Kumail Nanjiani in the 2021 movie ‘Eternals’.Photo:Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty; Sophie Mutevelian/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Marvel Studios/Courtesy Everett Collection
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty; Sophie Mutevelian/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Marvel Studios/Courtesy Everett Collection
Kumail Nanjianiis opening up about how negative reactions to 2021’sEternalsaffected him.
While Nanjiani shared that he remains proud ofEternals, he said he struggled while the studio sent him and his costars on a lengthy press tour as the film received middling to negative reviews from critics. Only 47 percent of 412 critic reviews onRotten Tomatoesapproved of the film, a figure thatmarked a low point for Marvel filmsat the time of its November 2021 release.
“The reviews were bad, and I was too aware of it,” he said. “I was reading every review and checking too much. This thing had become too much in my head - this was also right after the pandemic, so we’re coming out after this crazy thing and I’m like, ‘Okay, this is going to be the coming out party, I’ve worked so hard for this.’ "
InEternals, Nanjiani played Kingo, a member of the titular immortal group tasked with protecting humans and Earth from their ancient rivals, the Deviants. The movie also starredGemma Chan,Richard Madden, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry,Barry Keoghan,Kit Harington,Salma HayekandAngelina Jolie.
Kumail Nanjiani in ‘Eternals’.Sophie Mutevelian/Marvel Studios
Nanjiani said he feels that negative reactions toEternalsdid not entirely have “to do with the actual quality of the movie,” but even so, he recognized he was not reacting well to the movie’s failure to connect with audiences.
“It was really really hard, and that was when I was like, ‘This is unfair to me, it’s unfair to[my wife] Emily. I can’t approach my work this way anymore. Some s— has got to change,’ " he recalled.
“So very intentionally, I did start counseling. I still talk to my therapist about that. Emily says that I do have trauma from it,” Nanjiani added on the podcast. “Actually, Emily and I just got dinner with somebody else from that movie and we were like, ‘Man, that was tough, wasn’t it?’ and he’s like ‘Yeah, that was really tough,’ and I think we all went through something similar.”
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Kumail Nanjiani in 2021’s ‘Eternals’.Marvel Studios
Despite receiving negative-to-middling reviews,Eternalsstill succeeded at the box office and proved the11th highest-grossing movie of 2021worldwide; it ranked sixth among all films released that year at the domestic box office. Even so, Marvel Studios has continued tostruggle with critical reactionsand has seenworsening box office performancesin the two years sinceEternalsreleased.
source: people.com
