Funny man Kumail Nanjiani is known for his charm and winning personality, but it’s not always sunshine for the actor, and this is especially true when one of his biggest projects gets smashed to pieces by fans and critics.
That’s what happened with 2021’s Eternals, the Marvel Studios’ project helmed by Oscar winner Chloe Zhao. The film currently has a 47% score on Rotten Tomatoes. And, with the intense backlash from fans, Nanjiani revealed during an appearance on the Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast that the reaction really hurt him.
Nanjiani starts things off attempting to be positive but quickly dives into the chaotic press tour and negative reviews, stating: “I had the best time doing that movie, and I realized this is how work should feel like. However, when that movie came out, and the reviews weren’t good, that was very, very tough for me, and I realized that too much of how I’m evaluating what I want to do is based on the result of what other people think of it.”
“It was really, really hard because Marvel thought that movie was going to be really, really well reviewed, and so they lifted the embargo really early, and they also put it in some fancy movie festivals, and they sent us on a big global tour promoting the movie right as the embargo lifted.” he continued. “So we had to travel the world while they thought we’d be going on a wave of raves, and it wasn’t true. The reviews were really bad.”
This led Nanjiani to take some reflection, brought on by therapy caused by the situation. The actor feels like more was at play than just MCU fans judging the film.
“I think there was some weird soup in the atmosphere for why that movie got slammed so much, and I think not much of it has to do with the actual quality of the movie,” he states. “It was really hard, and that was when I thought it was unfair to me and unfair to [my wife] Emily, and I can’t approach my work this way anymore. Some shit has to change, so I started counseling. I still talk to my therapist about that.”
Check out the full interview below…
“Marvel Studios’ Eternals features an exciting new team of Super Heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years. Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, an unexpected tragedy forces them out of the shadows to reunite against mankind’s most ancient enemy, The Deviants.”
Eternals is directed by Chloe Zhao (The Rider) and features a cast that includes Angelina Jolie (Maleficent) as Thena, Richard Madden (Bodyguard) as Ikaris, Don Lee (Train to Busan) as Gilgamesh, Salma Hayek (The Hitman’s Bodyguard) as Ajak, Lauren Ridloff (The Walking Dead) as Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry (Child’s Play) as Phastos, Lia McHugh (American Woman) as Sprite, Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick) as Kingo, Kit Harington (Game of Thrones) as Dane Whitman, Gemma Chan (Captain Marvel) as Sersi and Barry Keoghan (Dunkirk) as Druig.
