Nanjiani became famous for his role in HBO’s Silicon Valley and The Big Sick, which is why his physical transformation for Marvel Studios’ Eternals shocked many. Still, he wants to continue expanding his range. For that to happen, Nanjiani urged Hollywood to rethink its current stance on diversity, calling studio policies “weird,” as he believes it closes the door to people like him playing bad guys.
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During an interview with Esquire, Nanjiani discussed this and many other topics. Nanjiani called out Hollywood’s good intentions because he’s been told that, despite wanting to play more antagonist roles, “that’s going to be hard because people don’t want to cast non-white people as bad guys.” Simply put, the actor believes that way of thinking can be “just as limiting as anything else,” citing fellow MCU actor Sebastian Stan as someone who gets to play a hero “and then he’ll play a psychopath” in Fresh.
Nanjiani was cast in the Hulu series Welcome to Chippendales to play disgraced strip club founder Somen Banerjee, a villainous figure, and one that the actor believes, if the show wasn’t based on a true story, would have probably been cast as a white person. During the same interview, Nanjiani also expressed nostalgia for “grown-up movies that have a decent budget, decent movie stars in the theatres,” as opposed to streaming. He pondered that if The Big Sick or Greta Gerwig’s acclaimed Lady Bird had been released in 2020, those films would have been released directly to streaming services.
As a star with MCU credits to his name, Nanjiani also chimed in on the recent discussion about the artistic merits of Marvel films, which have been questioned by the likes of Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, expressing both his love for their works and disagreement with their opinions. Nevertheless, the actor does admit that if Scorsese and Tarantino have not “earned the right to have an opinion on movies, then none of us should have an opinion on movies.” Funnily enough, Nanjiani’s first superhero role in Eternals came in Marvel Studios’ first movie under an auteur director like Chloe Zhao.
Recently, Nanjiani has been asked about the possibility of Eternals 2 happening. While he’s admitted he hasn’t received any calls, the actor is more than open to returning as Kingo. After all, Eternals was one of the worst-received MCU films in Phase Four, so it’s currently a mystery whether Marvel Studios will decide to make a sequel part of its developing pipeline.
Eternals is available on Disney Plus.
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Source: Esquire
