Why Kumail Nanjiani Said Yes to ‘Chippendales’ Role Nearly 10 Years After Turning It Down

Jenelle Riley
·7 min read
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Kumail Nanjiani was just Emmy nominated for outstanding lead actor in a limited or anthology series or movie for his searing dramatic performance in the Hulu limited series “Welcome to Chippendales.” But the news came at a peculiar time, as the Emmy nods were announced the day before SAG-AFTRA went on strike, joining WGA members on the picket line.

“I was extremely surprised,” Nanjiani told Variety that morning, during those last moments before SAG-AFTRA members were no longer able to talk to press about their projects. “And also thrilled because my co-stars Juliette Lewis and Annaleigh Ashford and Murray Bartlett were recognized. And our costume designers. So, it’s been this pretty good morning  … on the eve of a historic strike.”

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Nanjiani spoke to the Variety Awards Circuit podcast about his nomination, what convinced him to do “Welcome to Chippendales” and his sheer ubiquity on the screen. But first, on the Awards Circuit Roundtable, we talk about artisans events, Taylor Swift and the Emmys comedy race. Listen below!

Though Nanjiani is best-known for his comedic work on the HBO series “Silicon Valley” and films like “The Big Sick” and “The Eternals,” his performance in “Chippendales” marks a radical departure in many ways. For one, Nanjiani is playing a real person — Somen “Steve” Banerjee, the Indian immigrant who founded Chippendale’s, the first club to feature all male strippers. Initially, Banerjee was living out the American Dream, a wild success story credited to hard work and ingenuity. But as time went on, Banerjee became increasingly paranoid about the competition both outside (he attempted to burn down at least three other clubs) and inside (his jealousy of business associate Nick De Noia led to Banerjee hiring a hitman to kill De Noia.)

Nanjiani delivers a performance akin to Shakespearean tragedy as he charts the digression of the furious and self-sabotaging Banerjee. This isn’t the first time the actor has ventured into dramatic territory; he was previously nominated for an Emmy in 2019 for his guest turn on Jordan Peele’s “The Twilight Zone” reboot, portraying an untalented comedian who finds success at a great personal cost. (Though he’s a much better comic than that character, Nanjiani says he could still draw on sense memory for the scenes of bombing; he says his worst set got booed at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.)

“That was the first time that I did something that I think had zero comedy to it,” Nanjiani says. “And I really, really liked doing that. After that, I was like, ‘Oh, this is something I want to explore. I want to try and do more of the dramatic stuff, because it’s exciting to me in a different way than comedy is.”

“Chippendales” had come to him once before, back in 2013, and the actor had passed on it. So, what changed his mind?

“I think I felt more comfortable with myself to be able to go to sort of darker places,” he says. Nanjiani adds that when he was starting his career, he wanted to do parts that were in his wheelhouse and demonstrated his comedy chops. “Now, I think my priorities for what I want out of a job have changed. I really, really want to take a job that’s, like, 10 percent outside my grasp. I want to take a job where I’m like, ‘I don’t quite exactly know how I’m going to tackle this. I know it’s going to be challenging, but I also know I’m going to learn a lot about this craft [and] also a lot about myself.’ I think what really changed is what I want out of work is very different from what I wanted out of work back then.”

Banerjee is also a pivot for Nanjiani, who has mostly been cast as likable characters. Even when his character on “Silicon Valley” could be morally questionable (“Let Blaine Die”), the actor brought an inherent charm to the role. But Banerjee is a villainous protagonist — petty, greedy and, even though he himself is an immigrant, racist. This comes out in scenes in which he sidelines a Black Chippendales dancer, Otis (Quentin Plair). It’s a racial dynamic rarely seen on screen; the oppressed becoming the oppressor.

“It’s obviously a very real thing,” Nanjiani notes. “White people aren’t the only people who can do this stuff.” He points out that Banerjee had a very specific image of the American Dream: “He’s changed his first name. He wears suits. He really wants to be American, and to him, I think that the very specific version of American that he wants to be is white. So, he’s copying how he sees the society around him behaving. His version of success is Hugh Hefner — and his version of success doesn’t really have room for Black people, unfortunately.”

Still, Nanjiani doesn’t play him as a typical bad guy, but as a complex, troubled man trying to play by society’s rules.

“I had to find a way to justify everything he does. Obviously, he does some very, very bad, unforgiveable things, but I always wanted to know why he was doing them,” says Nanjiani. “Because he is a product of his surroundings; he didn’t show up evil.”

While he hesitates to use the word “sympathetic,” Nanjiani can recognize the tragedy in Banerjee’s story. “For me, the job of arcing out the whole series was finding all the different forks in the road where he had a choice, and he could go the right way or the wrong way. And he chose the wrong way every single time.”

This is clearly evident in Banerjee’s rivalry with De Noia, whom Banerjee deeply resented even though he helped make Chippendales a success. Played by dual Emmy nominee Bartlett, De Noia has seemingly led a charmed life, where things seem to come easy to him. Banerjee’s jealousy is unreasonable, yet entirely relatable.

“Oh my God, I feel like I’ve had a Murray Bartlett/Nick every single day of my life,” says Nanjiani. “I’m like, ‘How can you just do that? It takes me much more work to be half as good as you at it!’”

That tension does not extend to real life, as Nanjiani calls his co-star “truly one of the best human beings I’ve ever met in my life.” In fact, Bartlett had phoned him earlier that morning right as Nanjiani’s nomination was announced.

Things all come to a head for Banerjee in the show’s final episode, “Switzerland,” with the entrepreneur exiled in the titular country. Five years after the murder of De Noia, he has become a bitter, paranoid shell of his former self as the FBI closes in on him. It’s a brutal episode to watch and includes a roughly 15-page scene set in a hotel room, where Banerjee unravels in front of his associate Ray Colon (Robin de Jesús), the man who helped coordinate the murder.

Though challenging, Nanjiani says he was actually excited to do the scene. “There are a lot of peaks and valleys and movements and emotions in the scene,” he says. “And that was really, really fun to do.”

He does admit that he was exhausted after six months of shooting, but found it helped the scene, as Banerjee is discussing all the good times and people he’s lost.

“I actually felt really sad that I wouldn’t be able to work with these people again, at least not for a long time,” he recalls. “So, when I’m talking about missing the club and stuff, all these emotions — I didn’t have to do any prep. It all sort of happened naturally, because I was going to miss everyone involved with the show. I use my real exhaustion and my real emotions that I had over having to say goodbye to this absolutely wonderful group of people.”

This interview was conducted before SAG-AFTRA went on strike July 14. 

Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, produced by Michael Schneider, is your one-stop listen for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each week “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives; discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines; and much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts. New episodes post weekly.

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