Marvel’s ‘Eternals’ bad reviews pushed Kumail Nanjiani to start counseling

Jordan Hoffman
·3 min read
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The 2021 Marvel Cinematic Universe film “Eternals,” directed by Oscar-winner Chloé Zhao, was among the first in that series to meet predominantly negative reviews. It currently ranks at 47% on Rotten Tomatoes and 52 on Metacritic. And one of its stars, “Big Sick” co-writer and Oscar nominee Kumail Nanjiani, took that criticism to heart.

“The reviews were bad, and I was too aware of it,” he said on a recent episode of the podcast “Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum.” 

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“I was reading every review and checking too much,” Nanjiani added, confessing that when the press tour for the film concluded, he ended up on a therapist’s couch. 

“It was really, really hard because Marvel thought that movie was going to be really, really well-reviewed,” he explained. “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.”

He defended the project a bit, saying “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.” But the whole experience led Nanjiani to start counseling, he explained. 

“It was really hard, and that was when I thought it was unfair to me and unfair to Emily [V. Gordon, Nanjiani’s ‘Big Sick’ co-writer and his wife], and I can’t approach my work this way anymore,” Nanjiani said. “Some sh-t has to change, so I started counseling. I still talk to my therapist about that.”

Nanjiani rather famously bulked up for his “Eternals” role of Kingo, a superhuman being that can harness cosmic energies (who later becomes a Bollywood actor). In previous interviews, Nanjiani has expressed that conversations about his physique during this time have made him uncomfortable. 

“Eternals” also co-starred Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Barry Keoghan, Brian Tyree Henry, Kit Harrington, Salma Hayek, and Angelina Jolie. 

Nanjiani was last seen in a small but extremely funny role in the Shudder horror-comedy “Destroy All Neighbors,” and heard in the voice cast of the animated film “Migration.” He’s also set as a co-star of the new “Ghostbusters” film out later this year.

Zhao, whose “Nomadland” won the Best Picture Oscar in addition to Best Director, as well as a Best Actress prize for Frances McDormand (her second), is currently working on “Hamnet,” about the short life of Hamnet Shakespeare, and how it inspired the play “Hamlet.”. Paul Mescal will star as William Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley as his wife, Anne Hathaway. No disrespect to Buckley, who is always marvelous, but they really had an opportunity to do a fun bit of casting there. 

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