Himesh Patel: Starring In The Odyssey, Working With Matt Damon, And Life After EastEnders

What did Matt Damon say to Himesh after they finished filming The Odyssey? In this week's episode, Romesh is joined by Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award-nominated actor, Himesh Patel. You may know him as Tamwar Masood from EastEnders, but Himesh has since appeared in Danny Boyle’s Yesterday and Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, and now he’s in one of this year’s biggest films - The Odyssey. Himesh shares what it’s like working on a Christopher Nolan movie and what the challenges are of shooting in IMAX. Plus, we talk BAFTA parties with Idris Elba, hanging out with Leonardo DiCaprio, and acting with Ed Sheeran. There’s also a question from Shanthi and we find out how Himesh does in a game of Misquoted. It’s a jelly of a podcast…don’t forget to like and subscribe! A Ranga Bee Production in partnership with Platform Media. Chapters 00:00 Intro 03:41 The Odyssey 05:59 A gift for Himesh 10:38 On being a movie star 13:04 Matt Damon 14:23 On filming for IMAX 19:05 CGI in films 25:05 On working with Christopher Nolan 27:33 On EastEnders 33:58 Ethnic representation on TV 36:07 Life since EastEnders 37:46 Damned with Jo Brand 39:46 Two Dosas 41:52 Yesterday with Danny Boyle and Ed Sheeran 44:54 Family 48:36 A question from Shanthi 50:50 High In The Clouds with Paul McCartney and Idris Elba 52:22 On Shanthi and Romesh 53:40 X-Files 56:29 Misquoted 01:06:28 An exclusive from Himesh 01:09:53 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Do you do a lot of podcasts? You must have done recently.

• 0:02Speaker 01

  I've done, yeah, I did Adam, Adam's Buxton.

• 0:06Speaker 00

  Buxton, yeah.

• 0:08Speaker 01

  Which was fun. I did it on the day of the premiere.

• 0:11Speaker 00

  Oh, nice. Were you stressed out at that time?

• 0:14Speaker 01

  I wasn't actually. I was just like busy.

• 0:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 0:16Speaker 01

  Like I did This Morning.

• 0:18Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 0:18Speaker 01

  And then went straight to do his podcast and then went back to the hotel to get ready.

• 0:22Speaker 00

  How did you find This Morning?

• 0:24Speaker 01

  It was mad, yeah. It was like, it was like my fourth time doing it.

• 0:27Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 0:28Speaker 01

  But I was with Samantha Morton and she was having a whale of a time.

• 0:31Speaker 00

  Really?

• 0:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, she was loving it and she was like, can I just give a shout out to her? And she forgot that we were still on live TV.

• 0:38Speaker 01

  And so she was just like, can I just say hi to my family? And then she just started chatting to Cat Dealey and Ben and and they had to be like, we are, we are still on live TV.

• 0:49Speaker 00

  This is still television. Yeah, yeah.

• 0:51Speaker 01

  It was lovely. I can tell that Sam's having just the time of her life.

• 0:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 0:55Speaker 01

  As she should be because she's incredible in The Odyssey, but um, yeah, yeah.

• 0:59Speaker 00

  It, just before we get into it, if there's anything that you say or I say

• 1:03Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:03Speaker 00

  that you don't want in it, just say, because like it's not.

• 1:06Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:06Speaker 00

  You've got power of veto.

• 1:08Speaker 01

  You mean, this isn't hard hitting journalism?

• 1:09Speaker 00

  No.

• 1:10Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:11Speaker 00

  It's not even, I wouldn't even describe it as soft hitting. I don't, I don't think any hitting happens at all, really. It's, yeah, it's pretty toothless.

• 1:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:21Speaker 00

  It's, it's actually sad in a way. We, we could do with some edge, like a smidgen of edge, I would say, fucking edgeless. So it's a jelly of a podcast.

• 1:35Speaker 01

  Um, a lot of, um, a lot of taglines there for your podcast.

• 1:39Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:39Speaker 01

  Yeah. I'm Himesh Patel and I'm going to be on the Romesh Ranga Nathan podcast.

• 1:54Speaker 02

  Oh, shut up, Romesh.

• 1:57Speaker 00

  Okay, Himesh, I'm gonna do your intro now. This is very exciting, actually, on the podcast. Brown excellence meets brown mediocrity.

• 2:05Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 2:05Speaker 00

  That's exciting. So I'm gonna do your intro now and then you, if you, if there's anything I've not, we've not emphasized enough, do say.

• 2:12Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 2:14Speaker 00

  Because I don't, I want you to be happy with this intro.

• 2:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure.

• 2:16Speaker 00

  But I understand it's, it's weird hearing yourself being intro'd. Do you know what I mean?

• 2:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 2:22Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 2:22Speaker 01

  I'll just, I'll just quietly squirm.

• 2:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. My guest today, so far so good, is an Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award nominated actor. He started his career in Albert Square, appearing in over 500 episodes of EastEnders as Tamal Masood. His breakthrough on the big screen came in Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis's yesterday. Since then, he's built an impressively varied career across film and television, appearing in everything from sci-fi thrillers and post-apocalyptic dramas to comedies. He first worked with Christopher Nolan in Tenet in 2020 and now is reunited with him for one of the biggest films of the year, possibly ever, The Odyssey, starring alongside Matt Damon. It's the hugely talented film star on his way to being a legend.

• 3:06Speaker 00

  He already is personally a legend, but in terms of, you know, cinema, it's Himesh Patel.

• 3:11Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 3:13Speaker 00

  What did you think of that intro?

• 3:14Speaker 01

  That was great, actually.

• 3:15Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 3:16Speaker 01

  I think that's probably the most diffuse of anyone's ever been about me. So that's.

• 3:20Speaker 00

  In life?

• 3:21Speaker 01

  In life, yeah, yeah, yeah. So thanks, thanks for that.

• 3:23Speaker 00

  No worries, man, and a damning indictment of what else is going on with you.

• 3:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, we'll get into that.

• 3:28Speaker 00

  Yeah, but listen, I really would like you to cry. That would be, that would be excellent.

• 3:34Speaker 01

  That's a good start, isn't it?

• 3:35Speaker 00

  Just for us.

• 3:35Speaker 01

  Would love you to cry, actually.

• 3:36Speaker 00

  And even if you don't, we'll cut it up. We'll do it, you know, Stephen Bartlett style and make it look like you have.

• 3:43Speaker 03

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• 4:21Speaker 00

  Uh, welcome to the podcast. Let's get it out the way first of all. The Odyssey.

• 4:25Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 4:26Speaker 00

  Unbelievable.

• 4:27Speaker 01

  Thanks, man.

• 4:27Speaker 00

  I've now seen it twice.

• 4:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:29Speaker 00

  Once on a regular sort of povvo screen and then I decided.

• 4:33Speaker 01

  That's what they call them, I think, actually.

• 4:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just like smelt in there.

• 4:36Speaker 01

  They branded those, yeah.

• 4:37Speaker 00

  Yeah, scum. And then I went back to watch it in IMAX.

• 4:41Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 4:41Speaker 00

  Not the, you know, not the.

• 4:42Speaker 01

  70 millimeter.

• 4:43Speaker 00

  No, I went to watch like regular.

• 4:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:45Speaker 00

  I mean Crawley, do you know what I mean?

• 4:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, sure, sure, sure.

• 4:47Speaker 00

  I don't have that kind of IMAX.

• 4:48Speaker 01

  Which is a shame. I think they should.

• 4:49Speaker 00

  It is a shame and Crawley's calling out for it.

• 4:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:52Speaker 00

  As well as basic amenities.

• 4:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:54Speaker 00

  Um, but it is amazing and I think I said this to you before, but without having any reason to, I felt immensely proud and happy seeing, because you are, when I, when you say you're in this film, sometimes, you know, in interviews, you have to sort of beef it up a little bit and go. So it was really, it was like, it was a great 90 seconds, wasn't it? And what did you bring to it? But you are in it.

• 5:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:17Speaker 00

  Like properly in it. Um, it's incredible. Have you been able to, obviously, I imagine that when you were making it, you felt like this is something special, just by dint of it being Christopher Nolan, but also the scale of it. Have you been able to appreciate the impact it's had?

• 5:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's been a really special few weeks. In, in terms of like this, what it is and what it meant to me, that kind of really came home to me at the London premiere. Because I was there with my partner and some of my best mates and my sister and and I was in, at the BFI IMAX, which is like one of my favorite cinemas in the world. I've seen so many movies there that I've loved, you know, so uh, when the screening finished and we were walking out of the cinema, I was actually getting quite emotional because I, I, it, it was the second time I'd seen it. First time I'd seen it with a full audience and with people that I loved and it was just like a really special moment. So

• 6:11Speaker 01

  that was special personally. And then in the weeks since, the response has just been overwhelming and I can't, you know, I'm still sort of wrapping my head around that, but it's been really, really lovely.

• 6:22Speaker 00

  That is very similar to how I felt when I watched my first episode of The Weakest Link.

• 6:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly, exactly. And that's what, that's, yeah, yeah.

• 6:29Speaker 00

  Because you, you.

• 6:30Speaker 01

  Because you work really hard for something, yeah.

• 6:31Speaker 00

  Are you going to be able to ask those questions, you know?

• 6:34Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 6:34Speaker 00

  But I was, I was reading out loud and it, it went great.

• 6:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:37Speaker 00

  Um, we've got a gift for you because I've read a lot about, and, and I know you've talked a lot in interviews about the, the nature of, the grueling nature of working on a Nolan film.

• 6:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:47Speaker 00

  Uh, so we decided, we've got your gift with that in mind.

• 6:49Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 6:50Speaker 00

  I'm just gonna present this to you and see.

• 6:52Speaker 01

  Thanks.

• 6:52Speaker 00

  See what you, see what you think, really.

• 6:54Speaker 01

  This is so exciting.

• 6:56Speaker 00

  Feel free to react honestly.

• 7:01Speaker 01

  Wow, wow, that's, it's a, it's a simulated human hand.

• 7:07Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 7:09Speaker 01

  What am I using that for?

• 7:15Speaker 00

  I think you know, no, I'm joking. If you, if you have a look, it'll become a bit clearer. Um.

• 7:25Speaker 01

  I don't know what I was expecting, but that's not it.

• 7:29Speaker 00

  Yeah, no, it's not. What I would say is, when you look at it, it's not the best simulation of a human hand.

• 7:36Speaker 01

  It's not, it, it, it isn't a simulation of a human hand, really.

• 7:38Speaker 00

  The first bit of good news is it's got straps, you can carry it with you everywhere, but.

• 7:47Speaker 01

  It's the fashion statement of the century.

• 7:49Speaker 00

  It's a, it's a massage tool. So if you, if you hold down the power button and then you sort of put it on the back of your neck, you'll sort of get an idea of.

• 7:57Speaker 01

  Come with charged or does it not?

• 7:58Speaker 00

  It should do. It does, you gotta hold it.

• 8:00Speaker 01

  You've got to hold it, you've got to hold it.

• 8:00Speaker 01

  Oh, I see.

• 8:01Speaker 00

  Like, it, there you go. If you just put that on the.

• 8:14Speaker 01

  Now that's, I think that's vaguely threatening.

• 8:16Speaker 00

  Do you think so?

• 8:19Speaker 00

  Well, I would say.

• 8:19Speaker 01

  The red light, it's just very slowly gesturing. It's just kind of like.

• 8:24Speaker 00

  Hmm. I don't like what the.

• 8:25Speaker 01

  It does genuinely remind me of Cersei in, in The Odyssey. This is basically what Samantha Morton was doing to all of us.

• 8:32Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 8:33Speaker 01

  And that didn't end well.

• 8:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, if you put it on, yeah.

• 8:36Speaker 01

  So I meant, well, I meant to put it on the back of my.

• 8:37Speaker 00

  If you put it on the back of your neck and just sort of find the sweet spot, there you go. Get the strap around your neck so you don't have to take it off. How does that feel?

• 8:47Speaker 00

  It doesn't look like it feels great.

• 8:49Speaker 01

  No, it's just that I have to hold it in place, really.

• 8:51Speaker 00

  Maybe you could pull the, the straps tighter.

• 8:53Speaker 01

  Oh, so you're meant to sort of throttle yourself.

• 8:56Speaker 00

  And then you can walk around with that.

• 8:58Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 9:00Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, okay, let's.

• 9:05Speaker 01

  I've got to say, this wasn't on my bingo card for this podcast, but um, sure.

• 9:10Speaker 00

  What was a real human hand, was it?

• 9:16Speaker 01

  I mean.

• 9:18Speaker 00

  Oh, it's gone the wrong, it's gone around the wrong way.

• 9:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, maybe we'll just.

• 9:20Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, no, sure, sure, sure.

• 9:21Speaker 01

  I'll, I'll figure it out and send you a video, I guess.

• 9:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, I'd love that.

• 9:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:25Speaker 00

  I'd love that.

• 9:26Speaker 01

  That'll be.

• 9:27Speaker 00

  Uh, but it is good.

• 9:28Speaker 01

  I mean, okay, yeah. Is this something you have?

• 9:32Speaker 00

  I don't have that, no. Why would I have that? Uh, no, no, no, I, I, I, I don't have that, but genuinely, we got it for you because we wanted something relaxing for you.

• 9:39Speaker 01

  Thank you very much.

• 9:40Speaker 00

  And it's got some very good reviews. But now, having seen it, I probably would get one, yeah.

• 9:47Speaker 01

  Wow. Do you want to try it?

• 9:48Speaker 00

  I'd love to.

• 9:49Speaker 01

  Give it a go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 9:53Speaker 00

  I think, I, I suspect.

• 9:54Speaker 01

  Stay tuned.

• 9:56Speaker 00

  I suspect what you have to do is really apply some, I don't like what these are doing.

• 10:01Speaker 01

  That's what I mean.

• 10:01Speaker 00

  That's my, that would be my instinct.

• 10:03Speaker 01

  It's kind of threatening and, and it's a bit too phallic.

• 10:06Speaker 00

  I don't like what the thumbs are doing, but.

• 10:12Speaker 01

  It's not the kind of face you really you want.

• 10:16Speaker 05

  How's it feel, Ron?

• 10:17Speaker 00

  Um, can I tell you what I like, what I like and I don't like? It's a very firm massage. What I would say is like, when you're getting massaged by a person, um, they respond to the, your skull and, and, and adjust the pressure accordingly. That doesn't. So, so, so that is, I would say that's the one downside of that.

• 10:39Speaker 01

  It's not conscience. It's not a conscious being, yeah.

• 10:42Speaker 00

  Yeah, I would love, I would actually love this to be a living organism. Would be my one note, you know, but that's for you anyway. So yeah, thank you.

• 10:50Speaker 01

  I think I'm gonna get used to it. It just took a second to figure out.

• 10:53Speaker 00

  Yeah, and I think you'll get used to it. Just let me know how you're getting on with it.

• 10:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, I will, yeah. Regular updates.

• 10:58Speaker 00

  I think it's gonna be a part of your life. I would love to see on the red carpet.

• 11:01Speaker 01

  With that on.

• 11:05Speaker 00

  I would love that to be your thing. Do you know what I mean? Like, it could be a quirk.

• 11:09Speaker 01

  Yeah. Oh, here he is again.

• 11:10Speaker 00

  Oh my god, slay him, Ash. He's there with a simulated human hand again.

• 11:13Speaker 01

  What massage equipment is he gonna come onto the red carpet with this time? Yeah.

• 11:17Speaker 00

  Um, so what does it feel like to be a movie star then?

• 11:21Speaker 01

  I mean, it's, what I, what I'm enjoying is just the fact that I get to be a part of a movie like this. And, and generally over the last few years, just getting to be in the movies and work with the filmmakers that I've worked with and the actors that I've worked with. My life has remained pretty normal. So in terms of like movie star, it doesn't really feel like, you know, I've, I've not moved to LA. I'm not like, you know, living that sort of lifestyle.

• 11:47Speaker 00

  That feels, it feels like you've done, are you resisting deliberately or is that just?

• 11:52Speaker 01

  Potentially, yeah, because I value, well, I value my personal life. I value that sort of, there's a certain level of normality that I value. Because also I think it's important as an actor to, to still be able to live your life and be around people and see how people behave. And, and, and also like, you know, as, as someone who wants to write and am writing, if you don't spend enough time around regular people and, and regular life, then you're gonna sort of just end up writing about, you know, I, I don't know, you might, you might sort of lose sight of things. But then I'm not passing judgment on anyone who sort of ends up in that situation. It's just quite, I can just imagine it being quite challenging to your sort of day to day life.

• 12:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, but then do you get, like, because you obviously went to the premiere and you're involved, you get scooped up in all of the stuff that is around being in such a film of that magnitude.

• 12:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:44Speaker 00

  And then, I, I, it was a surprise, a pleasant surprise to me how big a part you've got in that film. So you're processing all of that. You're caught up in all of that. Is there part of that that's quite, is quite exciting? I mean, it must be exciting, right?

• 12:56Speaker 01

  Hugely, yeah. I mean, that as, as, you know, the, the, the London premiere and the New York premiere, it's really wonderful because it's, you're finally sharing it with the world. All this like six months of, of hard work that all of us, you know, cast and crew around the world went through, um, to finally be sharing that with the world and especially knowing that I, I think it's a great movie, to be sort of sharing it with the world and celebrating it. And, you know, in New York, I got to finally see all the guys I was on the boat with for six months. You know, I hadn't seen them in a year. So though, as on a personal level, those things are really, really wonderful and, and to sort of, yeah, be, be talking to people who are interviewing about it and asking all these questions and genuinely excited about it. It's, that's a really great moment. Um, because that is,

• 13:41Speaker 01

  that's sort of the last bit of the work, really, you know?

• 13:44Speaker 00

  How, how attached are you to the reception? Because, because from what I've read, everybody knew that this was pretty special as you were making it. And I think you said, didn't Matt Damon come up to you right at the end of filming?

• 13:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, we wrapped exactly the same time. Um, and he came into the trailer at the same time as we tried to sort of wipe the muck from our faces as we did at the end of every day. And, um, and he just sort of put his arm around me and was like, man, I think we've made a good one. And I, I thought, well, if Matt Damon's saying that, he's been in quite a few good movies.

• 14:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:16Speaker 01

  You know, he must have a good instinct now. And he's, you know, he's a great writer, he's a great filmmaker, as a producer. And so, you know, if he's got a good instinct about this thing, then maybe he can see how it will come together.

• 14:28Speaker 00

  How would you have felt if he'd have walked in and gone, looks like we've curled out another one?

• 14:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:33Speaker 01

  Then I, again, I probably would have had the, the appropriate response in, in opposition. I probably would have been like, ah, fuck.

• 14:42Speaker 01

  Just call my, call my wife and go, that was six months wasted, actually. So.

• 14:46Speaker 00

  No, I know all the ingredients were there for it to be great, but I still managed to cock it up, yeah.

• 14:52Speaker 01

  But I hope the kids are okay. And I hope me being away for six months wasn't too much of a problem, but I think the film's gonna be shit.

• 14:59Speaker 01

  Matt Damon said so.

• 15:03Speaker 00

  How brutal was it? Because Christopher Nolan, the, he's, he's known for like making it an immersive experience for everybody, including himself.

• 15:12Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 15:12Speaker 00

  You're filming on, on IMAX film. What does that add or take away to, how brutal does that make it? Is it hard?

• 15:20Speaker 01

  I mean, the IMAX film is, is sort of, just the technical aspect of it. So previously, um, you know, Chris has been using IMAX film since 2008 on The Dark Knight. First time that those cameras had been used for commercial filmmaking. Um, and they're, they're just very loud. They're very bulky cameras, but they're very loud. So you can't shoot dialogue with them until he'd been working for a while, the IMAX team, to develop this box, basically, that insulates the sound. So finally, he could get dialogue scenes, um, intimate dialogue scenes, uh, without, you know, worrying about the sound. So he could get it on IMAX. And that's why The Odyssey is the first movie shot on, fully on, on 70 millimeter IMAX.

• 16:05Speaker 01

  So that, I guess there's two challenges there. Well, obviously, we, we were doing plenty of stuff as usual with the loud camera. And you just have to sort of be aware of that and not overdo your dialogue to get over the sound of the camera. So it sounds unnatural, because then what we do is we do a dialogue pass and then you just lay it on top.

• 16:25Speaker 01

  But then obviously, when you've got the big, I mean, when I say this, this box is huge, the camera's so big already, it's like basically the size of this area that we're in right now. It's, it's huge, this box. It's a big black sort of behemoth. It's like the, the, the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey, you know, that thing? And so you're just sort of very aware of it. That he devised a mirror system so that the eye lines are correct when there's sort of people are acting with each other.

• 16:49Speaker 01

  So it just adds a little bit of technical challenges to the whole thing. But everyone was willing to get on board with it because they knew that it was a, you know, a first in cinema history and it was gonna create something that was, you know, that's why people are clamoring to go see it at IMAX venues, at film IMAX venues, because it's, it's a first of its kind. So there's that technical aspect of it. In terms of like the way Chris works and the immersive thing, it just is hard work. You know, he's, he's, he, he wants his films to have that sort of visceral quality, where there's just like, there's no artifice between the audience and what's happening on screen. And really, the best way to get that is just by, by putting actors in those situations as realistically as you can, safely.

• 17:34Speaker 00

  So is the idea that if you're going through hardship in the film, you sort of have to be going through hardship in reality?

• 17:39Speaker 01

  Pretty much, yeah. We can't really soften the blow too much, you know? So those scenes where we're running away from the Cyclops and into the, into the sea, trying to claw our way onto the boat, that was just what we were doing. We were just running into the sea. The boats are pulling away. We're climbing on top of each other, like, I had bruises everywhere at the end of that day. But, you know, we, we've got the best stunt team in the world. So you just kind of look at them and go, am I about to die or not? And they're, they're like, you're fine. It's just gonna be a few bumps and scrapes, that's all. And that's what most people get on, you know, I imagine like Keanu Reeves has it on John Wick. Like, they have to get a little bit, you know, gnarly to get that sort of, that, that energy out of it.

• 18:21Speaker 00

  How close were you to the, to the edge, to an edge of like, I mean, did it really challenge you?

• 18:26Speaker 01

  Completely. I mean, I, uh, you know, I, I don't have the physicality as much as like Matt Damon does or, um, a bunch of the guys I was on that boat with. And so it really made me go, I really need to step up my game here. Because I, next time I, I'm asked to do something that physical, I just wanna feel like I'm ready. Like, I only had a couple of months really to get ready for this. And I, I wasn't necessarily in the best habits overall. So it was like, there were times where I was like, I'm a complete imposter here. Like, I don't know what I'm doing. Like, I, you know, I, I'm trying to climb up onto this boat and I'm like, I can't do one pull up. You know what I mean? Like, it's, that's what it feels like. And so it's just like,

• 19:09Speaker 01

  okay, I'm doing my best and it gets a bit sort of hairy at times. But what I felt was the support from everyone. So obviously with the stunt team. But those guys I was on the boat with, like, you know, some of the, some of the great, greatest guys I've met. And, you know, we, we've become like family, you know, because we've gone through that, that experience that's just so singular. So we were always looking out for each other and they were always looking out for me. And, and, and so I, I never felt like I was gonna like die or get severely hurt because we were all just there to look after each other, so.

• 19:45Speaker 00

  Um, the, the Circe scene is remarkable. One of the things about that film is, so there's, there's lots of moments. I mean, the film is, I mean, everybody's saying this, but it's, it's amazing. And, and I think that actually what's really exciting as a film fan is it feels, everybody was saying what's gonna get people back to the cinema. And it feels like this is, this has achieved that, right?

• 20:09Speaker 01

  I hope so, yeah. You, you know what I think it is? It's, and I know that Chris Nolan has been known for this for a long time, and sort of his, his practically driven philosophy, doing as little as possible with CGI. He does use it, you know, in various ways. But as little as he can, really, he tries to create as much as he can in camera and then, you know, use CGI to just sort of. You know, composite things in or that sort of thing. But you can feel that practicality, you can feel that the tangibility of what's in front of you. When you take the Cersei sequence, for example, there is no CGI in that sequence.

• 20:43Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 20:44Speaker 01

  And I know many people find that hard to believe, but like there genuinely just isn't any CGI. And everything that you see happening on the screen is happening in in reality in front of the camera. And that we're using techniques that have been around for like forty, fifty years. But we just kind of lost them as we got used to CGI and that being the sort of easiest. And some say cheapest way of doing things.

• 21:07Speaker 01

  But what I really hope is that, you know, the success of this movie and how much on screen is tangible there. And then, you know, in tandem, you've got Spider-Man that just came out. And I went to see that the other day and actually it's like, there's so much in that movie that's like tangible.

• 21:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 21:22Speaker 01

  Real, like it's just Tom in his costume, like rather than a CGI version of something, you know what I mean? Like, I was like, I think people are starting to realize that, you know. And when I went to see Backrooms and I went to see Obsession, like there's two other huge movies of this year. Everything, there's so much in those movies that is tangible, that is like, people are feeling what's happening because there is no artifice.

• 21:42Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 21:42Speaker 01

  Or whatever the artifice is, is like using lighting in a clever way or using or using CGI sparingly in a clever way. So I just, I think that's what people are responding to. And I really hope that that's kind of something that, you know, the powers that be sort of take notice of and use more often.

• 21:58Speaker 00

  Yeah, I feel like, you know, when you're watching it and I imagine like, you must have had a similar experience when you first watched it. But like, you go to cinema and obviously you're taken in with the sound and the visuals and whatever. But I felt, you know, the Odyssey makes you react like, some of those scenes are genuinely disturbing, like the Cersei scene.

• 22:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:20Speaker 00

  When she starts sort of doing what she does to you guys. It feels, it's disturbing to watch, right? Like you're in, you know, do you know what I mean? And you don't feel like you're watching, you're, this is genuinely horrible. That's what amazing, that's what's so amazing. And then the Cyclops scene.

• 22:40Speaker 00

  That is, the way that's done is, it's incredible. It is absolutely incredible. And the sound design and everything, I mean, I think, I think when Cyclops makes a noise in that cave.

• 22:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:53Speaker 00

  That is one of the most horrible things I've ever heard.

• 22:57Speaker 00

  In a film ever, right?

• 22:59Speaker 01

  I think a lot of people's eardrums shattered, potentially.

• 23:03Speaker 00

  But it's, it's, it's, I think that, yeah, I'm sort of not really asking a question, but I think that it's, it's amazing. How immersive that, I mean, that film is a properly immersive experience, isn't it? Is that, is that something that took you by surprise or you knew that was happening when you were making it?

• 23:20Speaker 01

  I knew, what I was excited about when I read the script was, obviously, I knew it was The Odyssey by the time the script got to me. So my mind was already whirring. I was like, how's he gonna do that? How's he gonna do this? Then reading the way that he'd adapted it, which I just thought was incredible. You know, that's one thing about this adaptation, I think, you know, Chris is an amazing director, but he's also an amazing writer. And I really, you know, hope he gets his props for that with this one, because to have condensed The Odyssey into a three hour movie is, is still, it's a three hour movie. But there's a lot there that he had to compress. And to make it as thrilling and cohesive as he has, I think it's really masterful.

• 24:00Speaker 01

  But I, all those sequences were there, the Cyclops sequence, the Cersei sequence, the sirens, all this sort of stuff that people know from The Odyssey was there. So I was, knowing that he doesn't want to use too much CGI, if any, I was so curious as to how he was gonna do it. And then he plays his cards very close to his chest and so, you know, I know better than to ask too much before we get there. So when we got to shooting the Cyclops sequence, like we were shooting in a cave in Greece. Where they'd somehow managed to make it into basically a soundstage. And so we were there for over a week. And, you know, it was basically a mix of practicality. And then this incredible actor, Bill Irwin, who plays the polyphemus, the Cyclops.

• 24:45Speaker 01

  Who, who was there every day in his full sort of costume, basically, his makeup. And he was working with us at the same time. And then it was about sort of mixing those two elements.

• 24:57Speaker 00

  Right.

• 24:58Speaker 01

  And without wanting to give too much away, but it is all in his performance as well. So sort of discovering these things as you go along, you sort of realize how he's sticking to his principles. And I don't know, I don't think it's like a principle, like a sort of, like, well, he had like the Dogma ninety five movement of filmmaking where they were like, we're gonna do it this way. I think it's just, he knows that this is like how to get the best reaction from an audience. And so he just sticks to his guns with that. And so to see how he was doing it every step of the way and his incredible SFX team and the incredible artists from around the world who came in to make all that happen. I think the thing with Chris is he, he knows where to find the best people and to give them the freedom to

• 25:41Speaker 01

  create what they're gonna create to be a part of his vision.

• 25:45Speaker 06

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• 26:26Speaker 00

  You, you, your performance in it is amazing.

• 26:30Speaker 01

  Thanks.

• 26:30Speaker 00

  And you, you bring something to your character in a way that doesn't ever feel like you're reaching for it. It's, it's, it's a really lovely performance. How much are you allowed to, I mean, like, everybody sort of says, I accepted the film without even reading the script, it's Christopher Nolan.

• 26:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 26:47Speaker 00

  So then you walk onto set, how much are you allowed to push back on creative? Or is it very much kind of, he's dictating what happens and you just sort of go along with it? Or how does that work?

• 26:57Speaker 01

  No, he's very collaborative, you know? In terms of like, there'll be certain things that he has in his mind in terms of maybe the shots and sort of the wider choreography of the thing.

• 27:09Speaker 01

  But in terms of how one plays a line or, or the sort of dynamics within a scene, he's more than open to sort of discussing that.

• 27:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 27:18Speaker 01

  He does like to sort of shoot quickly, he doesn't like to sort of hang around too much. And I appreciate that, I mean, you know, coming up from a soap, that's kind of what I know.

• 27:27Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 27:28Speaker 01

  We don't have time to hang around, like we've just got to get the scene shot. So I actually quite like that. But he does allow the time to sort of just run it a couple of times, rehearse it, because camera have to rehearse it anyway for their movements. So you sort of use that time to sort of find the rhythm of the thing and if there's anything that needs shifting here and there. And he's always thinking ahead, you know, he's always like probably going back and studying the script for the next day or the next week's work or whatever. And thoughts will occur to him or he's up for having a discussion about something, you know. But better to do it ahead of time rather than sort of on the day, sort of go, you know, oh, by the way, I had an idea that's gonna change everything. It's just about sort of getting ahead of it a bit.

• 28:07Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 28:08Speaker 01

  But he's very collaborative and, and around the camera, he keeps it so intimate. You know, there's no, you have this scale of everything, like we're shooting in a cave or we're shooting at sea on an actual boat. But the camera is, you know, he keeps it so intimate, there's no video village like you would have on any other production. There's only three guys who have a monitor, you know, and he's always stood by the camera. And he's barely watching the monitor, really, he's looking at that for frame lines, really, he wants to see what you're doing in front of his eyes. And then he'll watch the rushes the next day or in a couple of days' time. So it's a very collaborative, very sort of, he's sort of emotionally there with you, you know, and and very sort of easygoing about, about his notes and, and just nudges you here and there as he sees fit.

• 28:54Speaker 00

  Well, obviously, you, you're, you're a film star now, you started off, you started off in EastEnders. I mean, I don't know, I don't know your work before EastEnders.

• 29:03Speaker 01

  That was it.

• 29:04Speaker 00

  That was it, right? So I, I knew that you were in EastEnders because I started getting heckled with Tamara at gigs.

• 29:10Speaker 01

  Is that, that's when we first met, right? I ended up at one of your like

• 29:13Speaker 00

  That's right.

• 29:14Speaker 01

  work in progress gigs.

• 29:15Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 29:16Speaker 01

  I feel like you stopped it halfway through, because I was sat in the front row, I think, and you stopped it halfway through and went, sorry, are you the guy from EastEnders?

• 29:22Speaker 00

  Did I say it like that?

• 29:23Speaker 01

  I think you did, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, you're a starstruck, it's fine. And, and then you carried on your set and then at the end, as we were walking out, you're like, I, I'm just glad that we're in the same room together so that I can prove to people that we're not the same person. So, yeah.

• 29:42Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 29:44Speaker 00

  Well, I mean, I don't know, people seem to, people like to, particularly them would like to call me Tamara. They like to say, I'm just like you.

• 29:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:51Speaker 00

  And now we're in the same room, I think people can see we are, you know.

• 29:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:54Speaker 00

  I think it's good for people to see that there's a difference there. And also there's

• 29:57Speaker 01

  I think if I was wearing a great pair of specs like you are, I think maybe there'd be a case.

• 30:01Speaker 00

  Yeah, sure.

• 30:02Speaker 01

  Potentially.

• 30:03Speaker 00

  Hmm. I, I think the other difference is, is that you've, you've done, you've achieved excellence. And I'm very much a pilot high, sell it cheap kind of guy in terms of creatively, do you know what I mean?

• 30:15Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 30:16Speaker 00

  But how did you, the EastEnders, did you, being a film star has that? I know you don't, I don't like these, but, but, but being in movies, let's call it that, being in movies. Is there stuff from EastEnders? I mean, you talked about like the run and gun thing and how that's helped because EastEnders, you've got to get through pages quick. Is there other stuff that has, that has helped you that has stood you in good stead from EastEnders?

• 30:40Speaker 01

  I mean, to sort of

• 30:43Speaker 01

  Talk about sort of advice I've been given, the best bits of advice I've ever been given. I had the pleasure of working with so many great actors on EastEnders. One of whom was Nitin Gunatri, who played my dad, an actor who I loved, you know, before I even ended up working with him. And I remember there was like, you know, a scene, it was fairly close towards the end of my time there. But it was one of those scenes that just is always going to be in a soap, but it's quite exposition-y. Quite sort of, let's just move the plot along sort of scene. And he was like, hey, I'm struggling with this a bit. And he was like, can we just talk about like, let me just run it a few times and see what happens? And it was just sort of an exercise in going, this is what it is on the page. And you're going to come across these sorts of scenes, whatever you do, you know?

• 31:28Speaker 00

  Where you can't find it, whatever.

• 31:29Speaker 01

  Or just where it is what it is, the function of it is exposition, the function of it is, you've got to get some information across that we just need for the plot. And he found a way to make it more interesting, just by finding a physicality of like, there was a folder or something. And he was like, let me bring this folder into the scene. And so then it becomes a bit about the folder. So then, you know, this sort of, if you think about your character's intentions, everything that we know going forward, you can make this scene more interesting than just the exposition that's being conveyed. And I remember that just being like a great lesson. And there were so many other examples of that sort of thing, working with Nitin, Nina Wadia, who played my mum, great actors, both of them.

• 32:09Speaker 01

  So many brilliant actors I got to work with who, who just taught me something along the way about how they, how they sort of work around some of those conventions that a soap is just always going to have, that you need to sort of work with. And it just, it kind of made me realise that whatever's happening on the page, there's always a creative solution to making it more interesting for the camera, basically.

• 32:32Speaker 00

  Did you, when you were doing EastEnders, did you, we, because it's like, it's so, getting into acting is so difficult. And making it work is so difficult. And then you're on EastEnders and then you're a regular character as well. And were you thinking, I've done it, I've made it? Or were you always thinking, I'm hoping to go somewhere else with this?

• 32:53Speaker 01

  I think eventually I knew that I wanted to go somewhere else and just, just try new stuff. You know, it was less a sense of like having made it or not made it. It was just knowing that I wanted to sort of just try different things and see what I was capable of or not capable of.

• 33:09Speaker 00

  I mean, do you care about making it such a shit thing? Do you know what I mean? Like, how much do you, what does making it look like to you? Is it just being able to act regularly?

• 33:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I guess, you know, pay the bills now that I've got a family and just sort of, you know, keep things ticking along there. And then of course, there's like personal ambition of like wanting to create things, write things, you know, make that sort of thing happen. I guess there's still a conversation to be had about if you're in a position of privilege as a person of colour or someone of a minority, can you keep that conversation, can you push that further? Can you create, you know, a space for, you know, those sorts of stories to be told more often, that sort of thing, which a lot of us are trying to do. But, you know, on a personal level, I mean, you know, it's just these little things like just getting to work with these filmmakers, who I never could have dreamed of working with once, let alone twice, you know?

• 33:59Speaker 01

  So it's, I just, everything sort of is part of the same tapestry, do you know what I mean? It's, I would have nothing without EastEnders if that hadn't been the start of my career. And to have met the people that I worked with on that show and for them to have brought out the best in me, you know? I mean, one thing that I will always appreciate about my experience on that show was that they didn't, the show, the writers, the all the exec producers who came and went during my time, they all were, they all found ways to challenge me as an actor. They never, they never sort of pigeonholed me, they never went, you're just a nerdy kid, so we're going to give you that sort of stuff to do.

• 34:39Speaker 01

  Like they, they gave me a chance to try something more emotional or try something more sort of, just different.

• 34:45Speaker 00

  Yeah, because also it was funny characters.

• 34:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, so that I got to do a bit of that. But then quite early on, they could easily have sort of just pigeonholed me as like the comedy relief guy.

• 34:55Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 34:56Speaker 01

  But then they started giving me some really interesting stuff to do on a dramatic level, which I really appreciated. And that was when I really had to sort of go, you know, how do you do this? Like, how, you know, and that's why I was really appreciative of working with those actors who really supported me through it and taught me so much. But to have worked on a show like that where they gave me such a breadth of challenges that helped me grow over the nine years that I was there, I couldn't have really asked for a better training ground, you know?

• 35:19Speaker 00

  Like, when you think about, because the joke always used to be, you're only allowed one brown family on EastEnders. But like, when you sort of, when you think about, when I think about watching Asians on television, you know, one of the things is, is there's representation and then there's representation in terms of like, what you want to see is representation where your ethnicity or your background is simply part of the tapestry of your character, rather than the thing that the whole thing's about. How strongly have you felt about that, sort of doing what you do? Is that something that's always been part of your, your thinking?

• 35:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I think I've been lucky to be part of things where that's, that has been the case. And then I just sort of try and mark whether there's an opportunity to be a bit more specific from time to time. Like this movie, I did the assessment. My character wasn't called Arian to begin with. And I kind of said, can we just switch that just as a point of interest? And everyone was up for that. And so it's just nice to sort of have maybe a bit of specificity in that way.

• 36:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 36:31Speaker 01

  But then I've played characters called John and stuff like that. So like, it's, it's good to sort of be working in an era where I can do that, where I get those sorts of opportunities and those, you know, getting to do, you know, three maybe now, like Victorian period projects, which I just never imagined was ever going to come my way, like, you know, because we never saw anyone who looked like us sort of in those sorts of things growing up. So that's been great. And I think ultimately, I would love to see some more specific stuff. But I can't really expect anyone to create that who doesn't fully understand it.

• 37:13Speaker 01

  They might, but more likely or not, it's going to come from, from someone who gets the specificity of that particular culture or that particular kind of story that you want to tell. So that's kind of stuff that I'm working on and trying to develop at the moment, really. And there'll be some really great stuff that comes out of that, hopefully.

• 37:29Speaker 00

  So you did, did EastEnders, were great in that. How did it all come about that, like, how does it feel, that journey going from that to where you are now? What was sort of the chronology of that?

• 37:40Speaker 01

  So I left, yeah, 10 years ago. And in fact, pretty soon after is when.

• 37:46Speaker 00

  You left EastEnders 10 years ago?

• 37:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:49Speaker 00

  You've had a hell of a decade, haven't you?

• 37:51Speaker 01

  It has been, yeah, yeah.

• 37:52Speaker 00

  Holy shit, like, that is fucking wild. I can't, you think about all the stuff you've done since EastEnders.

• 37:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:00Speaker 00

  Holy, congratulations, mate.

• 38:01Speaker 01

  Thank you, yeah.

• 38:02Speaker 00

  You're killing it.

• 38:03Speaker 01

  Thanks.

• 38:03Speaker 00

  You must be aware of that. It's difficult. Listen, I know you've got, I know you've got like a little chilled energy, but part of you must be going, I am killing it.

• 38:10Speaker 01

  This summer, I mean, yeah, it's, it's about.

• 38:14Speaker 00

  You're smashing it.

• 38:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's a really lovely sort of summertime, this summer, where I'm just sort of going, this is actually, and I was thinking about that, the 10 years thing, because it's 10 years since I left. But it's also that 10 years since I met my partner.

• 38:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 38:25Speaker 01

  And so that's been, it's like a real sort of milestone year.

• 38:29Speaker 00

  You have to say that as well, don't you?

• 38:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, yes, I haven't forgotten.

• 38:32Speaker 00

  If you don't mention that, god, you're just like, oh, go home.

• 38:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. That was the one thing that I had to do, actually. So that's ticked that off the boxes. Yeah, and you know, I wrote an essay in a book called The Good Immigrant and that, that came out 10 years ago. That was a real sort of moment for me. So it is like a real milestone year and I am actually taking a second to go, that's, that is, it has been an insane decade. And so, yeah, I left 10 years ago and then that was pretty soon after that, that Damned came along, which, which, thank you for that, by the way.

• 39:05Speaker 00

  Well, let's talk about Damned. I was in a pilot of Joe Brown's sitcom with Joe and Alan Davis. And I was in the pilot of that and then didn't end up doing the series and you did play the same part as me in the.

• 39:20Speaker 01

  So we played the same role, which is kind of a funny detail, isn't it?

• 39:23Speaker 00

  Yeah. And look, we've both ended up.

• 39:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, analogous.

• 39:29Speaker 00

  You know, you're a film star and I'm sort of licking your ring on a podcast, you know, that's, that's, that's where our careers have taken us, do you know what I mean?

• 39:39Speaker 01

  Says national treasure, Romesh Ranganathan. So, yeah.

• 39:45Speaker 00

  No, yeah, that was, yeah, so you did Damned, were great in that.

• 39:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, so that was, and I got really lucky, really, that came along pretty quickly after I left EastEnders. Because I was, I was sort of told, you know, be ready for some time, you know, sort of out in the wilderness, basically.

• 40:02Speaker 00

  Were you frightened at that stage?

• 40:03Speaker 01

  I was, yeah. I'd made the choice to go. They hadn't kicked me out.

• 40:07Speaker 00

  No.

• 40:07Speaker 01

  But I just knew that it was, it was the right time.

• 40:10Speaker 00

  Because otherwise, did you feel like that might be you then, like if you were there for too much longer?

• 40:14Speaker 01

  Potentially, yeah.

• 40:16Speaker 00

  Not that that's a bad thing, but you know, for you personally.

• 40:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, for me personally. I've got pals who are still on the show, you know, and they're having a great time.

• 40:22Speaker 00

  And you still talk to them and stuff like that and reply to their texts and stuff.

• 40:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, sometimes, yeah, yeah, sometimes.

• 40:27Speaker 00

  No, that's a decent thing to do. It makes people feel like they're still on a level.

• 40:30Speaker 01

  Exactly, yeah, yeah.

• 40:31Speaker 00

  We all know what the dynamics are. I get it.

• 40:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. It's nice to keep them, you know.

• 40:39Speaker 00

  Yeah, they feel like you haven't lost touch, but you'd like to.

• 40:42Speaker 01

  Yeah. I might change my number soon. And no, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Yeah, and so, you know, I was quite lucky that Dan came along quite quickly soon after. And then I did like a play in the West End and then a play in New York. And then that was when I got the tape for Yesterday. That was at the end of 2018.

• 41:08Speaker 00

  So had Danny Boyle seen you, had he seen you in the play?

• 41:12Speaker 01

  No, he'd seen me. So I did a short film in 2014. So it was the only other thing I did in the nine years I was on EastEnders. I did a short film called Two Doses. And it was written by Nikesh Shukla, who's a really great friend of mine now. And he, he put together The Good Immigrant, this book that I wrote an essay in a couple of years later. But he'd written this short film and it turns out that him and his mum, who's now passed away. She, he used to watch EastEnders with his mum and she used to be like, that kid is you. Like that, that kid is like, he's, there's something about this kid. He's just like, he's not on the show. He's like commenting on the show whilst within the show, you know, sort of thing.

• 41:53Speaker 01

  And then it turns out that he wrote this short film called Two Doses and he immediately said like, I think it should be him playing this role of this like hapless brown guy on a date. And, and so they approached me and God bless EastEnders, they let me go for about four days over a bank holiday to shoot this short film. They ended up doing really well, did a few film festivals and it won an award at a film festival that Danny Boyle was judging.

• 42:17Speaker 00

  Right.

• 42:17Speaker 01

  And so I think he, he sort of just marked me as a sort of person to potentially, you know, audition for something. And, and yeah, lo and behold, I did in the end tape for it.

• 42:31Speaker 00

  You're great in that film. It's a great film. Can I just say on a personal level, very exciting to see a brown lead in a romantic.

• 42:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:39Speaker 00

  You know, that's.

• 42:39Speaker 01

  I mean, it kind of came full circle because that was one of the things that Nikesh wanted when he wrote Two Doses. He was like, I wanted to see a brown guy in a rom com.

• 42:45Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 42:45Speaker 01

  So I wrote a rom com short. And for that to then lead to Yesterday, it was like a really, you know, a beautiful moment. And, you know, I would love to see more of it. I think there's been, you know, a couple here and there since and. But it kind of, we lend ourselves to that. A lot of us just sort of like confused hapless.

• 43:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 43:05Speaker 01

  First generation children of immigrants, just wondering what the hell is going on.

• 43:10Speaker 00

  It's a comfortable area to exist in, isn't it?

• 43:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, it is, yeah.

• 43:13Speaker 00

  When you were doing Yesterday, that must have felt even more surreal. I imagine even more surreal than now when you're doing The Odyssey because you're sort of, you're seasoned by that stage. But in Yesterday, it must have felt insane. First of all, the fact that Danny Boyle earmarked you must have felt wild.

• 43:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. And, and to even, you know, I did a tape, a tape while I was in New York. And then I flew back home and auditioned in front of Danny and Richard Curtis. So, you know, going into that audition, I was just like, I'm probably not going to get this role. But the fact that I even get to audition in a room with these two legends of British cinema is a win for me. So I'm just going to go and have some fun. And for it to then end up being that I got the part and got to go on this insane journey. Like it was just absurd, really. I mean, it was my first movie.

• 44:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 44:01Speaker 01

  So, you know, and I was, I was less than two years out of EastEnders when we shot it.

• 44:05Speaker 00

  First movie, Danny Boyle, Richard Curtis.

• 44:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's mad. It's mad. And, and the whole experience was just great, like doing the Beatles songs, like acting with Ed Sheeran.

• 44:13Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 44:13Speaker 01

  You know, just sort of like, it was just like the weirdest time of my life and amazing.

• 44:18Speaker 00

  That scene where, where Ed Sheeran sort of challenges you to your character to Jack to an immediate songwriting thing.

• 44:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 44:29Speaker 00

  It's such, I don't know what it is about, there's certain scenes that are like fantasy fulfillment, right?

• 44:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 44:36Speaker 00

  And, and I'd never thought that I'd want something like that to happen to me. But when you watch it, it's so funny to think. Imagine what that'd be like. Ed Sheeran goes, let's go and write a song and you've got the Beatles back.

• 44:49Speaker 01

  It was, it was one of those moments that like, kind of as a comedic beat, didn't really hit me until I saw it for the first time with an audience. And like Ed plays his song and then it cuts to Jack at the piano. And it's like silence and then he just starts singing The Long and Winding Road. And everyone just pissed themselves laughing. And I was like, oh yeah, that's, that is, when you cut it together like that, it's absolutely hilarious.

• 45:13Speaker 00

  And then what was that like when it came out? What was that whole thing? You're then in the movie circuit then. What was that like?

• 45:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was, you know, again, a really surreal summer because I, I knew that was coming out. And earlier that year, I'd auditioned for Tenet. So by the time yesterday, I was doing the premiere for Yesterday and going to the US and doing press and all this sort of stuff. In the back of my mind, I was going, I'm about to do a Christopher Nolan movie. I can't tell anyone. And so I was just having this most absurd, like July, August of my life.

• 45:43Speaker 00

  Why did I leave EastEnders?

• 45:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:46Speaker 01

  Don't know if this was worth it, guys. Yeah. So it was like a really wonderful time. And obviously the whole Yesterday experience and, you know, like I say, when you, when you finally share something with the world, it's really special. But that was obviously like, I was the lead of the movie and it was my first movie. And to share that with my loved ones and my family, like they were all there on the red carpet. Like it was just like a really, or the yellow carpet. And, and it was just like a really special moment in my life.

• 46:16Speaker 00

  Is it, is it, was it, because you know, your, your family, is it right, ran two newsagents, one of them still, still.

• 46:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, they still run, yeah, yeah.

• 46:24Speaker 00

  And so like the, and I, I've read about, you know, your dad's sort of not been able to speak any English when he first arrived.

• 46:31Speaker 01

  Pretty much, yeah. Yeah, he couldn't. He, and he was 16 when he came to the country. And they'd moved to this little town in Cambridgeshire and they, it was just, it was his, a couple of his brothers who were older than him, who were already here working. And him and his younger sister, they moved here when he was 16. And most of the schools that they went around, they were like, just send him to work. Like he's 16.

• 46:56Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 46:57Speaker 01

  We don't have space for him, especially because he doesn't really speak English. And there was one school, this one headmaster who went, actually, we'll take them in, we'll give them extracurricular English lessons and they can be part of the school. And he caught up and he got, and he got his, you know, he ended up going to college and studying and. And I just like, I find that really moving because it's just like, it's the kindness of one person.

• 47:18Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:19Speaker 01

  And maybe the lack of racism of one person.

• 47:23Speaker 00

  It's good. You can often find one, can't you?

• 47:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, sometimes there are people who aren't racist, actually. It's great.

• 47:28Speaker 00

  I've, I've, sometimes I've been with two in the same room.

• 47:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:31Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's nice.

• 47:32Speaker 01

  It happens.

• 47:33Speaker 00

  Yeah, not in this room, unfortunately.

• 47:35Speaker 01

  But it was, yeah, he, he managed to sort of get to do that, which, you know, I'm, I'm really thankful of actually because it gave him. Like he's obviously just by dint of being here for so long, but also because he was here at such a sort of formative time. He's just like a lot more English than he is Indian.

• 47:56Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:57Speaker 01

  In many ways. And so he was like introducing me to a lot of like comedy and.

• 48:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:01Speaker 01

  And music and all this sort of stuff in a way that because he was just, he kind of grew up here, really.

• 48:08Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:08Speaker 01

  So.

• 48:09Speaker 00

  And then was it amazing? Because my mum sometimes says to me, come, came over from Sri Lanka. And then now I'm on television doing whatever I'm doing. She finds it, you know, she finds it amazing. She can't quite believe it. It must have been like that so, so much for your family, right? Seeing.

• 48:24Speaker 01

  I think it is, but I very rarely hear it from them.

• 48:28Speaker 00

  That's cool.

• 48:29Speaker 01

  It's like when the Yesterday trailer came out, my sister goes, dad just came over and he was, he was watching the Yesterday trailer and he was like, oh my God, I'm so proud of him and I can't wait for everyone to see it. And I'm like, does he want to tell me that? Or like? But it's just not their way, is it? Like they're never going to say to you face to face, but, but they do. I know they're proud. Like they just went to see The Odyssey the other day and then we had dinner afterwards and they, you know, I could tell they really enjoyed it and they were really proud of it and proud of me. And, you know, I, it's a funny thing with sort of immigrants who have children and they hope for the best for them. And then if like, if your kids end up sort of living their dreams, which I'd say more or less me and my sister are.

• 49:13Speaker 01

  That it, you know, you kind of, we're sitting here going, you did it.

• 49:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:17Speaker 01

  This is great. You did it. And they're, they're still like, yeah, but are we going to be okay?

• 49:22Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 49:23Speaker 01

  It's really hard for them to get out of that mindset. Are we going to be okay? You know, because like they just had to give like fight tooth and nail for everything they had. So it's, you know, I'm coming to understand that a bit. And because obviously that, that part of you wants that acceptance and that sort of, you know. You want them to tell you that they're proud of you, all this sort of stuff. But you kind of have to come to understand that they are just who they are. And that because of what the journey they've been on and what they had to go through, it's very hard for them to sort of just appreciate what they've done.

• 49:51Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:51Speaker 01

  Without worrying about what's.

• 49:53Speaker 00

  Worrying about it going away.

• 49:54Speaker 01

  Exactly. Everything's precarious, yeah, so.

• 50:36Speaker 00

  Twenty twenty six, Campoli America, New York, New York, drink responsibly. Uh, now, speaking of parents, my mum has got a question for you. I've got no idea what this question is. Um, so let's see.

• 50:45Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 50:48Speaker 00

  She doesn't, often doesn't clear her throat.

• 50:49Speaker 02

  Hi, me, me.

• 50:50Speaker 00

  Oh, she has done.

• 50:51Speaker 02

  This is, oh, Mrs. Mom Shanti, what a beautiful name.

• 50:57Speaker 01

  Is it your name or my name?

• 50:58Speaker 02

  I heard you are working with Idris Elba on a new film.

• 51:02Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 51:03Speaker 02

  It's a blessing, I think.

• 51:05Speaker 01

  To work with Idris Elba, yeah.

• 51:06Speaker 02

  A bit of a misunderstanding.

• 51:08Speaker 00

  Oh, gosh.

• 51:09Speaker 02

  But it's all sorted out, thank God. Have you ever introduced Idris Elba to your mum?

• 51:15Speaker 00

  Oh, my God.

• 51:16Speaker 02

  Just curiosity. I'd love to meet him one day. You have a wonderful day. This is Shanti. Take care, darling. Bye bye.

• 51:26Speaker 00

  Sorry, there's so much wrong with that question. First of all, she's asking, I'm so sorry about that.

• 51:31Speaker 01

  Please don't be, I think it's.

• 51:32Speaker 00

  It sounds like she's complimenting her own name.

• 51:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:34Speaker 00

  At the beginning of that.

• 51:36Speaker 01

  So she should. It's a wonderful name, Shanti. It's a great name.

• 51:38Speaker 00

  Uh, we had a bit, she had a bit of a misunderstanding with Idris Elba.

• 51:41Speaker 01

  Okay, what happened?

• 51:44Speaker 00

  Well, we were at the BAFTAs, she wanted to meet him.

• 51:47Speaker 01

  Uh huh.

• 51:48Speaker 00

  I told her that I didn't, I couldn't introduce him because I'd had a chat with him earlier and he was busy. She took that to mean that she'd been blanked by Idris Elba. So on this podcast, she said that she hates him and that whenever he appears on screen, she changes the channel.

• 52:02Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 52:03Speaker 00

  She thinks he's a rude bugger and

• 52:06Speaker 01

  Well.

• 52:06Speaker 00

  For some reason, in response to Idris sending a hamper of apology, I've got no.

• 52:11Speaker 01

  A hamper of apology?

• 52:12Speaker 00

  A hamper of apology.

• 52:13Speaker 01

  And what was in the hamper?

• 52:14Speaker 00

  It was, uh, sparkling wine, some chocolates, some wine, and, and he just a little note saying, I'm sorry that I'm in your bad book, Shanti. I, I, he had no reason to send that because my mum had been so out of order.

• 52:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:27Speaker 00

  And then my mum started going, I think he should come on the podcast. It's like, why would he?

• 52:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:30Speaker 00

  You, you shat on him.

• 52:32Speaker 01

  I mean, he is gonna do it eventually. He's gonna come on your podcast and, and it's gonna be amazing, yeah, but.

• 52:36Speaker 00

  Yeah, but my mum can't be here.

• 52:38Speaker 01

  She'll just be there in the corner. I, it all worked out. The, the long game player had had exactly as I thought.

• 52:46Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 52:48Speaker 01

  I mean, yeah, I've, I've, I've actually not worked with him in the room. It's an animated movie that's.

• 52:52Speaker 00

  Yeah, so what's this film you're doing?

• 52:53Speaker 01

  It's called High in the Clouds. It's, uh, it, it's an animated movie that, uh, was created by Paul McCartney. And I think Linda might have been one of the originators of the story way back when. Um, but either way, they've been trying to make this movie for years and we've finally done it. So, um, I've done all my sort of vocal work for it, including some songs, some original songs by Paul McCartney. Um, and I don't know exactly, I think the plan is like either next year or the year after, but as with animation, it takes, it takes a minute. But yeah, Idris is, uh, is also in it. Um, and so I've met, I met him once very recently within the last year.

• 53:31Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 53:32Speaker 01

  And he, he just sort of was up for a real laugh. It was at these, one of these like BAFTA parties.

• 53:40Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 53:40Speaker 01

  Uh, you, well, you know, these like film events where you're like, you go and you just like, they, they do a screening of a movie and then there's like, you know, people trying to get awards, basically.

• 53:50Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 53:51Speaker 01

  And, uh.

• 53:52Speaker 00

  A bit of networking.

• 53:53Speaker 01

  And then he was like, oh, nice to meet you. I'm on my way out, but before I go, and then he just told me like a vaguely inappropriate joke. And then was really proud of himself and just, um, and, and walked off. So that's all I can tell you about Idris Elba is that, you know, he's, he's got some, some, some kind of funny jokes.

• 54:10Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 54:10Speaker 01

  That probably I can't.

• 54:11Speaker 00

  You can't repeat.

• 54:12Speaker 01

  I'm not gonna repeat them on this podcast.

• 54:13Speaker 00

  I think that's, I think that's.

• 54:14Speaker 01

  But yeah.

• 54:14Speaker 00

  I don't, I don't want another thing with Idris Elba off the back of this podcast.

• 54:17Speaker 01

  But maybe see if you can get, get it out of him when, when he comes on the podcast.

• 54:20Speaker 00

  Yeah, if, you know, if and when he does, I, I can't imagine he'd want to, but if he does. Um, have you, have you ever included your family in any of your stuff?

• 54:30Speaker 01

  No.

• 54:30Speaker 00

  No, and would you?

• 54:31Speaker 01

  No, probably not. I'm quite protective of them, yeah.

• 54:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 54:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 54:35Speaker 00

  Yeah. Well, I, I, I, I'm.

• 54:37Speaker 01

  Oh, how is it with you and your mum? Like, is it, I mean, it seems like it's sometimes a bit of a nightmare for you?

• 54:42Speaker 00

  Uh, yeah.

• 54:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 54:43Speaker 00

  I, I, I would say that, um, often what she reveals about our background

• 54:47Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 54:48Speaker 00

  on the podcast is a surprise to me, as much as it is to the audience.

• 54:51Speaker 01

  Whose idea was it? Did she, did she at some point go, hey, I want in?

• 54:56Speaker 00

  No, we, I thought it'd be funny to, we thought it'd be funny to have her as part of Asian Provocateur when I went to Sri Lanka

• 55:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 55:04Speaker 00

  Brought her along, or, you know, she was sort of designing the, the trip. And then she became this breakout star and then it became successful. And then, you know, we'd created a monster.

• 55:13Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 55:13Speaker 00

  What can, you know, what can you do? And now.

• 55:15Speaker 01

  And now she's like, why does Idris Elba not wanna talk to me?

• 55:17Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, that's, that is, that is.

• 55:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:20Speaker 00

  Yeah, it, it, that's how, how far her ego has gone.

• 55:23Speaker 01

  I kinda respect it.

• 55:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 55:24Speaker 01

  I kinda respect it, yeah.

• 55:25Speaker 00

  But it's difficult. It is tricky.

• 55:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:28Speaker 00

  But we really.

• 55:29Speaker 01

  You're kind of her manager now.

• 55:31Speaker 00

  Well, actually, she's, she's now managed by my management.

• 55:34Speaker 01

  Yes, eventually you had to be like, please, take over.

• 55:37Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. And then they sort of make a joke about it. It's our favourite, you're our second favourite Ranganathan. It's really funny.

• 55:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's great.

• 55:44Speaker 00

  Uh, what can you tell me about the X-Files reboot?

• 55:47Speaker 01

  Uh.

• 55:47Speaker 00

  Not, it's not a reboot, is it? Is it a reboot?

• 55:50Speaker 01

  Ish.

• 55:50Speaker 00

  It's X-Files, but it's.

• 55:51Speaker 01

  Ish, yeah. Um, uh, there's not a whole lot I can tell you, really. Uh, we, we shot the pilot

• 55:57Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 55:58Speaker 01

  earlier this year, written and directed by Ryan Coogler, um, who is just like the greatest, I mean.

• 56:04Speaker 00

  So just really good people want to work with you. That's exciting.

• 56:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, I am kind of trying to figure out what's going on there. Uh, I, it, it, I, I've, it's been just an insane year of working with Chris and then working, literally the next job I did was with Ryan Coogler, uh, carrying my lucky stars, um.

• 56:22Speaker 00

  You didn't even audition, did you?

• 56:23Speaker 01

  No.

• 56:24Speaker 00

  He met up with you and you thought you were gonna then audition.

• 56:26Speaker 01

  Uh, that's what I thought, because I was like, well, this has like, gotta be one of the hottest properties around. And it's like, literally the, the hottest director in the world right now, uh, who's written and directed, is, is gonna direct this thing. So we just met for breakfast when he was in town for the BAFTAs.

• 56:42Speaker 01

  And, um, it, it soon became clear that he was like, so do you wanna do it or? And I was like, uh, let me think about it, actually.

• 56:51Speaker 00

  Yeah, you gotta play it cool, right?

• 56:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, I just gotta like, figure some stuff out, Ryan. Um.

• 56:55Speaker 00

  Don't be too thirsty, Ryan.

• 56:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 56:58Speaker 00

  Yeah, Sinners was fine, okay?

• 57:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. Um, oh, vampires. Um. Yeah, but, um, obviously I was like, this is unbelievably exciting. Um, and so I, I was all in and, and, um, and so we shot the pilot. We have no guarantee of a series order. That's kind of where we're at right now. It's just the way that, that, that's the process for anything, no matter who you are. So, um, we await news of that, but I had a great time making it. I mean, it's, it's, it's everything you love about the X-Files, you know? I mean, he, he grew up watching it with his mum, so he, he's got a real love for the show. And so it's not like someone taking the reins and just going, scrap all that, we're gonna do something completely different. It's, it's, it honours the show that we know.

• 57:43Speaker 01

  But it's also, you know, looking ahead to, to what, what we know prestige TV to be now, you know, like, it's so, the cinematic potential of it is, is, is endless, really, so it's.

• 57:54Speaker 00

  It's very exciting. I mean, TV's

• 57:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:56Speaker 00

  stepped up its game.

• 57:57Speaker 01

  Hugely, and so I think he wants the show to be a part of that, that sort of landscape. And yeah, I had a great time. And it was, it was myself and Danielle Dedwiler, who, who are the leads and, and, um, playing completely new characters. And, um, and Danielle's an incredible actress. We, and we were, we were on the same TV show, we were on Station Eleven, uh, together, but we never crossed paths. Um, but we hung out a bit, so we knew each other already. So to then go into something like this, kind of hit the ground running with, with your co-star, it's, it was just a great experience. And so let's see what happens. I hope you will get to see it eventually.

• 58:29Speaker 00

  Yeah, fingers crossed. But if not, just send me a bootleg, yeah?

• 58:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:32Speaker 00

  Okay, we're gonna play a little game, misquoted.

• 58:35Speaker 01

  Okay, here we go.

• 58:41Speaker 00

  It's misquoted. So I'm gonna tell you five things

• 58:44Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 58:45Speaker 00

  that you may or may not have said, and you've just got to tell me if you did or you didn't, okay? And some of them, I do have to put this in.

• 58:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:51Speaker 00

  Some of them adapted for something you might have said, okay?

• 58:54Speaker 01

  Okay, interesting.

• 58:55Speaker 00

  Because I don't want people to feel cheated when they play this game.

• 58:57Speaker 01

  Okay, okay, yeah.

• 58:59Speaker 00

  Um, I said, I've made that really serious. Okay, anyway, good luck. There were no stakes.

• 59:05Speaker 01

  Doesn't sound like it.

• 59:08Speaker 00

  Uh, here's your first one. Good luck. In Hollywood, I think being happy with your own face is a vice. Did you or did you not say that?

• 59:18Speaker 01

  Being happy with your own face is a vice?

• 59:20Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 59:21Speaker 01

  I don't think I said that, did I?

• 59:24Speaker 00

  No, you didn't. Well done, Ryan. You said something.

• 59:27Speaker 01

  I don't even know what that means.

• 59:28Speaker 00

  You said, I don't, but what you did say is, in Hollywood, I think bread is a vice.

• 59:33Speaker 01

  Yes, it does seem, it does, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 59:36Speaker 00

  How, how, um, like, do you, have you allowed, do you allow carbs into your life?

• 59:41Speaker 01

  Uh, sadly, yes, I do. Um, not sadly, carbs are great. Um, I, I think that's what I mean. I think we're sort of, there's like body expectation and um, I guess sometimes you just need to manage it a bit better.

• 59:54Speaker 00

  Have you allowed any of that to creep in?

• 59:56Speaker 01

  Uh, yeah, frankly, yes. I mean, for example, for example, like shooting The Odyssey.

• 1:00:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:00:01Speaker 01

  You know, um, it's, it, when you've got like a fifty-four-year-old Matt Damon just looking ripped to shit.

• 1:00:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:00:10Speaker 01

  And like sprinting past you.

• 1:00:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:00:13Speaker 01

  You're like, I should cut down on that.

• 1:00:17Speaker 01

  Should probably.

• 1:00:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:00:19Speaker 01

  Because that's what he did. He, he got rid of gluten from his diet.

• 1:00:22Speaker 00

  Is that what he did?

• 1:00:22Speaker 01

  As part of a, a number of things he was doing, obviously, but like, um, he, he, he cut out gluten and.

• 1:00:28Speaker 00

  But you, so you must have the inside track now in a way that you didn't before to like, what are the, what are these people up to, right?

• 1:00:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:00:34Speaker 00

  They're doing some secret shit, right, to get super ripped?

• 1:00:36Speaker 01

  I don't know if Matt's doing any secret shit. I think he's just, um.

• 1:00:39Speaker 00

  But I just imagine there's some like smoothie that they have that just fucking. Do you know what I mean?

• 1:00:44Speaker 01

  Like space chat.

• 1:00:45Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:00:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's they're on that thing from Space Jam.

• 1:00:53Speaker 00

  Yeah, okay, good to know, good to get that out there. Okay, here's your next one. We were shooting in a cash and carry yesterday. I'd had a false beard on and they were using coconut oil to take it off. I was like, oh, I'd love a bounty.

• 1:01:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's true.

• 1:01:07Speaker 00

  That is true, Evening Standard 2019.

• 1:01:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, what happened was then I literally, all I said was, oh, it reminds me of Bounty. Now I feel like I want a bounty. Next thing I know, they brought in a box of Bounty because we're at a cash and carry. And I was the lead of this movie. This was on yesterday, they just brought a box of Bounty and they were like, this is great. We'll have this in the trailer for you. And I was like, I don't, I don't, didn't ask for that. I just said, oh, that smells like Bounty.

• 1:01:34Speaker 01

  And next thing I know, they've brought an entire box.

• 1:01:37Speaker 00

  What, what did that feel like, that feel good?

• 1:01:39Speaker 01

  I was drunk on power for the rest of the shoot.

• 1:01:41Speaker 00

  Absolutely, absolutely. Because you do get treated, I mean, I imagine you get treated really, really well.

• 1:01:49Speaker 00

  Do you have to like, have you ever, have you ever surprised yourself by being a bit of a diva? Or has any of that sort of crept in? Have you found yourself demanding stuff? Is there a Himesh demand or non-negotiable?

• 1:02:01Speaker 01

  I don't think so, no. It's probably more since having a family and just sort of wanting there to be stipulations and just contractual stuff of kind of going a certain amount of flights for your family sort of thing, if possible, based on the size of the production.

• 1:02:18Speaker 01

  But otherwise, you know, I don't tend to, you know. But I've, I've come to understand why sometimes people do because there's just ways it can help. Because what happens with that is you get thrown out of your routine. And if you're like trying to like look after your body or like get your body in a certain shape, or if you're just like, if you just have a general routine that's good for you and your mindset, suddenly you're like shooting in some other country, seven to seven every day, if, if they can help you out by having like just X, Y, Z in your trailer every day or that sort of thing. So I used to be very judgmental about sort of that sort of rider, that kind of stuff. And I think, I mean, you do hear about stuff that's just like, no one needs that. But I'm coming to understand why sometimes it can be helpful.

• 1:02:58Speaker 00

  Yeah, because like it's, if it's hard, then having a little bit of home comfort or...

• 1:03:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, or just something that you need just to help you out.

• 1:03:04Speaker 00

  It's mentally helpful, yeah, that's what I keep saying to my teams. Okay, here's your next one. You're two for two, well done.

• 1:03:10Speaker 01

  Thanks.

• 1:03:11Speaker 00

  I think people probably assume I'm just a bit of a clown. I don't think you delivered it like that, that was horrible, but did you or did you not say that?

• 1:03:18Speaker 01

  I probably did say that?

• 1:03:20Speaker 00

  Um, no.

• 1:03:22Speaker 01

  Oh, wow.

• 1:03:22Speaker 00

  You said something similar. I think from the outside, people are probably like, are you okay?

• 1:03:28Speaker 00

  And I'm sitting there going, yes, I'm fine, I'm just thinking about something. You said that to the times in 22.

• 1:03:39Speaker 00

  This is incredibly relatable content to me, to be honest with you.

• 1:03:45Speaker 01

  Are you okay? Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just thinking about something.

• 1:03:48Speaker 00

  Yeah, because my resting face looks distraught. And, and often like if I'm thinking, if somebody's, somebody tell me that I'm the most difficult person to pitch a show idea to.

• 1:03:58Speaker 01

  Because you just look pissed off.

• 1:03:59Speaker 00

  I am listening, but it looks like I find it distasteful, do you know what I mean? Do you, do you have that issue?

• 1:04:06Speaker 01

  I, I, I did Adam Buxton's podcast recently and he told me that, he was like, you do have a bit of a worried face. And I was like, you're not the first person to tell me that. Like, I, I think maybe I just do, I can't, it's just my face though, I don't, you know. But also I think maybe I am just sort of chronically anxious all the time. So maybe, maybe they're on something.

• 1:04:26Speaker 00

  I'm chronically anxious all the time.

• 1:04:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:28Speaker 00

  It's tough, isn't it? But then there's part of you that thinks if I get rid of this, maybe I won't be doing my job anymore.

• 1:04:34Speaker 01

  Maybe I'll become a douche.

• 1:04:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:04:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:37Speaker 00

  Do you want to be a happy douche or a?

• 1:04:39Speaker 01

  Or an anxious legend.

• 1:04:40Speaker 00

  Yeah, exactly. That's my next tour title.

• 1:04:47Speaker 00

  Okay, here's your next one. I quarantined in a hotel room in Boston and got to spend half a day with Leonardo DiCaprio. It felt a bit like a fever dream.

• 1:04:54Speaker 01

  Yes, that's true, yeah.

• 1:04:57Speaker 00

  This is about, when you were discussing Don't Look Up.

• 1:05:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, so we shot that beginning of 2021. But I had to get there on Boxing Day of 2020. And I mean, it was, it was surreal. My, my first daughter was three weeks old, something like that. At Christmas Day and then I was like, see you later, I'm off to Boston. But I had to just like sit in a hotel room for 10 days. And so like New Year's Day, I remember New Year's Day, I, I FaceTimed with them to say Happy New Year at like 7pm, whatever the time difference is. And then I was like, I'll just stay up and see if like someone's letting off some fireworks and I can see them from the hotel window, like a sad puppy. But I fell asleep and then I woke up at like 12:07.

• 1:05:48Speaker 01

  And I was like, oh, fuck, what's happened? Happy New Year, I guess, like, it was surreal, yeah.

• 1:05:55Speaker 00

  Was it weird? Did you, do you just get used to hanging out with people like Leonardo DiCaprio?

• 1:05:58Speaker 01

  No, not at all, not at all. I mean, it was, and because it was such a whirlwind, I think if I'd been on that movie like every day, then maybe I would have gotten used to sort of being on set with him and Jennifer Lawrence and like, you know, but it was, it was the fact that I'd just been in a hotel on my own for 10 days.

• 1:06:13Speaker 00

  Yeah, so that, that ramps up.

• 1:06:14Speaker 01

  And then the first day you're out.

• 1:06:15Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:06:16Speaker 01

  Here's two of the biggest movie stars of all time and act with them now. And there's like Adam McKay just shouting on a, on a megaphone all the direction. And I was like, I've been on my own for 10 days. This is insane, this is like an insane situation to be plonked into. But they were both lovely. And then that, that whole journey with Don't Look Up was just surreal because the premiere at the end of that year, I wound up in a room, like as we were all filtering off the red carpet, but for some reason I was the first one into the green room, except DiCaprio and Meryl Streep were the only other people in there. So then I just walked into the room like gingerly like, hello, hello Leonardo DiCaprio and Meryl Streep.

• 1:06:59Speaker 01

  I'll just quietly sit over here, but they were both really nice as well, so, but it was just like one of those absurd, absurd moments in my life, yeah.

• 1:07:10Speaker 00

  Okay, here's your last one. Good luck to you, you've done, honestly, you've done really, really well.

• 1:07:14Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:07:14Speaker 00

  And we're all really proud of you, aren't we in here?

• 1:07:17Speaker 01

  Oh, my God.

• 1:07:19Speaker 00

  As I was waiting in a hallway, I was invited back to audition a week later and got the job. My dad had gone to the loo and missed it all.

• 1:07:25Speaker 01

  Yep, yeah, yeah, that was my first audition for EastEnders.

• 1:07:28Speaker 00

  So you went, so you went to your audition for EastEnders on the, on the day of your last GCSE exam?

• 1:07:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, so I did my last GCSE science exam, from what I remember. And then dad just picked me up and whizzed me down the A1 to Boreham Wood and did my audition with the casting assistant. And then I was waiting in the hallway because dad had gone to the toilet and she came out and said, actually, while you're waiting, could you come back and do it for the casting director, Julia Crampsey? And so I ended up doing it in front of her and she on the spot said, come back in a week's time. So actually, thank you to dad for going to the loo.

• 1:08:07Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:08:08Speaker 01

  And that's why I have my career.

• 1:08:10Speaker 00

  Wow, so you're in the Odyssey because your dad had to go to the toilet?

• 1:08:13Speaker 01

  Exactly, yeah, yeah. That's, that's, these are the little details of life.

• 1:08:18Speaker 00

  Yeah, beautiful.

• 1:08:19Speaker 01

  These little sliding doors moments.

• 1:08:20Speaker 00

  Rich tapestry, isn't it?

• 1:08:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:08:23Speaker 00

  Well, that is misquoted, well done, Himesh.

• 1:08:24Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:08:25Speaker 00

  Really, really great work on that. Okay, it's almost the end, you'll be delighted to hear because I'm sure you've done loads of interviews.

• 1:08:47Speaker 00

  We like to end the podcast on a big moment, to try, in a desperate, ongoing attempt to create some sort of viral sensation.

• 1:08:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:57Speaker 00

  We'd love you to help us do that.

• 1:08:58Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:08:58Speaker 00

  Do you have any kind of exclusive for us that you can give us for the podcast? It'd really help me out personally.

• 1:09:03Speaker 01

  So I thought I'd do this on a podcast.

• 1:09:06Speaker 00

  Great.

• 1:09:06Speaker 01

  But many years ago, I had my own podcast that no one really knows about. It was when I was still on EastEnders and I, and I don't want to say I was ahead of the curve, but...

• 1:09:17Speaker 00

  It sounds like you were.

• 1:09:18Speaker 01

  I, I had said, I had said to them, I was like, we should start an EastEnders podcast and no one really listened because I was just that annoying like brown kid and, and you

• 1:09:27Speaker 00

  I've been that guy.

• 1:09:28Speaker 01

  And, and so then one of my mates from school, at the time he was working at Classic FM, and he, and he, we'd been like trying to start some sort of podcast when we were in sixth form. And, and then I'd met his friend from uni and the three of us got on really well and we were like, should we just like start recording something and see what happens? Because he had access to some studios up in, up at Global.

• 1:09:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:09:53Speaker 01

  And so we just started recording this, this stupid little podcast.

• 1:09:56Speaker 00

  So it wasn't an EastEnders podcast?

• 1:09:57Speaker 01

  No, it was just the three of us talking nonsense, you know, three guys talking nonsense.

• 1:10:02Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:10:03Speaker 01

  And that's what I mean when I say maybe I was...

• 1:10:05Speaker 00

  That model has not taken off at all.

• 1:10:06Speaker 01

  No, exactly, that's what I mean.

• 1:10:07Speaker 00

  Nobody's doing it.

• 1:10:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:10:08Speaker 00

  Guys just chatting shit, but that doesn't happen anymore, does it?

• 1:10:12Speaker 01

  And not a mention of Squarespace anywhere. But yeah, so we, we did, and it was called Cultural Piñata.

• 1:10:22Speaker 00

  That's, that's a great name.

• 1:10:23Speaker 01

  He came up with it in the first episode, yeah.

• 1:10:26Speaker 00

  And can that be listened to?

• 1:10:27Speaker 01

  No, I could play you the theme tune now if you want to hear it.

• 1:10:31Speaker 00

  Oh, my God, yes, please.

• 1:10:35Speaker 01

  I, I literally texted Will, shout out Will Kisby, this morning and I was like, I need to find this thing, have you got?

• 1:10:42Speaker 00

  So, but it was out there for a while, was it Cultural Piñata?

• 1:10:45Speaker 01

  It was, yeah, it was available for a minute, here we go. And this was just something that he put together from like GarageBand. And it's probably quite offensive to the Mexican community, but sorry to my Mexican friends. I don't know if this is gonna, are you gonna hear this? Probably, right, here we go.

• 1:11:10Speaker 01

  Because it's a piñata, so, yeah. And that's our friend, there you go.

• 1:11:17Speaker 01

  And so he basically sent me all the episodes this morning.

• 1:11:20Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:11:21Speaker 01

  And I might have a little...

• 1:11:22Speaker 00

  Oh, you've got to listen to it.

• 1:11:23Speaker 01

  Probably not, but maybe it is. We, because in the end, I ended up getting a bunch of my pals from EastEnders to come in and like just be interviewed. And so it, it was, it was up there for like a good like two, three years. And then just before yesterday came out, I was like...

• 1:11:40Speaker 00

  You've got to get rid of this.

• 1:11:42Speaker 01

  This is probably terrible, isn't it? This should go.

• 1:11:45Speaker 00

  Lead of yesterday hates Mexicans.

• 1:11:49Speaker 01

  Offensive derivative theme tune, yeah.

• 1:11:55Speaker 00

  Well, look, Himesh, it's been an absolute honour to have you on the podcast. It's so exciting to watch your career, man.

• 1:12:00Speaker 01

  Thanks, man.

• 1:12:01Speaker 00

  And you deserve all the success and I'm sure you're going to go on to even bigger and better things. So thank you so much for coming on, Himesh Patel, everybody.

• 1:12:08Speaker 01

  Thank you, thanks for having me.

• 1:12:10Speaker 00

  Thank you so much for watching and listening to this episode. Before you go, if you've enjoyed this episode and you've not subscribed, that's a bold decision, crazy behaviour. Follow and subscribe to the Romesh Wang and Ethan Show wherever you listen. It helps me, really, like really helps me, it helps the team and it costs you absolutely nothing. We drop episodes every Monday and Thursday. Mondays, I'm joined by great guests. Thursdays, my mum Shadi joins me to answer your questions and family dilemmas. I'll see you Thursday with mum who, let's face it, is who you're actually here for. If you've got a problem you want to solve or a story you want to share, send it to [email protected], voice note or text us on 07731 623355. We can't promise good advice, but you might end up on the show.

• 1:12:55Speaker 00

  See you soon.