In war saga ‘The Sympathizer,’ Vietnamese voices are no longer stuck in the background

Vietnamese journalist-turned-filmmaker Phanxinê remembers exactly when he decided to make movies in his native country rather than Hollywood.

It was in 2008 but it could have been a satirical scene out of the Vietnam Era-novel “The Sympathizer.” Someone from a movie studio visiting his University of Southern California film class told him his story pitch about a Vietnamese American woman traveling the U.S. would only work if the heroine was white.

Having a white star would give the film “a broader audience,” Phanxinê recounts being told.

“It is the moment I realized that if I want to stay in America, I have to do a movie about Caucasian people,” said Phanxinê, who goes by a one-name moniker professionally. The reason I want to be a filmmaker is because I want to tell the story that I know the story about my people, my country, my culture.”

Now, over 15 years later, Phanxinê is doing his first U.S.-side professional acting job in HBO’s adaptation of “The Sympathizer” with an ensemble of fellow Vietnamese actors.

For decades, Vietnamese people often have been relegated to the background in popular cinematic depictions of the Vietnam War. Films like “Full Metal Jacket” and “Apocalypse Now” typically only examined the price the U.S. and its soldiers paid.

In the adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that premiered Sunday, it is South Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers’ struggles with loss, loyalty and identity that take center stage. For some cast members, there were initial concerns about stirring up what was a traumatic time even for their own families. But, they are not shying away from feeling a sense of responsibility in shaping the narrative.

Sprinkled with drama, comedy and espionage, the series