Robert Downey Jr. seems to be giving The Sympathizer, his newest HBO series, his all.
The 57-year-old actor was completely unrecognizable in the photograph taken on the Los Angeles set of the program. He had bleached eyebrows and receding, wavy red hair, and was dressed like an old man in a burgundy jacket and pink shirt with a white T-shirt poking through. He was also wearing brown shoes and navy jeans.
During the time of the Vietnam War, the movie focuses on Hoa Xuande, a guy who is half French and half Vietnamese and who worked as an agent for Communist troops. Sandra Oh also has a role in the series, which is adapted from the book of the same name written by Viet Thanh Nguyen and published in 2015.
The Hollywood Reporter states that Robert Downey Jr. will appear in several supporting parts throughout the film.
The actor, who is a father of three and has a son named Indio, 29, with his ex-wife Deborah Falconer as well as children named Exton, 10, and Avri, 8, with his wife Susan Downey, said that getting into role was a family affair for him.
In the month of October, Robert Downey Jr. delegated a particularly important aspect of his preparation for the role to his two younger children by instructing them to shave down his head. Even for social media, he recorded what happened.
The celebrity walks into a room where his children are carving pumpkins and says at the beginning of the film, “I’m sorry to disturb, but I need your help.” “Are you aware that I’m going to launch this initiative very soon?”
Avri responds, “Yeah, The Sympathizer?” while Exton follows up with, “Yeah, you’re playing like five parts or something.”
“Right. So, in any case, I don’t want to go around with a bald cap on my head; therefore, would you guys shave my head?” He asks his children, who stare at him with perplexed expressions on their faces.
“Is that even in the right ballpark?” Avri says this with a sneer as she and her brother prepare to begin the process of cutting their father’s hair.
After completely shearing his head, Robert Downey Jr. displays his new appearance and exclaims, “I love it!” “Bravo, you guys! I’ll let you get back to carving your pumpkin, but what do you hold me responsible for?”
After then, the two children murmur to one another in order to select which method of payment they would choose.
As Avri is explaining to her father that she needs his assistance with a Halloween assignment, Exton responds, “Keep your money, Avri’s got a better idea.”
Afterwards, Avri paints on the back of her dad’s skull to make it look like a squash, turning his bald head into a work of art in the process. To finish off the look, she drew a happy face into the pumpkin and placed a pumpkin stem on top of her dad’s head to make it look like he was wearing a pumpkin.
The actor who played Iron Man added the following as the description for the post: “The things we do for our work… and our kids. #Sympathizer set ready.”