The Sympathizer’s Hoa Xuande Is Not Your Typical Double Agent

On HBO’s The Sympathizer, Hoa Xuande has to wear a lot of different hats. Based on the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel of the same name by Viet Thanh Nguyen, Xuande stars as The Captain, a double agent spying for the Viet Cong while working for the South Vietnamese secret police during the Vietnam War. As the titular spy, the Australian Vietnamese actor plays against the 007 archetype and brings a certain charm and authenticity to a man forced to lead a double life.

“They’ve got guns, they run around, they blow things up. They’re like the strong man and all that sort of stuff,” Xuande told VF’s Still Watching podcast. “To play this role, I actually thought it was more important to get to the heart of the character—what motivates him, what drives him, what his psychology was. I thought that was more interesting. I really sort of tried to dig down into the essence of a human being living in a period where it was tumultuous, in the middle of conflict, you know, having to fight for your family, having to walk the line between allegiances and loyalties, between your beliefs. I thought they were the more important and more pertinent things to this character than holding a gun and lying.”

He also has to act opposite a lot of different Robert Downey Juniors. The recent Oscar winner stars in The Sympathizer as a host of characters, all attempting to use The Captain for their own nefarious purposes. “He represents all of those arms of the American society and their effect on the Vietnamese immigrant diaspora, and how their policies, how their outlook, how their teachings, even, affect the people who came to America, essentially seeking safety and survival and were not really afforded that opportunity,” Xuande says.

Below, Xuande talks about the arduous process of booking the role and more.

Vanity Fair: Had you read the novel before you became involved in the project?

Hoa Xuande: I first got this audition in January of 2022, but I actually started reading this book two years prior when I was doing another project. I found it simply from doing a Google search of good books to read and it popped up [laughs]. I had a long list of books that I was trying to get through and I went to the library and The Sympathizer was just one of those books that I was like, Huh, this looks interesting.

I began reading it, but because I’m a slow reader, I had to return the book. So, I couldn’t get through to the end of it. Fast-forward to January 2022, I got my first audition. I suddenly realized, Wait a minute, this is a book that I started reading a couple of years ago. Then when I saw HBO and A24 and Park Chan-Wook directing this and Robert and Sandra attached…I was like, Oh my God, I’ve got to get my hands on this book again. So I went and bought it, read it cover to cover, and went through the hoops and hurdles of auditioning for the next nine months.

What was that process like?

Look, I submitted my tape, just like I do any other tape. I was fairly confident. I didn’t think it was better than any other tape that I did. I crossed my fingers and hoped that they liked it, but two weeks later I got a callback.

Then that pretty much set me on the journey of callbacks every month. You know, new scenes, ‘We want to see you do this.’ ‘Can you do this?’ ‘Are you going to meet this person on Zoom?’ And then director Park met me on Zoom for my third or fourth callback, and then I met the other showrunner, Don [McKellar], on my fifth callback. Every time I met them, it was months in between. So I’d do it, and then I’d feel really good about it afterwards, and then I’d hear nothing for a month, and then I’d just let go, and then I was sleepless. I’d take walks in the middle of the night, and then I had to leapfrog and let go of this so many times.

And then just as I’d moved on with life—you know, it’s like moving on from an ex—they come back into your life, and they’re like, No, no, no. We love you. Actually, there was nothing wrong with what you did. It’s us. We’ve been taking time [laughs]. By July, which was seven months in, I was flown to Korea to meet director Park in person to do a couple of scenes for him, and then have dinner with him, which was bizarre. I relished the moment and we talked about the book and the character and the project in general and things that we both liked and didn’t like. It was like another second date or something.

Your chemistry with Sandra Oh is so great. What was it like working with her and developing that?

I met Sandra just before shooting in one of the rehearsals. She’s such a warm, eccentric, bubbly personality, you can’t help but just be attracted to her. You know what I mean? You can’t help but just be drawn to her. So to be honest, falling in love with Sandra Oh was really not that hard. To be honest, I was like, No, I’m The Captain falling in love with Miss Mori. I’m not falling in love with Sandra Oh [laughs]. There was a couple of times on set where I remember director Park and Don McKellar, the other showrunner, would have to come up to me and be like, ‘Just remember The Captain,’ you know? He’s a strong man and he has to hide a lot of his own, you know, he has to hide a lot of himself. And I was like, ‘Yes, yes, of course. Sorry, the fanboy in me is coming out and I need to check that.’

On our other podcast Little Gold Men, Sandra Oh said a few things about how she kind of took a mentorship role with you. Can you say anything about that?

When you’re green as I was—this was my first major production—you’re still trying to work out the machine and the rules and everything like that. A lot of the times I didn’t know what I could do, what I could say, what I was allowed to do. So, I guess Sandra saw that in me, and she would just speak up and stand up on my behalf a lot of the times when she sort of intuitively saw that I wasn’t sure.

There were times my schedule was just so inundated with things. It was cutting into lunch or there was stuff that I was doing during the day in terms of filming, and then afterwards they needed me to just do some recordings for next week’s lot of scenes, cause they were starting to cut things up and they needed my voiceovers—obviously, I narrate a portion of this show. My plate was getting full and I didn’t know how to deal with it. Being an actor that always wants to say yes, I said yes to everything.

I think Sandra intuitively saw that and was just like, ‘No, these are the boundaries and I’ll speak up on your behalf and say that these are the things you can do for now and these are the things you can’t.’ It’s not like production was forcing me to do anything that I didn’t want to do. It’s just more that the machine of filmmaking rolls along and sometimes you forget that there are things that are … not humanly [possible].

It’s got to be a lot of pressure for a first major production. You’re in almost every scene. You’re probably number one on the call sheet, right? That’s a lot of responsibility.

I’m so used to doing supporting roles and guest roles. So, there’s slightly more responsibility and a little bit more things to learn. A bit more of a learning curve that I wasn’t aware of.

I would love to do this again. Season two [laughs]. I’m joking, but I’m not though. I would love to do it again with the cast and the crew and the creators involved in this…. It was just a really special family that made this as well.

What was it like acting opposite all of Robert Downey Jr.’s many characters at the end of episode three?

I mean, shooting the actual scene was probably one of the most memorable times of shooting this. It’s so funny, ’cause Robert has like a million different characters coming out of him at once. We could only capture four [laughs]. I think he was Claude first and then you had the body doubles and then you had the first AD read out the other lines and then Rob was doing Claude’s portion of the scene. It wasn’t quick because all of those prosthetics and makeup and costumes take hours to get into. So, in between takes, we were just obviously trying to figure out the next setup.

It’s funny because I was trying to imagine how each of the other characters that Robert would play would react when I do my lines. But then Robert steps into the shoes of these characters and completely blows it out of the water….

What was he like? Does he have as many characters offscreen as he does onscreen? What was it like? What’s he like to work with?

The thing with Robert is that I first met Robert on the fourth day of filming. I was so nervous, because you’re working with an Oscar winner—he wasn’t back then, but you’re working with such a high-caliber actor and there’s very experienced people on set. I just remember when he first walked on set on that fourth day, you know, you hear on the radios, ‘Robert’s walking on set.’ Everyone’s getting ready to do their thing, and then Robert was already in his prosthetics and makeup and he walks up with his little dog …. in his costume and everything, and I first thought, Wait, is that Robert or is that his body double? Then he comes on and he is like, ‘Hey, it’s Robert. How are you?’ And then he just put his hand on my shoulder and was just like, ‘Brother, don’t worry about it. We’re gonna screw this up together.’

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

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