“Being from Toronto gave me a global perspective”: A Q&A with Don McKellar, co-creator of Crave’s The Sympathizer

Toronto’s Don McKellar has had a long career as an actor, writer, director and showrunner, collaborating with Canadian filmmakers like Atom Egoyan, David Cronenberg and François Girard. Together with South Korean director and screenwriter Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, Decision to Leave), McKellar heads up the new HBO/Crave series The Sympathizer, adapted from Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel of the same name. Starring Hoa Xuande, Robert Downey Jr. and Sandra Oh, the show is an espionage thriller and cross-culture satire that follows a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy during the final days of the Vietnam War and his subsequent exile in Los Angeles. Here, we spoke to McKellar about adapting Nguyen’s acclaimed novel and having a successful film career without moving to Hollywood.

How did you get involved with the show? Viet Thanh Nguyen, the author of the book we adapted, had said that Park Chan-wook was his dream director. As it happened, I had written a screenplay with Park years ago—The Ax, an adaptation of a Donald Westlake novel. One of our executives approached Park, who agreed to adapt the series and asked me to co-showrun with him.

What did you make of Nguyen’s book? I loved it. It had intelligence and subversive wit—it’s full of entertaining set pieces and surprising humour. I saw the visual language, so it made sense that it could be adapted for the screen. I thought, Okay, Park and I can be the showrunners with “two faces,” like our lead character, The Captain. 

You started out as an actor. What’s it like being on the other side of the camera? I started out in theatre—acting, directing and writing—so I’ve always thought of those disciplines as intertwined. For this production, I found myself explaining the backstory to the actors and modulating their performances on set. I think my theatre background gave me an advantage for making television. 

Showrunning is often the result of a singular vision. What was it like sharing that experience with Park Chan-wook? Fortunately, we have very similar tastes. There’s also trust there since we’ve worked together before. Early on, I wanted Park to set the style and tone—which is dark yet fun and humorous—but I understood those decisions and was on the same page. On that front, it was surprisingly easy, and the partnership felt natural.

Adapting books for the screen—especially ones that are so highly acclaimed—can be tricky. Was the plan to stay faithful to the source material, or did you want the show to feel distinct? In my early conversations with Viet, I think his priority was to preserve the unique voice of the book. We wanted to honour that and the book’s spirit. But we didn’t feel beholden to the book, and Viet was very good about giving us the creative freedom to go for it. He let us play around, and that playful spirit was something important that we borrowed from the book. Thankfully, Viet really likes how the series turned out.

How involved was Viet in the process? We kept him involved at every level. Early on, I spoke to him about my ideas and the general shape of the story, and he was enormously helpful. In terms of writing, the very first and very last words in the show are his. But Viet was always there, giving input, recommendations, research and historical checks. He also has a cameo in the third episode, which is crucial. 

Robert Downey Jr. plays multiple characters in the series. How did you get such a range from him? All the credit goes to Park—having Robert play multiple characters was his idea. In the book, there are several figures who represent the American establishment, these mentor types who keep popping up, and they’re all sort of intertwined. Having Robert Downey Jr. play all of those parts gave a hint of the tone that we were going for and allowed for the kind of subversion and playfulness that we want the audience to experience. In Robert, we cast an actor who was capable of doing that.

The Captain is a complex character—he embodies this dual identity of East and West. How did you find that in Hoa Xuande? Since there weren’t any obvious American stars to cast, we had people coming in to audition from every corner of the world. The Captain needed to be like a ’70s action hero, except Vietnamese. He had to be charismatic and sexy, with a bit of mystery—a possible dark side that makes you wonder what he’s up to. We auditioned Hoa for the role what felt like a hundred times, and it was the best decision we made. He had all those qualities we were looking for.

The Sympathizer hinges on an East-West dichotomy and explores the divisions within its lead character and in the world. How relevant is this theme today? That’s exactly right—the question almost answers itself. It’s about binaries in the world and how we contain them within ourselves. The main thing the show is proposing, for North American viewers, is, regarding the Vietnam War, which people may know mostly from the movies: take the leap and see it from the other side. Because there is another side—the Vietnamese side. And then realize that this side also has divisions within it and that the world is full of these contradictions. 

But these divisions can also be contained. This show was made 50 years after the Vietnam War, and it feels like we’re still processing the lessons from that period. The show’s world, like our world, is fractured. And although these divisions can seem unbridgeable, the show is trying to say, “Remember that we all contain these divisions.” Allowing for that demands a certain kind of empathy and humility to move forward.

You initially tried to shoot the series in Vietnam but ran into censor issues, so you moved the shoot to Thailand. What was it like filming there? We tried really hard to shoot in Vietnam, of course. I wrote many letters to the censor board. But the book is banned for reasons that become clear when you get to the end of the story. Ultimately, the government turned us down. It was going to be impossible to shoot the show with the censorship, so we decided to go to Thailand. 

It was difficult to replicate Vietnam; we had a ton of work to do. Filming was a challenge—plus Park has a phobia of tropical insects. In the end, though, it turned out to be a great shoot.

The book strikes a tonal balance between humour and drama. How did you manage that balance on screen? That’s the key thing about the book—and, I hope, about the show. It has an unusual tone, and that’s also present in Park’s work. We wanted to keep viewers engaged by switching between heartbreak and satire. When Viet saw the finale, he said, “I’m glad you captured all of the pain there, but at the same time, it really seemed like you had fun in that world.”

Did being from Toronto inform your approach to making The Sympathizer, a show that foregrounds a non-American perspective? I don’t mean to brag, but Niv Fichman (one of our producers who is also from Toronto) and I have an international perspective that we bring to the show. Being from Toronto gives you a perspective on America, but it also gives you a global perspective, because this city is a meeting place. That’s what Toronto gave me, and that’s what the show is really about: the other side.

You’ve had a successful film and TV career without leaving Toronto. How important was that to you? I stayed in Toronto because I was able to work and get things done. I had a huge amount of control over my work, and I liked the city and the community. 

What if you weren’t able to pursue your career here? I would have moved, I guess. But, now, of course, it’s much easier not to. I did my entire writers’ room for The Sympathizer remotely. You don’t need to be in LA or New York the way you used to. 

You’ve worked with many Canadian film stars, including Sandra Oh, David Cronenberg and Denis Villeneuve. What’s your sense of where Canadian TV and film is headed? It’s a hard time for independent cinema. We’re seeing a reshuffling of power and how production works on an international level. I actually had drinks with Denis the other night. We both have this nostalgia for the excitement around Canadian film that existed when we were growing up. There was this feeling of possibility when we started out. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.