Kumail Nanjiani’s physical transformation for Marvel’s “The Eternals” marked a critical moment for the actor.
Nanjiani, 44, went viral in December 2019 when he got jacked for his role in Marvel’s “The Eternals” — but it forced him to come to terms with his “weird relationship” with food and diet culture.
“It felt, for a brief moment, powerful. And then after that, it was by and large negative,” he told NPR. “In the beginning, having that reaction from people — I’d never had that reaction before and I think part of me had always wanted it — it felt powerful.”
But that “exciting” moment quickly took a turn.
“And then pretty quickly after that, 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,” he added.
Nanjiani admitted that people will come up to him on the street and mention something about his body — something he has a “complicated relationship” with.
The “Welcome to Chippendales” actor acknowledged that his comedy is centered around his beliefs on dieting because he was “taught” to be ashamed of his body ever since he was a kid and doesn’t like jokes about the body.
“Growing up, I was sort of raised to believe that the body was bad, that all of the body’s desires are bad, and that the soul wants goodness and the body wants bad. And so I guess my entire sense of humor is based around that dichotomy, too,” Nanjiani said.
He added that he had “limits” on how much he could eat growing up since he was raised being told not to overeat or waste food.
“I’ve always had a weird relationship with food. I’ve always had guilt or regret associated with it. I’ve always used food as a punishment or as a reward,” he conceded.
Nanjiani didn’t start thinking about coming to terms with his relationship with food until he finished filming “Eternals,” which brought those issues to the fore.
“I realized after that that I thought about food in a specific kind of way that I needed to explore and revisit,” he said.
He also confessed that his role as Steve — a strip-club owner whose relationship with body image differs from his employees — in “Chippendales” helped him do the work.
“I realized that I had been so rigid with food and used it in so many unhealthy ways and then forcing myself to eat unhealthy amounts of unhealthy food in a way got me out of that trap,” he said. “It’s still work to do, but it was freeing for months to just eat whatever I wanted, to eat as much as I wanted. It sort of freed me from some of the ways that I’ve been thinking about food.”
Nanjiani has also started to realize the double standard that women face when it comes to body issues.
“I think I understand like .00001% of what women have been going through their entire lives,” he confessed. “The big difference, of course, is that I don’t feel scared walking alone in a parking lot at night — you know, that power differential isn’t there.”
“I feel like sometimes with women, men catcalling them or something feels a little bit like taking ownership of something that’s not theirs. Men are sort of, in a way, taking power away from women in that moment. I don’t have that,” he continued. “When someone comments on my body in public, I don’t feel that there’s like a power differential there, really. However, being reduced to how you look, that’s obviously still a big part of it.”
Though Nanjiani wishes the pictures of his jacked body “didn’t occupy as much of [his] head space as it does,” he doesn’t regret releasing them.
“They did change my life,” he confessed.
If you or someone you love is struggling with an eating disorder, you can get help. Call the National Eating Disorder Association helpline at (800) 931-2237 or visit nationaleatingdisorders.org.