Himesh Patel 'really heartened' by 'overwhelming' response to The Odyssey

Himesh Patel has admitted that "nothing could have prepared" him for the "overwhelming" response to his new movie The Odyssey.

The British actor stars in Christopher Nolan's action epic as Eurylochus, the right-hand man of Matt Damon's character Odysseus, and the film largely follows their treacherous journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War.

Speaking to GQ two weeks after the film's release, Patel shared that he was "heartened" by the response to the movie as well as his portrayal of Eurylochus.

"Nothing could have prepared me for the amazing response that we've had in every way since the movie came out; it's been quite overwhelming," he said. "On a personal level, I've been really heartened by it. I'm not someone who thinks too much about what people are going to think about me, because I'm just so grateful to be a part of a movie like this, but the response to Eurylochus has been really lovely. I'm aware of how rare something like this is in anyone's career, and I'm just soaking it all in as much as I can."

The Enola Holmes 3 actor, who previously worked with Nolan on the 2020 film Tenet, was stunned when the director called him and offered him the part of Eurylochus without an audition.

"I got a call from my agent saying that Chris is offering me a role in his new movie, which I was just floored by, because I didn't think I'd gotten to the point where he could offer me a role," he recalled.

"He told me that I'd be in a lot of it for six months, but I couldn't have been prepared for the substance of the role. It was a gift to be offered something like that, and I take it to heart that he felt he could trust me with it."

Patel admitted that he felt "a sense of anticipation and slight trepidation" about what was going to be asked of him during the "physically rigorous" six-month shoot. He sometimes wondered if Nolan was "sure" about casting him because he's not "the most athletic guy in the world".

Reflecting on being part of the film's legacy, he added, "To be the people who brought it to life in the grandest way possible, every single one of us would say it's a monumental moment in our lives."

The cast also included Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Charlize Theron, Zendaya and Robert Pattinson.