“The story was about friendship as much as it’s about grief, and about working one’s way through grief,” says Himesh Patel, one of the stars of Dan Levy’s directorial debut “Good Grief.”
Set in the aftermath of a personal tragedy, the intimate film explores the shifting dynamics between three longtime best friends on the precipice of middle age. “It’s about how important friendship is in life, and how important it is to be honest in your friendships,” Patel says of the film, which recently debuted on Netflix. “There’s only so far you can take things until the lack of honesty might start to erode things and resentments build up. This is a story about people coming to terms with that and making the choice to eventually be honest with each other.”
Patel knows firsthand the power of friendship within the entertainment industry. In spring 2022, a few months before Patel was cast in Levy’s film, the two actors were introduced through a mutual friend: Mackenzie Davis. Patel costarred with Davis in the HBO series “Station Eleven,” a role that earned Patel his first Emmy nomination in 2022; Levy and Davis starred in 2020 rom-com “Happiest Season.”
The script for “Good Grief,” which Levy also wrote and stars in, landed in Patel’s inbox several months after that initial introduction. “I’d loved ‘Schitt’s Creek,’ and so I was excited to see how Dan would tackle a film,” Patel says.
He auditioned, met with Levy and Ruth Negga — who had already been cast — and the trio clicked for the task of portraying a friend group with deep history.
And what better way to quickly bond than an escape room? In the lead up to filming, the cast and a few crew members headed to the Crystal Maze escape room in London. “I can’t say that I contributed too much in comparison to others, but you know, we made it out. It was fun,” Patel says.
The London-based actor was recently in New York ahead of the film’s streaming release, which followed a short theatrical run at the end of 2023. While most viewers will end up watching the film at home, Patel was grateful for the experience of watching the project on a big screen in a packed theater.
“It’s a great thing to sit in a room full of people, especially for a film like this that’s so emotional and also very funny in parts,” he says. “There’s something about feeling that collective emotion.” He was particularly keen to take in the crowd’s reaction to a monologue delivered by Negga at the end of the film: “To avoid sadness is to avoid love.” “Gets me every time,” he says.
Patel’s gearing up to shoot “The Franchise” for HBO, after the pilot episode was ordered to series last summer during the writer and actor strikes. The satirical comedy centers around the crew working on a superhero film set.
“We found out in August that we were going to be going to series, which was really great — and a huge privilege as an actor during the strike to go, well, at least I know that whenever this thing ends, I do have work lined up,” says Patel, who also stars in the upcoming mystery-comedy film “Greedy People” with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lily James. “Otherwise I’ve been doing some writing with a friend of mine, working on a project, and other things that I’m trying to put together with other friends — and being a dad. I’ve got two kids,” he adds.
Despite the early career success, Patel is facing a familiar foe, particularly when it comes to his own writing: imposter syndrome.
“I’m learning a lot about it right now. It’s a complex thing, but it’s not a surprise to me that my big break in film was a movie all about imposter syndrome — except [my character] definitely was an imposter,” says Patel, referencing his breakout lead role in Danny Boyle’s 2019 musical film “Yesterday.”
“There are certain specific stories that I can’t wait for anyone to tell for me,” he adds. “So I’m trying to overcome imposter syndrome and various other psychological blocks to push forward. I’m very lucky to have some wonderful friends who encourage me along the way and stand by my side. Hopefully I can carry on down that path and see where it leads.”
