Watch the glorious moment Kumail Nanjiani eats junk for the first time since getting ripped

Nick Romano

Kumail Nanjiani is surprised pizza still tastes really great. He forgot what it feels like to bite into that heavenly mix of melted cheese, tomato sauce, pepperoni, and hot dough since he started getting ripped for his role in Marvel’s The Eternals. And he has Jimmy Kimmel to thank for breaking his diet. No, not breaking. Obliterating.

After hearing Nanjiani’s tale about suffering for one’s art — i.e. his workout and diet routine to get into superhero shape — Kimmel showered the actor with a carousel of cakes and pies. Then he had Guillermo bring out pizza, so Nanjiani could truly grub.

It such a pure moment of joy. “This is for me?! For me, Kumail?! Are you serious?!” the interviewee exclaimed.

“I have not had pizza or a donut in over a year,” Nanjiani explained earlier on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “I’ve had no refined sugar in a year. I’ve had almost no carbs at all. You know what my snack has been?! I tell people, ‘Actually, it’s not that bad.’ You know what my snack has been?! I get a bag of sugar snap peas and I eat them. That’s what I’ve been doing.”

Nanjiani takes the role of Kingo in The Eternals, which also features Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Richard Madden, Gemma Chan, and Kit Harington. The Oscar-nominated writer behind The Big Sick shared his own “thirsty shirtless” photo in December to commemorate his transformation, and he told Kimmel it “exploded” everywhere.

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I never thought I’d be one of those people who would post a thirsty shirtless, but I’ve worked way too hard for way too long so here we are. You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. I found out a year ago I was going to be in Marvel’s Eternals and decided I wanted to transform how I looked. I would not have been able to do this if I didn’t have a full year with the best trainers and nutritionists paid for by the biggest studio in the world. I’m glad I look like this, but I also understand why I never did before. It would have been impossible without these resources and time. So big thanks to @grantrobertsfit who started working with me at the beginning of the year and made me understand true physical pain for months and months. Then, once we started shooting, a massive thanks to @davidhigginslondon and his team (@ellispartridge, @thebeardypt, @tomcheesemanfitness) for training me almost every day and making me strong, limber and injury free. I can almost touch my toes now. (And thank you for forcing me to do cheat meals David.) Matthews Street Catering for their delicious and healthy meals. And finally, the biggest thanks goes to @emilyvgordon for putting up with me complaining and talking about only working out and dieting for the last year. I promise I’ll be interesting again some day. #thirstyshirtless (Photo by @markupson.) (edit: I left off one very important person: @lancecallahan who trained me for 6 years and helped me build the foundation I could use to do this. Thank you!)

A post shared by @ kumailn on Dec 16, 2019 at 8:10am PST

“A lot of people would do two side-by-side pictures and be like, ‘Can you believe this turned into this?’ And it’s just a picture of me from a year and a half ago looking how I’ve looked my entire life,” Nanjiani said. “They were like, ‘Can you believe this garbage-pooping sea monster turned into this?’ Was I leaving a trail of slime behind me? I was normal looking.”

Now, he can binge. He earned it.

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