‘The Sympathizer’s’ Hoa Xuande on Landing Leading Role: ‘I Felt Like I Won the Lottery’
variety.comJazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Hoa Xuande’s life changed on Sept. 21, 2022. It was nine months after he had sent in his audition tape for HBO’s series “The Sympathizer”; he had gone through the gamut of Zoom calls, he’d met with director Park Chan-wook, he’d traveled to South Korea and even made some trips to Los Angeles as part of the audition process.
But there was no word on whether he’d gotten the part — radio silence after readings and tests had to mean the worst. But on that fateful September morning, he learned that he’d be playing the Captain, starring in the series opposite Robert Downey Jr.
and Sandra Oh. “I felt like I won the lottery,” says Xuande. The series is based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s 2016 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
The Captain is a spy for North Vietnam who comes to Los Angeles and finds himself with conflicted loyalties. Preparing for the role meant revisiting the book.
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