Himesh Patel admits the chance to team up with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lily James was a “huge pull” in his starring in Potsy Ponciroli’s latest comedy thriller.
He and James are getting rather good at playing a couple (the pair previously headlined Danny Boyle‘s Yesterday). In Greedy People, releasing in theaters on Friday in the U.S., they feature as new-to-town expectant parents alongside a stellar lineup of Gordon-Levitt, Uzo Aduba, Tim Blake Nelson, Traci Lords, Joey Lauren Adams, Simon Rex and Jim Gaffigan.
Will, played by Patel, begins work as a cop on a sleepy island town, but is soon forced to navigate an accidental murder and the discovery of a million dollars as a series of bad decisions are made by all involved.
Gordon-Levitt is Will’s obnoxious partner, Terry, who — avoiding spoilers — does little to make things any less stressful for his colleague on the first day of the job. The comedic chemistry and riffing between the two are brilliant to watch as camaraderie swiftly descends into chaos; a rapport clearly established off-camera.
“I think there’s a lot of people who, when they get to that level of being a film star, they can be very generous but it’s all part of a bigger ego show,” Patel tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Whereas with [Gordon-Levitt], he just genuinely is. He’s very collaborative. He’s aware of of everything that’s going on. He understands the whole set-up of everything, and he’s committed to his role. And he’s got such a specific role in this – I’d not seen him do anything like this before, so it was really exciting to be working with someone that you admire, but then seeing him do something completely different.”
The two nailed the southern drawl required for their parts on the fictional island of Providence (originally the film’s title). But Patel, a Brit, had a little help from his American native co-star: “There were a couple of moments with the accent as well, where [Gordon-Levitt] was like, ‘I don’t think we’d say it like this. We’d say it like that,’” Patel continued. “I really appreciated that, to have someone looking out for you and wanting you to do your best work.”
Himesh Patel said Joseph Gordon-Levitt was “genuinely generous” on set.
Courtesy of Lionsgate
It was also an opportunity to reunite with James after their time on set with Boyle for the musical comedy Yesterday (2019), which asked the question: What if The Beatles never existed? “I think we bounce off each other quite well,” Patel says of his and James’ relationship. “It’s just a funny thing when you get on with someone and just trust the other person. There’s this sort of thing going on, a dynamic that neither of us have ever intellectualized, but it worked once and I think it’s worked twice. I joked with her that we obviously have to do a third [film], to cap out the trilogy. And it’ll either be soon or it’ll be when we’re both in our 80s.”
Greedy People, penned by Michael Vukadinovich, shows what indie films are capable of with a good script and talented cast. Is it an antidote, or at least an example of an antidote, to the notion that successful films require a big budget? “I’d say it’s maybe an example, but we’ll see how it does when it comes out,” Patel says. “The response to the trailer has been really heartening. I think people want to see movies like this. They want movies like this out there. That’s never not been the case, I think it’s just the access to it.”
Patel says, for example, he’s still unsure of a U.K. release date for the film. “I’m really glad it’s getting a release in the U.S… I think [a lot of these films] are getting made, but have just been going straight to streaming.” (His team later confirmed a Sep. 23 release date in the U.K.)
In an ideal world, for the actor, it would get a global release. “It’s always good for them to get as much of a theatrical window as possible, that’s how they can compete in that space,” he continues, citing projects like Greedy People. “The blockbusters seem to become the all-encompassing faces of cinemas, because they’re the only ones that can really hold on to space in theaters. Hopefully, things are changing. It ebbs and flows, but I like to be positive about it.”
It’s a film that leaves you not quite sure who to blame — ultimately, everyone’s flaws contribute to the final product. But what drew Patel to the script as much as anything was “it really felt reminiscent to me of a lot of the Coen brothers‘ work, and how wonderful to have Tim Blake Nelson [a long-time collaborator of the Coen brothers’, such as in O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs] really put that button on it. There’s quite a few of their films, it’s that thing where you get to the end and you’re like, ‘What? What?’”
In the pipeline for Patel is a myriad of exciting projects. HBO comedy The Franchise from Veep creator Armando Iannucci and director Sam Mendes depicts the issues faced by a production crew making a superhero film, in which Patel stars as Daniel, and premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival is The Assessment, an upcoming sci-fi thriller from Fleur Fortuné with Elizabeth Olson, Alicia Vikander, and Minnie Driver.
It’s variation that Patel values most in his job, but laying out a road map for the next few years of his career isn’t as easy as it seems, he says. “I think it’s especially hard to do that as an actor of color,” he tells THR, “to kind of go, ‘Okay, this is what I want to do, and here’s the steps I’m going to take to get there.’ I don’t think it’s quite as simple.”
With more to come from the star with an already impressive résumé, the future looks bright, and he’s open to it all. “I just want to make sure that whatever I do next is very different to what I’ve done before, and whether that’s with a very well-established writer and director, or it’s with someone very new, I’m easy as long as I feel that there’s a vision there and I really like what’s on the page.”
Greedy People, a Limelight, Boies Schiller Entertainment, and Hideout Pictures production, premieres in U.S. theaters on Aug. 23 and in the U.K. on Sep. 23.
Lily Ford
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