Surreal coincidences heighten ‘Station Eleven’ for Himesh Patel

As soon as Himesh Patel was presented with the role of Jeevan Chaudhary in “Station Eleven,” the Indian-British actor instinctually felt he understood him. Patel, previously best known for Danny Boyle’s “Yesterday,” connected with Jeevan’s sense of early-30s aimlessness and his relationship with his family, which endures as a global pandemic arrives.

“The idea of family and your place within the family expectations was familiar,” Patel says, speaking from a pub in North London. “I’ve got an older sister and we get on really well. We’re very close. But inevitably, whether it’s being done to you or whether you’re doing it to yourself, you’re comparing yourself to your siblings. My sister has got a PhD in biochemistry [and] she works for the university Cambridge. The bar was set high. Thankfully, my parents were just as supportive of my endeavors as they were hers. But there were feelings of insecurity that I could immediately access.”

Jeevan was an important character in Emily St. John Mandel’s original 2014 novel, but in the HBO Max 10-episode adaptation, he is even more essential to the narrative. The character’s arc spans years, from the beginning of the pandemic until he is reunited with Kirsten Raymonde (Mackenzie Davis), whom he had taken in as an 8-year-old girl (Matilda Lawler), two decades later. On the surface it’s a story of survival, but on a deeper level, the series is about human connection and creating art even after all seems lost. For Patel, Jeevan and his story felt like a gift.

“I loved the role,” he says. “I loved playing him because I had something to get my teeth stuck into, and a character who I could take from one place to a whole other place. It’s an arc that I’ve never really had to do before and I haven’t yet had anything like that since. But for me, also, to have a [South Asian] character is something that doesn’t come along that often still. So to have the privilege of being the guy who gets to do that was amazing.”

Himesh Patel

(Dominic Whisson / For The Times)

Patel initially auditioned for Jeevan in September 2019, around the time he was filming Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet.” It wasn’t until after getting the part that the actor read the original novel, which differs greatly from the series. At the time, there were only a few episodes of the show written.

After shooting Episodes 1 and 3 in Chicago in early 2020, the actor remembers asking creator Patrick Somerville if there was a plan for Jeevan’s character.

“The series begins as the book does and then veers away,” Patel says. “I asked Patrick, ‘Where do we go with him?’ And I think Patrick had ideas. But I think based off what he saw me do in Episode 1— and then with the time he ended up having [due to the real-world pandemic] to percolate the ideas and write the rest of the show — is what we then ended up doing. Which was a gift. The stuff I got to do with the character, the places we got to go to with him — it’s made me a better actor. Because Patrick believed in me to the point where he pushed me. He wrote stuff knowing that I could do it before I knew I could do it.”

There were several months during 2020 when the cast members weren’t certain if more episodes of “Station Eleven” would even be made. Patel was struck by the surreal coincidence of the circumstances, having just filmed a fictional episode of television that so closely mirrored reality. But by the fall of 2020, HBO gave the series the green light to resume production, this time with Toronto filling in for Chicago. Patel, his partner and their then-6-week-old baby relocated to Canada for several months in early 2021.

Having recently experienced childbirth was another personal connection Patel had with Jeevan, who finds himself in a makeshift birthing center in Episode 9, where he learns to deliver babies.

“It was a crazy coincidence, again,” Patel recalls. “I had been a birth partner and we had our baby at home, so it was the same vibe. To really understand how profound this creation of life is [is something] we can all understand on some level, but to have understood it as a father, to have been there when it happens, helped me get what I needed to get to for those moments.”

For Patel, who has since appeared as himself in the TV series “Ten Percent” and reunited with his “Yesterday” co-star Lily James for the upcoming film “Providence,” “Station Eleven” felt like a stepping stone to more roles that embrace his heritage. He’s also interested in writing and producing as a way to expand representation.

“Whether that’s a role like this one that’s written specifically for a brown actor to play, or whether it’s a role that they’re casting to anyone, ultimately I am really keen to see more specific brown characters onscreen,” he says. “It’s one thing playing a character who was written white but they’re happy to cast more diverse. That’s great, I’m happy to do that. I’m just keen to see more specific characters and stories, and I want to be a part of that.

“Maybe something like an Emmy nomination can open some doors. But I’m also just out there looking for really good characters to play.”

Himesh Patel

(Dominic Whisson / For The Times)