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full-on experience making that piece,” he says, “because it was a bit of an
experiment. You just had to kind of jump.”

One of the jobs that has stuck with Patel the most is one he didn’t get. It was
soon after the 2012 Olympics in London, when he was rejected for a
television role on the basis of his race. “I remember being really disappointed

because we were all feeling celebratory about the opening ceremony, and that
depiction of young lovers from different backgrounds that celebrated what
Britain looks like,” he says. “And then to be knocked back from an audition...
What I heard was, effectively, ‘They don’t think it will work to cast a Black
mixed-race woman with a south Asian man.’ Which is just bizarre to say out
loud. My agent was furious. I remembered being quite baffled.”

How does he feel about it now? “I’d like to think that that decision wouldn’t
be arrived at now and the way it was conveyed would be... ,” he begins, then
sighs, shaking his head. “The tricky thing is, what am I trying to say? Do I
wish they had veiled their reasons for not casting me and been less brazen?

Probably not, because I don’t think that’s better. At the time, I felt like it was
out of my hands, which it was, but also that it was normal. If there’s one
thing I’ve learned over the last decade, it’s that there’s so much competition
in this industry and when you’re an actor trying to get work, sometimes when
stuff like that happens you just accept it.”

Will-they-won’t-they? Matafeo and Patel in Starstruck
(BBC/Avalon UK/Mark Johnson)