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.