“Matthew teaches me so much about just… honestly, it sounds simple… but it’s just listening,” he shared. “Listening to one another, hearing other people’s thoughts, giving them space to feel comfortable, giving them a safe space to be open.”
He added: “I learn about not judging others so easily. I learn about respecting one another and just really trying to hear someone else out and hear their heart and not judge a book by its cover.”
Patel has shared that fans around the world send him messages thanking him for his portrayal of someone with autism because it gives them or their children someone they can relate to. Because of this, Patel has become a proud advocate for the autism community.
“It means a lot because a lot of times when you’re working in this industry, you’re just kind of doing job to job,” Patel said. “So, being an ambassador for the autism community has been so special for me because I never thought that I would be kind of the face of it through our show, and it’s something that I am very passionate about.”
While doing press in Brazil for Season 4, Patel told CNA that he encountered several people thanking him for his portrayal of Matthew and thanking him for providing a term for his behaviors because they previously did not have a word for autism.
“Several times when I was there, I was thanked for the show. They said, ‘Thank you for letting us know what this is. We didn’t know the word is autistic for this behavior,’” he recalled. “They didn’t know the word for it until they watched the show. So that is literally the impact that the show has had globally and it’s very moving to be a part of.”
The highly anticipated release of Season 4 comes after a delay due to legal issues between “The Chosen” and Angel Studios.
After episode one was released on June 2, the show’s app climbed to the No. 1 overall app in the Apple TV app store and to the No. 2 free app in the mobile iOS App Store.
The season premiere had an impressive 3.5 million streams following the release of Episode 1 and 4.2 million streams across households in the U.S. over the first three days. During the first 72 hours, the stream on YouTube and the app alone yielded more than 2.5 million total viewers.
CNA’s full interview with Patel can be viewed in full below.
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