“It went about as bad as you think it did,” laughs Vishal Patel, as he describes the conversation during which he told his parents, Dr. Dushyant and Amita Patel, that he was abandoning a career in medicine for acting. A Douglas native, 2005 Coffee High School honor graduate, and classically trained actor who now lives in Los Angeles, Vishal is enjoying the release of his latest film Footnotes, a rom-com set in 2020 during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“They were well within their right to freak out,” he continues. “And there were lots of conversations after that. But it was a very clear sense of purpose that I had.”
That sense of purpose led him to set aside his initial plans of a career in oncology and pursue acting full time. While at Coffee High, Vishal became involved in Brad Riner’s theater program. “I started with one-act play and caught the bug there. I realized this was where my passion was. I still thought I could make medicine work. But I felt acting was my calling,” he recalls.
After graduating from Coffee High, Vishal enrolled at Emory University as a pre-med student. After a couple of years, he decided to make a 180-degree turn and become an actor. “It was a wild change,” says Vishal. After graduating from Emory, he went to London to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. From there, he moved to Los Angeles. While in LA, Vishal has accumulated an impressive list of acting credits, including 80 for Brady, Grey’s Anatomy, Timeless, Miracle Workers, For the People, 24: Legacy, The Earth Will Not Swallow Us, The Misadventure, and his latest project, Footnotes. Later this year, he will play the role of a prosecutor in the new Matlock reboot starring Kathy Bates. He will appear in the second episode.
Footnotes is Vishal’s first foray into the world of romantic comedies and it’s his first credit in a leading role. The film depicts how people coped with the COVID lockdown – with a romance thrown in as well. There are three individuals at the center of the story so someone is walking away with a broken heart. “I’m happy to be a part of something that made me feel like an artist again. It let me flex a little creative muscle for the first time in a long time,” says Vishal.
At theindependentcritic.com, Richard Propes, who gives the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, writes “Footnotes is a low-budget indie that never really feels like a low-budget indie. It’s exactly the film that it needs to be and I’m not sure that a bigger budget would have resulted in a vastly different film. Oh sure, I suppose there are moments when you can see or hear slight differences. But, those moments add naturalism to a narrative that benefits from it. It helps, of course that both [Chris] Leary and [Sharayu] Mahale are incredibly good here and they possess a relaxed chemistry that makes everything here feel like it could truly unfold this way because they’re also different enough that we understand all the ‘what ifs’ in the film.” Footnotes was released June 7 of this year and is currently available for rental or purchase on Amazon Prime.
Vishal isn’t sure about what he will do next. Acting is always a little up in the air and there is some uncertainty always present in Hollywood. “I’m going to see how well Footnotes does streaming. The industry is in such a holding pattern right now. A lot remains to be seen. The future is always open. That’s the nature of being an actor. You put the work in and have faith in your purpose,” says Vishal.