Robert Downey Jr.’s sensible string of roles in A24’s “The Sympathizer” (streaming Sundays on HBO) is a tour de drive paying homage to Peter Sellers’ legendary turns in “Dr. Strangelove.” However Downey does Sellers one higher by portraying 4 characters that function interconnected projections of American patriarchy to the Captain (Hoa Xuan Nguyen), a Vietnamese double agent with a extreme identification disaster.
After the autumn of Saigon, the Captain is pressured to flee to the U.S. to proceed his post-war mission. He winds up in L.A., the place he continues interacting with Claude, a pop music-loving CIA operative, and his faculty mentor, Hammer, a homosexual East Asian research professor who sponsors him. As well as, the Captain will get launched to Ned Godwin, a navy vet-turned-congressman, and Niko, a counter-culture movie director, who hires him as a advisor for his Vietnam Battle epic (impressed by Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now”).
For prosthetics designer Vincent Van Dyke (proprietor of VVDFX and an Emmy winner for “Star Trek: Picard”), the prospect of remodeling Downey into 4 characters was initially daunting. “The duty right here was to [establish] this baseline of Robert that was identifiable all through the characters, and to maintain this connection there that these are the identical [actor],” Van Dyke advised IndieWire.
However they had been below the gun for time, and the appears wanted to get established and examined in a short time. Fortunately, Van Dyke had not too long ago obtained a scan of Downey for one more mission. “So I took all of those sculptures and lined them up on a desk within the entrance of my studio,” he stated. “Everyone was there and I used to be gloved up and prepared with clay and would begin making these modifications proper then and there whereas director Park [Chan-wook] was making these notes. And by the top of the session, we had been in a position to have log out on every of these sculptural appears, so we may begin testing the makeups in at some point. I had by no means performed that earlier than.”
The make-up functions had been performed in an hour by two Emmy winners: prosthetics make-up artist Michael Mekash (“Stranger Issues”) and key make-up FX artist Chris Burgoyne (“John Adams”). “I believe one of many parts that’s so fascinating about A24 tasks is that they like to make the viewers perform a little work,” Mekash advised IndieWire. “I saved considering that Robert was attending to reside out these fantasy roles he was doing in ‘Tropic Thunder.’”
In the meantime, Katherine Kousakis (“Every part In every single place All At As soon as”) led the hair division. Her wig fittings took quarter-hour, made simpler by Downey going bald for Hammer. “We had talked about perhaps doing like some type of male sample baldness with the professor,” Kousakis advised IndieWire. “However I simply thought the look of a totally bald head was so putting that I used to be actually hoping and pushing for that. And [Robert] was on board. So we’d simply shave his head down each single day for all characters after which construct on that.”
Claude, the CIA Agent
“Claude was undoubtedly essentially the most troublesome to nail down and developed all the way in which up till the primary couple of days of taking pictures,” stated Van Dyke. “His very first preliminary exams had been very completely different than the place we ended up touchdown on him, with hearth pink hair that turned ginger, lightening his eye colour, giving him a cauliflower ear, and including freckles.”
“We knew he had this type of powerful background,” Van Dyke added. “He might have gotten into some fights, he might have seen some shit. We talked about him perhaps having a damaged nostril at one level that was reset, giving him a little bit bit extra of a structured jaw…and we gave him muscular biceps. However, on the similar time, he additionally had this type of class and softness to him.”
Downey was given a nostril piece that coated his entire bridge after which blended into his cheek barely, and captured a little bit little bit of nostril. He additionally had some jaw items on both facet that gave him an asymmetrical look. He moreover had contact lenses, the complexion change, and a full lace wig.
“Robert got here up with the thought of making extra of an angular face, and he was completely proper,” Burgoyne advised IndieWire.” He additionally got here up with the thought of being fairly freckled and was form of taking a look at my freckling and wished to go no less than 50 p.c extra.”
The curly hair was Downey’s concept, impressed by the look of a pal. “We had been pushing and pushing and pushing till we received such a bizarre, actually far setback hairline,” Kousakis added.
Hammer, the Professor
For Hammer, they went with an older, rounder, weathered look. He’s received elongated ear lobes, a large nostril, massive nostrils, and little eye bag items. Later additions included tea-stained enamel and a port wine stain on his head. “I began making some sculptural modifications as a result of I seen that when Robert embodied this character, he would purse his lips collectively and it could trigger a little bit compression,” Van Dyke stated. “So I actually wished to play into that with these jowls to ensure it labored.”
There was additionally physique padding and physique modification items, and we get to see the character uncovered and marred by a mysterious scar throughout his stomach. “That’s the place Robert, being an exquisite collaborator, was all for giving him this actually large, gnarly scar,” Van Dyke added.
“Robert’s description of that scar was that he had a botched emergency surgical procedure in some third-world nation,” added Mekash.
Godwin, the Congressman
For Godwin, they wished a clean-cut, quintessential politician look. Downey supplied notes about him being from Orange County: charming on the floor however, principally, soulless and untrustworthy. “And so I assumed: ‘Why not make his eyes darkish brown? A lot in order that they nearly learn black in sure lighting circumstances,’” stated Van Dyke. “We ran with that and tried completely different variants of contact lenses. I assumed it was very efficient, together with the old-school political smile, and chiclet enamel.
His hair, in the meantime, was conservative with a regular half on the facet. “We actually solely needed to focus on the colour, which all of us agreed was grey, to make it possible for it confirmed the age,” Kousakis stated.
Then they got here up with the thought of giving Godwin a burned hand from the Korean Battle. “It’s an amazing little element that helps inform the story of this character,” Van Dyke added. “And so we did this top-of-the-hand burn prosthetic piece that gave him some very nice webbing and scarring that went up his fingers and all on the again of the hand.”
Niko, the Director
Niko, the hippie director with grandiose visions of constructing the last word Vietnam Battle movie, was distinguished by a extra delicate make-up design. Whereas Downey seems to be channeling his director father, Robert Downey (“Putney Swope”), the visible mannequin that got here up early was Dustin Hoffman. “I wished to him to have this type of massive, distinct nostril and a mole, and olive pores and skin, and we performed round with completely different facial hair on him [giving him long sideburns],” Van Dyke stated. “And we gave him a very nice bushy chest after which this unfastened, wild, curly brown hair. We wished him to have this intercourse enchantment.”
“I’m Greek on each side and I at all times noticed him with brown curly hair,” added Kousakis. “Lengthwise, we began [long] after which we introduced it up in order that we may present his ears. It’s going to be a little bit extra stylish. Robert and I each thought that’s it.”
All Collectively Now
In Episode 3 (“Love It or Go away It”), all 4 characters seem collectively in a restaurant with the Captain. This was shot over three days in downtown L.A. with Downey performing two characters a day.
“Doing a number of characters on a day, it’s only a matter of switching as rapidly as attainable,” Kousakis stated. “Getting all of the glue off, cleansing them up, getting it again down. They might paint in up into his hairline, so you’ll be able to’t contact any of the paint that they’ve simply performed.”
“It was an fascinating setup and was fairly enjoyable, however one other sidebar was that there have been stand-ins enjoying the opposite characters through the restaurant scene,” Mekash added. “We form of made them up a bit, too, simply to have the essence of these characters. However as a result of they’d been watching Robert play the characters intermittently across the desk, all of them form of took on a few of his personalities simply to offer him one thing to work with when he was enjoying [opposite them].”