The whole Eternals press circuit sent Kumail Nanjiani to counseling
Nanjiani said that his wife, Emily V. Gordon, thinks he was traumatized by the experience of promoting the Marvel film
Aux News Eternals
Look. Eternals wasn’t good. You know it, The A.V. Club knows it (we gave it a C+), director Chloé Zhao knows it, and Kumail Nanjiani certainly knows it. “The reviews were bad, and I was too aware of it,” the actor said of the film, in which he played an immortal being named Kingo, during an appearance on the “Inside of You With Michael Rosenbaum” podcast (via Variety). “I was reading every review and checking too much.”
Initially, the negative feedback was a surprise to both Nanjiani and the rest of the team. “It was really, really hard because Marvel thought that movie was going to be really, really well reviewed, so they lifted the embargo early and put it in some fancy movie festivals and they sent us on a big global tour to promote the movie right as the embargo lifted,” the actor continued.
In reality, while the film did okay at the box office, the critics at those fancy movie festivals didn’t take kindly to the overstuffed plot and CGI stunts. At a mere 47%, the film spent a time as the lowest-rated MCU property to ever grace Rotten Tomatoes, before Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania snatched away that unhappy honor in 2o23.
If you recall, this was also the movie that Nanjiani got absolutely ripped for, a process he said not only drastically altered his relationship with food but also invited a level of unwanted scrutiny on his body that he had never previously experienced. (“It felt reductive, it felt naked, it felt vulnerable. And it made it so that the discussion of my body exists in the public sphere.”) On top of all that, the press tour also happened in 2021 when the world was still crawling out of peak pandemic isolation. Everything just felt very “heightened,” in the actor’s words.
“This thing had become too much in my head… I’m like, ‘OK, this is going to be the coming out party, I’ve worked so hard for this,’” he said. “It was really, really hard, and that was when I was like, ‘This is unfair to me, [and] it’s unfair to [my wife] Emily. I can’t approach my work this way anymore. Some shit has got to change.’ So very intentionally, I did start counseling.”
While it sounds like Nanjiani handled all of this in a really healthy way (how many of us can say the same for our own mental health in 2021?), he also revealed that some of the pain is still lingering; he still talks to his therapist about it. “Emily says that I do have trauma from it,” he said. “We actually just got dinner with somebody else from that movie and we were like, ‘That was tough, wasn’t it?’ and he’s like ‘Yeah, that was really tough,’ and I think we all went through something similar.”
Our best advice? Try your hardest not to look at the comments. It never ends well. In the meantime, Nanjiani has four upcoming credits that will hopefully fare better with critics: Ella McCay (a comedy from James L. Brooks co-starring Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Woody Harrelson, and Ayo Edebiri), A Guy Walks Into A Bar (alongside Sam Rockwell), Thread: An Insidious Tale (a spinoff of the Insidious franchise), and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Fingers crossed these press tours lead to positive conversations in therapy this time.
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From hearing him on podcasts, including his own, Kumail is clearly a huge fan of comics and nerd culture; you could tell he was excited to get to be a part of the magic. It sucks so much that, even before we’d seen a frame of the movie, it was apparent he was getting fed into a machine that’d chew him up.
It wasn’t apparent to me! Maybe I’m just naive or something but I’m generally happy for people when they get cast in big movies.
I recommend checking out the article above and the source interview.
I read the article above and the source article. I’m not sure what you mean when you say “even before we’d seen a frame of the movie, it was apparent he was getting fed into a machine that’d chew him up.” Can you elaborate?Because I tend to agree with Bad Kuchi Kopi. In general, I think it’s probably a positive thing for people when they cast in a huge superhero movie that’s part of a big franchise. Maybe the best evidence for that is that, well, famous people with lots of options keep doing seeking to do it. That’s not to diminish how devastating it must be to make something you think people will really love, and instead have millions of people react negatively. But you seem to be saying that these movies represent a “machine” that chews people up, and I think that’s a difficult argument to defend.
For what it’s worth, Kingo was the best thing about Eternals. He’s also the only part of that movie which has been referenced outside the film (albeit in passing during Ms. Marvel on Disney+)…..the giant-turned-to-stone Celestial emerging from the Earth, decidedly less so.
She-Hulk episode 2. It’s not much, but it’s kinda sorta something…
Check out the linked articles (and the linked articles within them) like this one, as well as (especially) their comments sections: https://www.avclub.com/kumail-nanjiani-opens-up-about-getting-very-jacked-1847823754https://www.avclub.com/eternals-star-kumail-nanjiani-got-jacked-as-all-hell-a-1840465508He was under massive scrutiny for changing his physique for the movie. It’s pretty well-known that even if you’re in good shape when you’re cast in a superhero movie, you gotta get into even better shape; for an extreme example of this look at JK Simmons getting jacked to play Commissioner Gordon. Furthermore, there are rumors (corroborated by sources in Joanna Robinson’s recent book) that within the Marvel stable you’re even encouraged to use growth hormones to aid that. In the interview (and recent podcast appearances) he’s mentioned he had body issues before being cast, thought getting buff would improve his self-image, but it only did the opposite. You can see from the fervor he was getting it from all sides; he’d post a picture of himself on instagram and people would comment to tell him he didn’t look healthy. And, as Isaid, this was before people had any exposure to the movie he was doing this in preparation for. So that’s what I mean: these projects are time-consuming, emotional, rigorous experiences and you’re under a lot of public and media scrutiny. You’re locked into a contract which can pull you away from other work, and you’re obligated to participate in the promotion machine. It doesn’t sound fun; this article and interview corroborate as much.
LOL. It sounds like being an entitled actor… I was going to build the tiniest violin for the guy but would up making a nice little tamborine I’m going to rattle in his honor. I hope the man survives.Maybe we should start a GoFundMe?
The news coming out at the time was that his getting jacked to play Kingo was entirely his own decision and that Zhao actually didn’t want him too, since she wanted the Eternals to look like normal people and not spandex heroes. Like, you’ll note that Barry Keoghan and Brian Tyree Henry didn’t get ripped, hell even Ma Dong Seok just looked beefy in a bear way and not in a “I’m dehydrating myself for this” way, and he was playing a strong guy! Like I’m still in full support of his mental wellness and all, but it’s weird to blame Marvel and their rumored lust for steroids on behalf of a guy that chose to do this shit to himself. He walked in the direction of these rakes.
Thank you for illustrating how crappy people’s responses were at the time.
If you say so. I mean I would be thrilled to be wrong. Was there ever a definitive answer on if he was pressured by the studio to go through a big old training regimen or not? Either some suit or suits at Marvel made him do it, or his mental state and fear of not showing up correct for his big comic book debut made him do it. Either way is sad, but one is heinous and potentially even criminal, especially if we’re tossing stuff terms like “human growth hormone” around. You got some info I don’t, or is it just like a shame if anyone doesn’t arbitrarily say “’Twas Marvel bad” when anything bad happens near Marvel?
Didn’t Simmons specifically say that him being jacked had nothing to do with playing Gordon and that he’s just a fitness buff anyway?
I can’t speak to the interview in question BUT I did think he looked pretty pantherine in Whiplash. I don’t find it hard to believe he works out.
At the time I remember him saying he was always in shape people just didn’t notice – it spawned from him seeing what he looked like during Oz and swearing to lose weight I think
I did. He didn’t get chewed up… He survived getting paid millions of dollars to get ripped and act in a movie, as scary as all that sounds. He’s a grown man. He doesn’t need your coddling.
should have been a miniseries. The story set design and frankly the VFX esp the speed scenes were top notch.
Now this I agree with. This was around the time all the services were looking for the next GoT. This was the Disney+ one
They really need to consider making the MCU X-Men a Disney plus show. 2 hours doesn’t do the entire team justice.
I agree. There are only so many new characters you can introduce at once if you need the audience to care about all of them. Eternals tried to do a lot of characters over a time span of thousands of years, and a standard movie was not able to do it justice. I remember liking it but I would have a hard time telling you much of what happened in it.
Yeah, my biggest problem with the movie was it just felt long. I liked it, but if it had been broken down into 3 to 6 one-hour episodes I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more.
also invited a level of unwanted scrutiny on his body that he had never previously experienced.I see how it could get overwhelming, but the whole point of getting ripped for a superhero movie is to have people notice how ripped you are.
Yes, though I think it’s OK for Nanjiani to have his own reaction to that, even if his reaction isn’t the usual one. And I’m sure that, even for actors who enjoy the fact that millions of people think they look hot, there’s an element of awkwardness to be openly gazed at that way.
I heard an interview with him on NPR and part of the discomfort was cultural. He was raised Muslim and modesty is an important component of that religion. To be the subject of the public gaze in a way contradicted his basic programming.
He actually started getting buff years before The Eternals. He talked about it on Harmontown, and you can see a difference between seasons of Silicon Valley. I always got the sense that he might have some underlying body dysmorphia (takes one to know one.)
Sure, but I can understand someone underestimating what that level of scrutiny actually feels like. Especially someone like Kumail Nanjiani: a man in his 40’s whose career was mostly comedy prior to this point.He was probably used to being evaluated for his performance or writing, but suddenly people are hyper-fixating on his abs and speculating about his health and generally shouting critique into an echo chamber of body dysmorphic voices, something no other 45-year-old comedian could imagine.You’d think getting super ripped would be all upside, but it actually just opened the door for intense and pretty dehumanizing dissection by pop culture. I imagine it sucks pretty bad.
His body was the focus of most of the interviews at that time.
Any time an actor dramatically alters their body, it’s more important in the press than the film. Needing counseling because you’re “too ripped” is stupid.
Not just his abs and his health, but tons of comments even here speculating as to whether he had plastic surgery or was using steroids. It was a whole thing that went way beyond the “he looks pretty good” that he was probably expecting.
I feel you are right.That said, a few years ago I dropped some weight. Just ate better and worked out more. Nothing fancy. I didn’t get ripped like KN.But I still felt uncomfortable when people commented on it, even though they felt they were paying me a compliment. I would mostly just say “thanks” when someone mentioned it in what they thought was a positive or encouraging way, but it still felt slightly off to realize that anyone was noticing how I looked at all.So, even though I think you’re right — the point of getting ripped to playa superhero is to get people to notice — it doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel weird when it sinks in that strangers are commenting on your physique.
??? You’re trying to victimize yourself for people complimenting you on the shape you’re in??? Jesus Christ. It SHOULDN’T feel weird when people are complimenting your physique. You should question where you learned such awful and unhealthy behavior… Victimizing yourself friggin’ sucks.
Yeah, I remember my aunt complimenting me on how thin I looked when I was 16 or 17, and all I remember thinking at the time was “ah, so you’ve always considered me a little butterball but now that I’m (temporarily) thinner-looking you’re comfortable talking about my body.” Just…don’t talk about people’s weight. Say they look good/handsome/pretty/whatever when the appropriate occasion arises, sure, but specific things about their body? Nah. Leave it be.
Did it feel like, “hey I couldn’t call you fat but now I can say how not fat you are!”
Not at first but eventually yes it did.
“but the whole point of getting ripped for a superhero movie is to have people notice how ripped you are”I’m not sure that’s exactly true. I don’t think the whole point of Kumail Nanjiani getting ripped for a superhero movie was for people to notice how ripped Kumail Nanjiani was. It was for the character to have a particular appearance. He was looking at it like putting on a costume. He probably wasn’t thinking of it in terms of people looking at him, Kumail, but as people looking at the character, and he wasn’t prepared for it to become a discussion about him personally.
Yeah but the problem is there is now more pressure to do that than there has been. Everyone in big action movies now has to look like they’re bound for WWE. (Not that women haven’t faced this kind of pressure even longer- I think it may be all but confirmed that the reason Carrie Fisher ended up having her heart attack was pressure to “slim down” for the new SW movies.)
as soon as the marvel movies lost their juice every actor who worked on one is rushing to shit all over it. very funny!
That reminds me, whatever happened to that fat Asian chick from the the Force AWOKEns movies? Did she quit acting after her “trauma?”
Sorry you’re fat and have to take it out on women who don’t know you exist.
I can’t argue that Eternals is a good movie. It’s just too sprawling and oddly structured. But it’s one of the few recent superhero movies I can see developing the cult that not good but weirdly ambitious movies develop.
Finally a cult I can say I’m a part of! :DOkay cult talk aside, I do genuinely like it a lot. It’s flawed and I’m past the point of trying to convince people it’s good (though I certainly think good, definitely not “worst MCU” by far) but I appreciate what it tries to do, think the performances are actually solid, and the writing is messy, makes me want to see more. And compared to the more recent MCU movies, it feels purposeful and cohesive.And that’s from someone who doesn’t really hate the recent MCU stuff. At the very least I think you could build some cool shit from an Eternals sequel
Also I think the biggest thing is I actually like Sersi as a character? Like 90% of people who hate it, and like 50% who like it, disagree with me. I don’t know I get that she’s an incredibly “normal” character but I don’t find her boring.
Yeah, I enjoyed it fine. We’re in end stage media consumption where if a film isn’t the most perfect example of the film genre it’s in, it must then be the worst trash. No, this is a stupid take, some movies are just fine and this is okay.
The way it’s hard to discuss online does remind me of trying to talk about the Last Jedi, another movie I liked but discussion goes into so many deeply entrenched ideas, that it’s really exhausting.Like I was on Reddit saw people talk about how the Aztec scene is poorly done since the Aztec’s were genocidal and it’s funny the Eternals feel bad for them. Like can I even argue that?Or that the Hiroshima scene was too on the nose. Is it supposed to be subtle? Humanity does a bad thing, character reacts. I’m not sure there’s much more. Again I don’t think these posters are wrong since I think it’s hard to say more than “it doesn’t work for them” like I say “it worked for me” for a thing I liked.My film discussion abilities are too poor to properly articulate why I like it sometimes or thoughtful responses to things above. And overall I end up feeling needlessly defensive about something that really doesn’t matter. But I do like discussing movies sometimes.
While I would always encourage people to develop their critical analysis skills, I also think sometimes you don’t have to be an academic to express a preference. I’m about as academic as they come as it concerns film and could give you a long rundown of why Citizen Kane is an amazing, historically important film. But I fucking hate it. It bores me shitless. Is that an artistically relevant opinion? Not particularly. But I definitely feel it!
That’s true. Sometimes you just like something or hate something and there’s not much you can add. Same for the people who hate Eternals.I think it just gets weird on the internet when it feels like you want to discuss something but it turns into a debate and can lose the plot fast. The funniest thing is I actually am a film studies drop out (I know anyone could do it, personal stuff) and I still find it hard to find my points sometimes. Especially hard with random people on the internet. If we’re talking about artistically interesting films we didn’t gel with, boy I didn’t like Melancholia.
The internet, and nerd culture especially, tends to fetishise the scientific method to the point where they start applying it to everything (ironically turning it into a sort of religious dogma). It’s one of the more frustrating aspects about dealing with nerddom, in that they will try to make things that don’t require, or aren’t suited to, the sorts of objective, quantitative, STEM-y analysis they find comforting, and then ignoring everything else. This can maximise shit that frankly should not fucking matter in a creative endeavour – film, books, visual art, whatever – while minimising the stuff that does, because they’re not comfortable with discussing it or are incapable of doing so (or bother).
I will say that I don’t particularly love the other end of that spectrum, though, where any kind of qualitative discussion of art (obviously I’m mostly talking about film/TV since that’s my area) gets boiled down to “art is subjective”. You can apply critical standards to your analysis. I recognize that standards change and that there will always be an element of subjectivity to analyzing art but I also think that gets used as an excuse to not support one’s opinions with an actual argument. You can enjoy something and say you enjoy it and you don’t have to justify it. But if you’re going to say that it’s “good art” and you don’t have a rationale, I find that also annoying. I don’t think anyone should have to defend a feeling. But they should defend a position.Tangentially related, I’m also generally annoyed by the seeming majority of pop culture commenters who think that just because film is a mass consumed and mass produced art it means they are experts on the subject. So you’ve seen movies throughout your life and that automatically means you understand the art and can speak intelligently to it? There are a lot of dipshits online who denigrate professional movie critics and while there are plenty of critics with whom I disagree I would never talk shit about them the way online idiots do.
Film discussion abilities will only get you so far. Like if someone didn’t like that a scene wasn’t subtle or that the Aztec scene was done “poorly,” for the reason you gave, it’s going to boil down to a matter of taste. What works for some people won’t work for others.Example: the infamous “Martha!” scene from Batman v Superman. My partner thought it was clever. I thought it was fine. To hear the Internet tell it, it’s one of the worst scenes in cinema in the past century. Film analysis skills help you recognize what things simply aren’t worth debating. No discussion is going to convince anyone that scene wasn’t dumb (or that it was dumb to someone who liked it). And that’s fine.
That’s true. I think I liked that most blockbuster movie discussion falls into a middle ground rather than polarization but I also get that its’ just the fact of differing tastes. Admittedly that’s me trying to find a comfortable niche than having to deal with actual film opinions maybeI just appreciate Eternals and in the grand scheme of things I think it’s a little sad the MCU won’t get to do some of the stuff it set out to do because of the reaction or even just because the reception of the movies after it.
Never apologize to the fucking AV Club for your tastes
I think it’s pretty good up until the end, which is just a huge letdown.
I do think it’s better than most “big cg third act” but I also get that its a lot and uneven. And you have to accept that the Celestial is somehow keeping the world together while destroying a lot. Which for me is fine. At least there’s sci fi magic, I feel like Ultron making a city fly would be even worse
I’m all for them bringing the weirdness but the big final fight being, well, a pretty boring scrap on a beach seemed to undercut that. I should probably give it another watch though.
I can see a beach being underwhelming. Incorporating the Celestial actively moving probably would’ve been fun but also a lot of CG floatyness. Even the beach has a little of that with the CG doubles.But I still really like some of the action beats at the end and the emotional bits work for me at the end. I also really like the score at the end. There’s some hilariously over the top guitar mixed with the Eternals theme.
I need to give it another shot. I probably was hindered by the fact that I’ve never given a shit about the Eternals in the comics, so I wasn’t going to be the target audience.But yeah, worst MCU flick that I’ve seen goes to Quantumania. Take a refreshing part of the MCU, remove the parts that made it refreshing, drain it of almost all character, add in a shit-ton of green screen “epic battle” shit, and you have Quantumania. Close second goes to Multiverse of Madness.
I’m not primarily a comics fan but I think the few people that like the Eternals probably hated it even more because it wasn’t Jack Kirby colorful and wild.But hearing some BTS stuff I get them going for grounded Kirby and that the scale and details of some of the production was what they took from Kirby. But I get it people really like Ragorok going buck wild with Kirby designs. I don’t hate Quantumania but it felt pretty run of the mill. Like it feels like a fun 80s sci fi adventure and not a lot more. And you’re right the Quantum realm takes away from a lot of “small thing big/big thing small” And not having the supporting cast. MoM also mixed on but I feel like I’m rambling.
I agree. I think it’s the one MCU movie, though, that could have benefited from being a Disney+ show instead. So much of the movie is just backstory and exposition that could have been better handled with a longer run-time.
The one thing I’d say against this is I actually really like the grander moments that feel like they could only be done given the blockbuster budget. Because I like the MCU Disney+ shows (Secret Invasion was the most disappointing MCU thing for me personally) but they restricted by budget and format sometimes. That being said I would LOVE a small scale series of each Eternal just get a short anthology somewhere in history. Like it doesn’t need to be flashy or powers focused (though it would be expensive to make sets for history) just them existing would be cool. Like Sersi likes humanity, show her with some non Eternal friends enjoying life but having her deal with them all dying as time moves on. Or even there’s a spin off comic with them dealing with Deviants and they’re actually cool mythological creatures. Not original I know but could be well done imo.
Why can’t really say I hated The Eternals but what I can say is this movie along with Quantumania are the two MCU movies that I have had no interest in ever watching again. Which says a lot because of the many MCU movies I can rewatch over and over or just jump in at any point if I just want to watch a certain scene. And it’s even sadder for Quantumania because I still think the original Ant-Man is a top five MCU movie. My fear was that they were going to go too big in scope with it when I saw the trailers and previews. And sure enough, they did.
I don’t have the habit of rewatching movies despite loving the MCU but I have rewatched Eternals. I’ll admit it’s part curiosity into seeing what I think works but I think it does benefit from…washing over you? Terrible way to phrase it but only thing I could think of. It’s definitely not and super fun romp and being two acts makes it not breezy at all. But I feel the same way with something like Dune. Which I’m not crazy, I’m not saying Eternals is better than Dune but similar slow burns. And Eternals is easier to digest in some ways. Quantumania did really try hard to be epic and it suffers from that.
I genuinely like Eternals as well, and I could be wrong but I think that the reviews were more the result of post-Endgame expectations than the actual quality of the film. That said, I can’t help but feel like it’s biggest flaw is that it spends all this time building up this grand, epic tale that really starts drilling down into the bigger cosmic stuff that the other movies gave us glimpses of… and it all culminates in what feels like a video game boss fight.
Yeah I can see how you would want to see a focus on the rest of the Celestials and everything and the last bit is on Earth. Which I do like but I get feeling underwhelmed about it. I do think that a lot of the reviews just view it as a disappointing experiment though audience response did reflect some post Endgame feeling.
Heck, I’d be fine about the final conflict being on Earth if it was someplace a bit more visually interesting and/or they’d broadened the scope of it. Like they’re clambering all over the Celestial hand and arm emerging from the ground, or have some ancient ruins with ties to their past, or if Kro got involved in any way other than as the random distraction he was left as following Ikaris’ heel turn.
True. Or maybe throw in Sprite’s illusion powers to have some cool environments. Watching the BTS content, I think it’s neat they wanted to use the real location they used at as much as possible, which is at odds with the giant alien god.I kind of like that Kro didn’t just help against Ikaris or something but he’s definitely added in a weird way.
It has a genuinely ambivalent center, whereas no other superhero, let alone MCU movie, does. Too much for one movie, though–to me it was like every 4-5 scenes would have room to breathe, and everything else was a rush–it feels like its missteps were really avoidable. If they hired Chloe Zhao for a movie focused on the Silver Surfer or something, instead of an overstuffed Eternals, maybe that combo of arthouse/spectacle they were dreaming of would’ve come to being.
I didn’t ultimately enjoy ‘Eternals’, but I do appreciate that it was trying something new and something a bit grander for the MCU. I think if anything, it maybe didn’t go weird enough. The Eternals should feel deeply otherworldly, but they just seemed like another group of superfolk.
weirdly ambitious movies
it does have a rather large sense of scale given its plot, but it plays out less like it’s ambitious and more like “this should’ve been set up way better”. Otherwise it crams a lot of plot into a 2 hour-ish film.not sure about cult status, though I guess “interesting failure” is a better status.
I honestly think Eternals would’ve been better as a Disney+ show with 9 or so 30~45 minute episodes. Give viewers enough time to actually feel for the characters outside of Sersi.
That’s my biggest issue with the film. Just imagine Avengers if that was the first movie you ever saw of those characters, and I think you’d have a similar reaction.
me neither. I’ve never seen it.
1) Support mental wellness!!2) I just cant with this dude anymore!
Before Eternals, Kumail was already known (at least among comedy fans) to be a hugely volatile guy who would get really upset with other people (usually other comics) comics in very public ways (like during live podcast tapings, etc.) with it only about 15% being a bit. He’s a guy whose always had trouble staying grounded and calm, so I can imagine with all the different things (body chemistry, pandemic, spotlight and expectations of a Marvel movie) going on, it was tough for him.
Yeah, he’s always struck me as the kind of dude who lashes out angrily when he’s hurt. I imagine he could have benefitted from therapy even before this triggering event.
But I sympathize. The thing that finally got me into therapy was equally petty and insignificant, but it was only the latest in a long, long line of similar events, and the fact that I had a strong reaction to something that petty and insignificant is why I finally sought out help. He wasn’t fine before the bad reviews, and the bad reviews helped him realize that.
I completely relate to what you are saying about something that seems petty or small potatoes that helps finally push you to get therapy. In my case, it was hearing stories about my sister’s soon to be mother in law. The stories gave me full on PTSD flashbacks to my childhood. I could no longer deny that I had serious issues from childhood that had to be dealt with.
I remember for a while he was doing an X-Files rewatchalong podcast (The X-files Files) that was pretty interesting. He was doing a lot of work on it (going back to early-90’s FidoNet message boards to see what fans were saying at the time, among other things), and then just shut it down in a fit of self-pity because of a few people saying mean things.
Google “Kumail cheating on his wife” and you’ll see why he’s still pretending to have a relationship with Emily Gordon while frequently cheating on her. If his career wasn’t legitimzed by a movie about their relationship (The Big Sick), then they would have split already.
He loves the attention for getting in shape, but he’s smart enough to understand that self-pity can weaponized in tandem. It’a sort of ultra-toxic humble brag.The reason why his transformation was so notable is because he clearly used some form of steroids, as well as jaw augmentation surgery. If he was open about it, I wouldn’t care at all. The lying is the part that pisses people off.
“before Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania snatched away that unhappy honor in 2o23.”“2o23″20232o23Did you write an “o” instead of a zero? Why?
N0b0dy kn0ws.
Try your hardest not to look at the comments.- The AV Club
Fuck all y’all. I enjoyed it.He got caught up in a machine, all right. The critical machine that can’t wait to turn its knives on anything MCU
I’m often reminded after I see a bad movie that just as much work went into it as went into a good movie. Usually the problem stems from a poorly concieved concept from the start. With Eternals, it’s not even that Marvel tried something different, it’s that they didn’t even learn from the whole Inhumans mess. It just needed to lean into its own Jack Kirby weirdness, but instead it was just a bunch of characters I still don’t know anything about that looked like actors I do know of.
Being a movie star is hard. I’d say more, but I have to get to my overnight shift at the gas station and hope I’ll be able to grab a nap in my car from 6-7 before I start at my other job.
Fuck off with this labor valuation bullshit.
I feel there’s a middle ground here between not completely denigrating the effort that goes into acting and filmmaking, but perhaps not overstating the impact of bad reviews with the word “trauma,” in a world full of significantly more debilitating and life changing examples of that.
But the definition of “trauma” isn’t “the most significantly debilitating and life-changing thing that can happen in the world.”
Fair point. I just don’t know where getting bad reviews unexpectedly would fit along the spectrum of what I consider to fit within the definition of trauma. I’m not sure it would be on there, but I appreciate that opinions are like arseholes and we all have one.
But that’s the good news! We don’t have to know where it fits along a spectrum! There’s no reason at all to try to rank one person’s trauma against another person’s. There’s no reason for triage here. Nothing’s gained from telling someone “okay but that’s not as bad as what’s happening over there.” Plus, you can never know how anything affects another person—trauma is informed not just by the present circumstances (which, let’s be fair here, it’s not just the negative reviews). It’s also informed by how the present circumstances interact with past damage to your emotional psyche and that informs how your brain receives an event. A person who was viciously attacked by a dog as a child my be traumatized by hearing a dog bark from behind a fence as an adult. It might sound stupid if she just said “I feel trauma from hearing that dog bark” if you don’t know what all came before, and you can never know what all came before for a person, so why try judging their perception of an event? “I’m sorry you’re experiencing that” is a perfectly suitable response.
It’s not just the denigration. It’s the idea that the physical and emotional toll that an acting job takes is somehow less valid than the physical and emotional toll that a physical labor or customer service job takes. And I think most actors would very much agree that their jobs are not as conventionally “challenging”. That’s fine. I’m fine with giving this sort of thing an eyebrow raise. But this Wet Grampy person is being unnecessarily vitriolic and pissy about it. In a way that is very much falling for the corporate trap of labor valuation infighting. The companies that necessitated the recent Hollywood strikes would LOVE it if people who worked two jobs spent all their free time shitting on actors.
No – the toll is the same. But the paycheck sure as shit isn’t.
I 100% agree with your nuanced take and yet, “Trauma: a deeply distressing or disturbing experience,” seems to basically say trauma defined by the feelings of those experiencing it. And I believe therapy is often meant to teach us NOT to be deeply distressed by our experiences?
No, fuck off with this “actor talks about how their mental health suffered during the pandemic” bullshit.Everyone’s mental health did.People lost their jobs and still haven’t recovered. People in his industry are still suffering from the hit from the pandemic followed by two strikes that shut down productions.So cry me a fucking river about how he really really thought the Eternals was going to be a hit after all the work he did on his abs with the trainer the studio paid for. And how hard it must’ve been for him to realize his shirt was off in those scenes and that people and the press would talk about those abs the studio paid for! How did this man survive having people discuss his body! Hollywood should be ashamed, treating men’s bodies like things to be discussed.So brave. I hope his bank account has recovered enough so he can pay for therapy. It’s expensive.
Everyone’s mental health did.Yes they did, so why does it not matter to you for some of those people?
Because it’s not a news story? It’s tone deaf for people who star in Marvel films to talk about how tough the pandemic was for them because the press talked about how ripped his abs were instead of how great his not-great film was. Next we’ll hear about how he had to use Albertson’s brand frozen fruit in his smoothies because Trader Joe’s had supply chain problems.Poor guy.Let me ask, did you feel bad for Ellen when she talked about how rough lockdown was on her as she walked around with a camera in her 15,000 square foot home? Did people get it wrong when they said that was tone deaf and she was lucky in comparison to the people watching her show?
“Next we’ll hear about how he had to use Albertson’s brand frozen fruit in his smoothies because Trader Joe’s had supply chain problems.”We won’t hear about that if we don’t frequent pop culture websites whose job it is to report on everything celebrities say. Just don’t click on the article. He’s not going to show up to your house and yell his feelings at you.
As someone highly medicated for anxiety and depression, yes – what sort of a person would I be if I didn’t?
Actually, on second thought you’re correct. I can’t fault him for having this experience. It’s sad he experienced it. But why report this drivel? Who the fuck cares, AV Club?
The only reason I can see to report this is in an effort to destigmatize seeking mental healthcare, but WOW has this story had the opposite effect.
“But why report this drivel? Who the fuck cares, AV Club?”Now you’re talking. Sadly it applies to 85% of AVClub reportage.
“Everyone’s mental health did.”Doesn’t “everyone” include actors? So why aren’t actors allowed to say that theirs did? No one said *only* actors’ mental health suffered.
Your bitterness and jealousy does not make you a better class warrior. It just exposes how much of a sucker you are for corporate interests that constantly position labor to infight.
Why should anyone give a shit about you if you can’t return the kindness? He wasn’t asking for your sympathy. He didn’t say it was harder than working at a gas station. By your logic we can tell you to shut the fuck up. You have a job???? Some people aren’t even that lucky.
“ but I have to get to my overnight shift at the gas station and hope I’ll be able to grab a nap in my car from 6-7 before I start at my other job”Well since for hundreds of millions of people on earth this would be a significant step up in their quality of life, I suppose you should be extremely thankful for that every day too. I’m sure you super thankful and feel very lucky every day about it just as your logic dictates you should.
I am deeply blessed. I just wish I was poised to make a million dollars next year for it.
nobody wants to work anymore
I always try to be sympathetic of mental health issues; as someone with depression, anxiety, and ADHD, I get that keeping your head together is a tough business. And seeking therapy is always to be encouraged, whatever the reason that gets you there.That said, I’m struggling with the idea of “trauma” stemming from a bad experience publicising a movie. A lowered mood, some self doubt, even some depression, sure. But trauma seems like a really strong word to be throwing around.
I think in general people are quicker to call something “trauma” – not saying rightly or wrongly; I’ve just noticed it being used a lot more. I think it’s great that we’re more open to talking about mental health, but I’m not convinced we’re collectively talking about it the right way.Having said all of that, I can’t speak for Kumail Nanjani, but I will say that I have never experienced anything remotely like what a press tour entails, much less an international press tour, but it seems stressful to me. I agree 100% that “trauma” seems like a strong word, but I don’t think I have the temperament to go all over the world in a fairly short amount of time to hype up a movie, much less one that’s getting panned. I can imagine how it would lead to a lot of self-doubt and depression if you just don’t have the right mindset for that.
He’s primarily referencing the blowback of the fans and critics trashing the movie (albeit not necessarily his performance in it). If I worked really hard and something and tried my best and thought I did an ok job by the end and then literally everyone on the internet said it was a piece of shit, it would be damaging to me as well.
Trauma wouldn’t be the word I’d use, but I can see how riding the roller coaster from “excitement about landing a franchise blockbuster” to “oh shit it’s getting SAVAGED” to “damn it, I have to now talk up this movie that people hate a half dozen times a day for a number of months” would suck all kinds of ass.Jarring, at least.
Yeah, I have no doubt it was a shitty time. I guess I just think certain words have specific meanings that I don’t like seeing watered down. “Gaslighting” is another one; it does not mean “having a different opinion on how something went down”.
Oh yeah, “gaslighting” kills me. The way it’s usually used, it’s like, “Nah, we already have a word for that. S’called ‘lying.’”
I suppose my question is; why did he have to get ripped? None of the other characters were. It wasn’t relevant to his character.
He had started bulking up before he was even cast. I think it’s just something he wanted to do.
It’s a little relevant to his character, who himself was a Bollywood action movie star in-universe. In fact, since at the time he was pretending to be the third famous Kingo, it would make sense to try and alter his physique so he could pass as a different guy than “his father” and “his grandfather”.
Did the Disney checks not clear or something?
Don’t roid yourself up and then be surprised when people notice.
Nah he can. You’re not the feelings police, you’re just a loser.
This. He did steroids and got huge and ripped for no discernible reason.
I contend that if The Eternals had not been a Marvel movie with all the “Marvel tropes” shoehorned in it would have been great. A movie about a family of amnesiac immortals having to deciding if they want to participate in the world or destroy it could have been really good
are you Eric The Actor?
it’s always funny when the word police come out.‘sir, sir, you’re not using the word trauma to my liking sir!’ it’s the exact same impulse that downtrodden white people get when they hear the term ‘white privilege’. ‘my life sucked so how can i have any privilege! shut up!’if someone says ‘hey that thing was traumatic to me’ and your response is ‘no it wasn’t’ you’re just being a dick. no, he wasn’t trapped in an abandoned hospital during a firefight but trauma is trauma is trauma to your brain.
I think it’s great that celebrities and the powerful have co-opted therapy languange to the extent that we’re expected to nod along when a comedian says it’s traumatic to be a movie star with a 12 pack.
He didn’t say that but nice to see how dismissive you are of mental health struggles when they’re coming from “the wrong people”.
That’s a good point. Sure, Kumail won’t see my post. But my neighbor down the street who’s dealing with PTSD from a Jimmy Kimmel interview might.
See, this is an interesting case. Because this interview seems to be saying his wife Emily called it “trauma” first. Before she became a comedy writer, Emily V Gordon was a licensed therapist and practised for 5 years. That was her job when she and Kumail met and married.
I need therapy after watching the Eternals so I guess its all fair
For what it’s worth, I thought Kumail as Kingo was one of the high points of an otherwise forgettable movie.
Agreed. He was the best part of the movie, and he’s also the character the MCU seems to be trying to keep alive: there were several references in Ms. Marvel, for example.
The Ms Marvel references might just be that he’s the only (AFAIK) other South Asian person of note in the entire MCU. Plus, if they reference Kingo as an actor, it’s like a sly thing, because we the audience know he’s a superhero but the characters don’t.That said, I certainly wouldn’t be against bringing him back in some capacity or another, but I feel like unless they do more stuff with the full Eternals roster (and that seems unlikely), we won’t see him again.
Maybe being an asshole is Nunjani’s biggest problem.
his face should’ve sent him to counseling.
You can’t have the planet nearly crack in half from the birth of an immortal being in an interconnected universe, and have ZERO follow-up about that. They made the stakes too high. They should have introduced the multiverse with Eternals and said explicitly it was an alternate Earth.
So go get a real job, pussy.
What an absolute worthless fucking pussy. He’s a millionaire. Movies bomb. This is hilarious.
Wow, someone ca’t read for shit, thatnks for another example of how retarded you are.
Not sure why you feel the need to take a shit on literally everything, but I guess that’s human garbage like you.
This would come across better if you weren’t such a fucking pussy about one person responding to your bullshit, crying and begging to be left alone.
Did it help you feel better about being a loser?