Yes, Himesh Patel got turned into a pig during the filming of The Odyssey. Yes, he found it repulsive. But also, it was kind of great. The film has been in theaters for a month—breaking box-office records, making 70-mm IMAX the world’s hottest cinematic format, and setting off wave after wave of discourse. But the British actor is still happy to chat about the “two thrilling, fascinating, absurd days” he spent rapidly shoveling food into his mouth while Samantha Morton did her magic and Christopher Nolan egged him on: “Just keep going,” Patel recalls the director telling him. “It’s gonna be disgusting.”
When his casting was announced, Patel faced a lot of backlash from people who couldn’t wrap their heads around someone who looked like him being in The Odyssey. He found the outrage laughable. After all, he tells VF with a chuckle, we’re talking about “an ancient Greek myth with the cyclops in it and a witch who turns men into pigs. But we can’t have an Indian.” It’s clear now that no one else could have played the role like Patel, who delivers a standout performance as Eurylochus, Odysseus’s second-in-command.
The film itself was an odyssey of a shoot, as the cast traversed multiple countries and territories—Scotland, Italy, the Western Sahara, Greece—in all types of weather. One of the tricks Patel says he used to survive a particularly long day of shooting was to remind himself, over and over: “It’s okay. There’s Samantha Morton at the top of the hill.”
Now that Patel has reached the top of the hill himself, we called him for a conversation about The Odyssey and everything after—including his experience shooting the pilot of Ryan Coogler’s X-Files reboot, and his new (non-Mulder) character.
Vanity Fair: Six years ago, you played Mahir in Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. You reunited with him for The Odyssey. What was it like to be directed by him again? How did playing this role come about?
Himesh Patel: It was, much to my surprise, just an offer of a part. I got a call from my agents towards the end of 2024. They were like, “He’s offering you a role in his new movie.” I was floored by that. I didn't know what it was until a week later when I spoke to Chris and he told me what we were doing. Chris said, “You're gonna be playing Eurylochus,” and I said, “That’s great. I don’t know what that means.” Another week or two went by before I had the script in my hands.
The ride began in January. February, I did my fittings, had some camera tests. I had a taste of what it’s like on his set, and we already had a working relationship to some degree, but it’d been almost six years. I felt like I hit the ground running, like no time had passed. I think that speaks to the fact that a lot of the key crew were the same. He has an ethic of how he works and he sticks to it. If you know it already, then it feels familiar quickly.
Odysseus tells his crew that if they eat Zeus’ cattle, they will all die. Would you have eaten the cattle in that situation? Do you think the men faced death as a result of circumstance or consequence?
I think it was circumstance. Eurylochus says, “We decided we’d rather drown than starve.” You’re telling us that we’re gonna die if we do this, so we’ve lost hope. Not that they’re gonna stop trying—but it got to a point of desperation. I think they’re left with no choice.
The physicality of any scene that you shoot with Chris isn’t clear until you get there. He trusts you to understand what needs to happen. He’ll point you to where he needs you to land. When I was climbing my way up the boat as it’s going through a storm, in my head, I was going, Eurylochus knows what’s afoot there. He knows what's about to happen. These are the consequences of his actions. I think he knows what he’s letting himself in for when he does that, but it’s been too long of being on this desperate journey, with too many people playing the ultimate price.
I don’t know what I would’ve done myself. I don’t know if I would’ve survived that long. I think I would've been on my way out a bit sooner.
After the crew leaves the island with the sun god’s cattle, the seas are vicious, scary, and violent. Did the intensity and physicality of this role weigh on you? Was this physically your hardest film to do?
100% physically the hardest film I’ve had to do. There were many times I struggled with it. It set me off on a path of going, “I really need to start looking after myself a bit better,” and be more physically ready for this sort of thing. There were many times where I worried that I had been horribly miscast and thought, “I don’t know. Am I physically up to the task?”
It’s rigorous, and you don’t really have any movie magic helping you out. If you’re gonna pull yourself back up onto a boat, you’re gonna pull yourself back up onto a boat. If you’re gonna hurtle down a hill, running away from the cyclops, that’s what you’re gonna do. I was a bit concerned about being on the boat because I’ve never spent that long on a boat. Especially not on a boat that’s potentially gonna be moving up and down in the waves. I’m thankful to say I had my sea legs pretty quickly.
When he gets confronted by his crew, Odysseus asks Eurylochus, “Is this a mutiny?” Your character answers, “That’s up to you.” That scene showed the line Eurylochus walks as both the heart of the crew and the voice of reason to Odysseus. Do you think Eurylochus could have led them home?
Could he have led them home? I don’t know. Ultimately, they would’ve remained pigs if not for Odysseus, so I suppose maybe he wouldn't have. He’s perhaps a little naive.
That moment in particular was quite an important moment. It was important for me to not play it too cold, because it weighs heavily on him. He’s not someone who wants to be in charge. He’s not someone who wants his king to move out of the way. He wants Odysseus to be the Odysseus that he knows, the best leader. The guy who won them the war. By the time you get to that point, they’ve lost hundreds of their men to the Laestrygonians. Eurylochus himself has almost lost his life, so it's a really difficult decision.
You have those couple of moments on the boat beforehand where it’s clear to Eurylochus, and Odysseus admits to him, we’ve lost our way. At that point, Eurylochus is with the rest of the crew, and it’s a choice that they’ve all made. I really wanted to make sure that it was clear that this wasn’t something he wanted to happen. [Eurylochus is] kind of pleading it in a way, come back to your senses, man.
Odysseus was admired and revered as a great warrior but more importantly, a great leader. Who on the cast do you think embodies those traits? In other words, would you follow Matt Damon into war?
One hundred percent. [Matt] was the embodiment of that. I’ve spoken endlessly about how highly I think of him; I’ll never tire of it. He’s amazing as a person. Obviously, we know as an actor what he's capable of. But this was a real undertaking for him. At no point did I see him complain or do anything even remotely diva-ish. In this situation, he could have been forgiven for at least having one moment of throwing his toys out the pram, but it never happened. I think it’s not in his character.
He’s a hard worker, a team player. He led by example every moment of every day and in every way as an actor, as a colleague, and as a human being. I learned so much—how you lead a film, how you treat others. It was a real example of doing that while still looking after yourself and getting the work done.
Do you think Odysseus was worthy of following?
At the beginning, of course, he’s just won them the war. So there’s no question really that they would follow him. It’s just their relationship—I speak for the whole crew, but specifically Eurylochus, it’s one of eroding faith. When we shot the aftermath of Troy, there’s a scene where you see [Odysseus] sort of walking through in the morning after. We’re sort of dotted behind him on the steps and it’s quite early on in the shooting. Chris basically split us down the middle and decided who’s gonna be happy about what's happening around him and who’s gonna be kinda disgusted. Their conscience is weighing heavily on them, and naturally, Eurylochus was in the latter camp. So I knew that he was probably aware of the potential sort of moral consequence and fallout of what they’ve just done. The heartbreaking thing for him is that it’s done something irreparable to his king.
At the beginning of the journey, he’s willing to follow him, even though he has his doubts from the start. It’s just at that moment on the beach when he has to make it clear, at least, that their faith is wavering, but then he very quickly learns his lesson.
The film takes an almost body horror turn when the crew comes across the witch Circe. What was it like to film the scene with Samantha Morton, where she turns you and your fellow men into pigs?
It was amazing. We spent a day walking from the boat up across the landscape, and then up the hill with the animals and everything. I was just like, “Samantha Morton’s at the top of the hill. We get to spend time with Samantha Morton at the top of the hill.” It was a boiling hot summer in Scotland, and we were going up and down and up and down this hill.
We shot it with absolutely no CGI whatsoever. As a film nerd, I was so thrilled to see the techniques that Chris was using. The people he employed, these amazing artists and engineering wizards who created the techniques that we used—without wanting to give too much away at this stage, these are things that have been around for decades and decades. We just lost sight of them because of the advent of CGI.
I didn’t know exactly how it was gonna look on camera, and it just blew me away. I was repulsed, and I was there. I should have been anticipating it, but I thought, “This is way worse than whatever was in my head.” I was just having the time of my life. It was just hilarious when we called cut and they said, “bring in the pigs, bring in the chairs for the pigs,” so the pigs got their bowls. It encapsulated so many moments in this movie: you’re working hard, you’re physically in it. We were just shoving this stuff in our faces, just going crazy.
What do you think about what Circe says, that the men can’t change their nature? Do you think people have the ability to fight their nature?
She’s speaking to a certain type of masculinity that simply will not be told that there might be something wrong with the way they’re carrying themselves.
As a person who has had and continues to have incredibly strong and brilliant women in my life, it’s always been clear to me that men have a responsibility to check ourselves and to listen to criticism without feeling that it’s some sort of affront. I thought it was brilliant writing from Chris, but the way Samantha delivered that—I’ve had so many of my friends say to me that she encapsulated what we live with every day, that so many men don’t understand.
We have to try and fight the patriarchy. If you’re gonna say the XYZ misogyny is some sort of natural occurrence, then there’s plenty of men who have done something about it, so I think we should all sort of take a second and think about it. Evolution is changing nature.
“Pray for forgiveness.” Eurylochus chants this on the seas after the crew leaves the island of the sun god’s cattle. Do you think the men deserved mercy or forgiveness from the gods, keeping in mind how they took Troy?
When I was screaming that, I couldn’t even hear myself. I can’t believe that made it into the sound mix, ‘cause I didn't ADR anything. I felt that it was sort of a Hail Mary, to mix beliefs here. Eurylochus knows what they’ve done, the risk they’ve taken, and lo and behold, it’s coming to pass. I think he can hear the bells, and he’s saying, “This is all we can do, and it’s up to the gods if we deserve it, but this is all we can do. This is all we’re left with.”
There’s talk of a righteous victory in the film. Do you think there are any righteous victories when it comes to war? Are there winners or is everyone a loser?
Pretty much everyone’s a loser. There’s stories about Indian soldiers who fought in the First and Second World Wars under the British Empire. A lot of them didn’t have a choice; they were colonial subjects, they were sent off to war. We can look back on those wars and feel more than we can in recent times that this was just. We had to fight this sort of rising fascism; we did the right thing. Even though it was successful, lives were lost in every way—so everyone loses. Whatever happens, if you start opening those doors to that sort of thing, everyone loses.
That Troy flashback when Odysseus is revealing what’s been going on with him, it gave me chills. The three times I saw it in the cinema, every time that sequence started, I got chills. It turns the whole thing on its head, this idea that we have of righteous victory, of war. We talk about it as a natural thing; it needn’t be. It's an equal and opposite force of retaliation. We always have a choice to do the better thing, and I thought it was really articulated in the film.
When Odysseus is talking to Penelope near the end of the film, he says, “To burn the walls of Troy was to burn the world entire.” Is there anything we can do now while hypothetical Troy burns, or are we just barbarians at the gates?
I think you have to keep fighting a good fight. Whatever your beliefs, there’s people out there who are trying to take things by force or do things that are detrimental to a society, a population, whatever the case may be. It’s very easy to feel that you are powerless. However you choose to say something about the state of the world to make people think, whether it’s direct or whether it’s indirect in the way that I think—especially with his last two films, Chris has really sort of laid out an idea of the consequence of war, of the consequence of opening doors that you can’t shut.
No one should ever sort of be cowed, and you have to keep pushing back and being heard as best as you can.
I loved you in the show The Franchise, so I’m excited for your big return to television in another leading role as one of the agents in Ryan Coogler’s X-Files reboot, alongside your Station Eleven costar Danielle Deadwyler. The pilot reportedly wrapped last month. I know you don’t want to be in Disney jail, but is there anything you can tell us or you’re excited about?
I’m excited to find out if we’ve got a series or not. First and foremost, I’m sort of waiting by the phone. I had a great experience. From the moment I met Ryan, I thought, “We're gonna get on,” and we did. I learned so much from him, and I learned so much from working closely with Danielle. We didn’t really work together on Station Eleven. It felt like a real gift, the fact that I was sort of setting out on a journey that could, I hope, go on for a while with someone that I already know. I’m only gonna get to know her better as time goes on.
We’ve got Autumn Durald Arkapaw, recent Academy Award winner, who shot the pilot. It looks stunning. It’s what Ryan has always done: he sets a high bar. I think it’s gonna be really special. Hopefully special enough to get us a series.
You’re in the biggest movie of the summer, so we’re all watching you. But what have you been watching this summer?
I’ve just started Widow’s Bay, I’m four episodes in. Hiro [Murai] texted me when he saw The Odyssey and I said, “Thanks, and thanks for absolutely terrifying me shitless with that clown in episode two.” What was that?!
Hiro’s so good, that balance he has between comedy and genuine horror, it’s brilliant. One minute, thinking, “That's really creepy, and terrifying.” Next minute, I’m laughing. He’s a special guy. Matthew Rhys is great, Stephen Root, always amazing. I’m really enjoying it.
Did Nolan or Coogler ask you to watch anything in preparation for your roles in their respective projects? If not, are there any films you pulled from when shaping the character or preparing for the role?
I didn’t actually pull from anything for The Odyssey, because I thought this is gonna be a thing unto itself. Knowing Chris’s influences of Lawrence of Arabia and that he admires Gladiator, there’s a sense of the tone to some degree. With X-Files, it was a case of not wanting to model myself after anything because we’re playing completely new characters.
I went back to the beginning of the show and started watching it to get a sense, because I never really properly watched it. I watched the odd episode here and there when I grew up. But I was too young to watch the series when it started. I’m still making my way through it.
Earlier this year, you made a cameo in Riz Ahmed’s Bait, which explores the representation of South Asian actors in Hollywood. When your casting in The Odyssey was announced, you received some backlash, and there was a bit of it with the X-Files as well. Did that affect or color this role for you?
The backlash doesn’t, really. It’s funny with The Odyssey and some of the, dare I say, quieter backlash with X-Files. Even saying it out loud is so silly. It’s very easy to quickly dismiss the complete nonsense of it. But it doesn’t really get into my head; it adds fuel to the fire for me.
Anyone can be underestimated for a long time based on many factors. But for me, a lot of it definitely had to do with being who I am, the way I look. It’s always been, “That’s fine, but I’ll work hard and then you’ll see.”
There are viral clips going around of people’s experiences viewing The Odyssey in 4DX. The seats are being shaken, water and scents are being sprayed.
One of my friends went to see it and I was like, “Did you survive? Like, are you okay?”
Do you recommend watching the movie like that? You experienced it in 4DX.
I did it, so I’m good. I don’t need to. I was on the boat. I got wet. I got drenched. I said to my friend, “Saima, do you… are you sure?” She was like, “I love this.”
I’m wondering what the scene inside of the Trojan horse smells like for theatre-goers.
Jon Bernthal at one point literally says something about piss and shit, so who knows?
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