh Nguyen, are both itching to dive deeper into the characters’ stories. She said:
We’re so in love with these characters and I think with Hoa as our are Captain it would be amazing. There’s three books, there’s going to be more, Viet is obsessed with these characters.
Downey, on the other hand, added that he’s focused on making sure the first season does well before jumping to any sequel plans. There’s no word yet from HBO on whether the show will be renewed.
The show received great reviews and has an 89% score on Rotten Tomatoes. If it gets Emmy nominations or wins, HBO might decide to keep it. For now, the first season wrapped up nicely in May!
The Sympathizer is available to watch on Prime Video!
