Actor Himesh Patel has been voicing Save The Children’s summer campaign film. Image: Save The Children
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You’ve probably seen Himesh Patel on a giant screen this summer. The Odyssey, in which he plays Eurylochus, right-hand man to Matt Damon’s Odysseus, has been the box office sensation of 2026, Christopher Nolan’s epic bringing huge audiences to cinemas across the world.
It’s fair to say he’s enjoying the film’s success.
“It’s been really thrilling,” the 35-year-old says. “When you work on a Christopher Nolan movie you know it’s going to be something special, but with the response to it, the box office numbers, it’s been pretty overwhelming. What a wonderful thing to be part of. I’m just soaking it all up.”
Patel has another starring role this summer – voicing Save The Children’s summer campaign film highlighting the impact of child poverty. As if to underline his commitment to the cause.
“Child poverty remains a huge issue,” he says. “And it’s only growing. As a father myself, I find it unbearable and unimaginable and, dare I say it, inexcusable in a country such as ours.
“Save the Children are perceived as being a charity who do a lot of work abroad, which they obviously do. But they also do a lot in our own borders. Four million children living in this country is an astronomically high number. We often don’t realise the depths of poverty that some people are living in.”
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
A new film, made by Save The Children and voiced by Patel, highlights how inequality plays out over the summer holidays. Whether it is meals missed or skipped, parents or carers stressed about money or working every available hour, the nagging anxiety that can accompany all of this.
“It can happen in small ways. If you are going through it, especially when it comes to kids, you don’t necessarily want to flag it. But there will be signs. Like if kids go back to school and they haven’t gone anywhere that summer,” says Patel.
“Save The Children put pressure on the government and work at a policy level. But they also offer support with food, schemes like their holiday camps, offering days out. It deeply saddens me to think there are kids going through the summer holidays – and beyond – without the privileges so many of us take for granted.”
Patel is determined to use his profile for good. His breakout role came in Yesterday, written by Richard Curtis and directed by Danny Boyle, as a struggling singer songwriter who wakes up from an accident in an alternative world in which he appears to be the only person who remember The Beatles, and is therefore feted as a genius for coming up with their songs.
This year also saw his role opposite Riz Ahmed in the superb satire Bait.
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
“He’s always had one eye on the comedy world, even with his early rap career it was very tongue-in-cheek, very satirical, then of course Four Lions – so it was nice to see him back in that space,” says Patel. “What I really loved was that it brought together so many wonderful British Asian actors and we all got to hang out together and work together.
“I remember being in the green room with Riz and Guz [Khan] and Nabhaan [Rizwan] and it was so lovely and I was thinking, how often is this going to happen?”
While audiences were awaiting The Odyssey, Patel was in the US filming a pilot for the reboot of The X Files – a role that could be lifechanging.
“That’s all we’ve been commissioned for right now. I assume the powers that be will make a decision soon, hopefully, then we either will make a series or we won’t,” he says, carefully hedging his bets.
“Fingers crossed. I had a wonderful time making it. Another moment where I’m just pinching myself, to be working with Ryan Coogler. Is it daunting? To some degree, but Danielle Deadwyler and myself are playing completely new characters. It’s not like we’re trying to fill the shoes of two absolute legends – so there was a sense of being able to take ownership.”
But it was in The Odyssey, and being part of a cinema renaissance that Patel has made the biggest splash.
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
“More tickets for the IMAX screenings went on sale the other day. I texted a couple of friends who were trying to get tickets and they logged in at the right time and were already 10,000th in the queue. It’s blowing my mind, the demand.
“I’ve been really heartened by recent trips to the cinema. It’s been really busy. Everyone’s been having a great time. It turns out, people like to sit in a dark room together and watch stories unfold and experience them en masse.”
Was the involvement with such an epic undertaking just as nourishing as watching it?
“Nourishing is a really great way of putting it,” he says. “Every day was a reminder that films can be made this way. Chris Nolan is spearheading the charge, it’s his vision, he leads the way, but every person who worked so hard on that movie, from the cast through every crew member did it because they believe in making films that way.
“There are probably easier ways to do it. But it’s not going to look as good. Everyone went through it because we knew there was a high chance we were going to come out with something special, something original, something visceral. And we have.”
