Aussie actor Joel Edgerton was recently in Nepal as an ambassador of Australia’s The Fred Hollows Foundation, a partner of Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology. Edgerton, who stars in the current US Box Office #1 movie Zero Dark Thirty, arrived here on January 7.

The Hollywood star was at an eye camp jointly organised by both the organisations in Devighat, Nuwakot  to support a campaign to not let people suffer from unnecessary blindness. There, he met and attended the eye patients. More than 250 patients had their eyes operated in Devighat eye camp by a 14-member team of experts led by Dr Sanduk Ruit.

Speaking to national daily The Himalayan Times, Edgerton said he was here to encourage the eye camp organisers, adding that he was overjoyed to have been able to extend a helping hand to the visiting eye patients. Acting is his passion, but social service is something which gives him immense satisfaction. This was his second visit to Nepal.

Edgerton, who was accompanied by his girlfriend, also shared his other social work activities — building a child hospital in Sydney, his home city, constructing shelters for Haiti quake victims and lending his support in rescue works when the natural disaster struck the Caribbean nation in 2010.

The 39-year-old actor said he has strong personal ties with the Fred Hollows Foundation which has been working tirelessly to restore people’s eyesight for years.

Edgerton is best known for his roles in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith in which he portrays a young Owen Lars, uncle to Luke Skywalker. His other movies include Animal Kingdom (2010), The Thing (2011), Warrior (2011), and The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012).

Edgerton plays a US Navy SEAL in Oscar winning director Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty and stars as Tom Buchanan in Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby.