Editor's note: This article contains minor spoilers for Eternals.
Actor Harish Patel confessed in an interview with Amar Ujala that he wasn’t familiar with Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek’s work before he was cast as Karun in Marvel’s Eternals. In the epic superhero film, Karun is introduced as the human valet of the godlike Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani). He tags along with the Eternals on their high-stakes adventure, and humorously films Kingo’s exploits for a documentary.
Kingo has been living an alternate life as a Bollywood superstar, as he and the other Eternals assimilate into humanity after helping shape its evolution over millennia. Patel is a veteran character actor who has starred in several Hindi films. In recent years, he has been based in the West, and has appeared in a bunch of television shows such as Coronation Street and Mindy Kaling's Four Weddings and a Funeral reimagining.
In fact, it was his British agency that put him in touch with Marvel, he said. Patel sent across a self-shot tape from Mumbai and was subsequently summoned to the U.K. for an audition.
Was he overwhelmed by the presence of stars such as Jolie and Hayek? He said:
“To tell you the truth, I’d never seen their films. I’d maybe seen one of Angelina’s movies, but I didn’t watch all of it; I can’t sit for long periods. I’d only heard of them. I was called in for a table read immediately after my audition, and all these stars were there, except Angelina. They were all there. It felt like I was a part of the family from day one.”
He said that Nanjiani was present during his audition, and put him at ease after he confessed that his English was slightly weak. Previously, Patel told Pinkvilla that he had no clue who the “beautiful woman” who tapped him on the shoulder after his audition and welcomed him to the project was. It was only later that he realized she was none other than Hayek. During the table read that followed, he had “no idea” that the man sitting next to him was the very “popular” Game of Thrones star Richard Madden.
Eternals is directed by Oscar-winner Chloé Zhao and also features Lia McHugh, Bryan Tyree Henry, Barry Keoghan, Lauren Ridloff, and Don Lee. Eternals has earned some of the most divisive reviews of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Collider’s own Matt Goldberg describing it as “a far more interesting film trapped in the body of a superhero movie.” Patel, however, thanked critics for praising his performance as the comic-relief character.
Eternals is currently playing in theaters.