Page 77 - SHARP Winter 2022
P. 77

 KUMAIL NANJIANI SWEARS HE’S THE same guy. Just bigger. “All people have known of me from the last year and a half is that I put on muscle,” says the newly jacked comedian and actor from his home in Los Angeles. “Nothing I’ve done has come out except for that. So it’s interesting to see people who will be like, ‘Oh my God, he’s really changed.
He’s not the same guy. He’s really changed!’ Even though they’ve seen nothing with me.”
Best known for his breakout role as the computer programmer Dinesh Chugtai on the HBO sitcom Silicon Valley, and for writing (with his wife, Emily V. Gordon) and starring in the oddball romantic comedy The Big Sick, Nanjiani made a stable career out of playing characters who were nerdy and sweet but sort of soft. His 2013 stand-up album, which was literally called Beta Male, abounded with jokes about video games, dislodging a porno from a VCR, and being afraid of spooky noises in the attic. Now, Nanjiani cuts an altogether different profile. Physically, at least.
In preparation for his role in The Eternals, the latest entry into Marvel Studios’ ever-expanding “cinematic universe,” Nanjiani — who was nicknamed “chicken shoulders” as a kid growing up in Pakistan and co-hosted a podcast with his wife called The Indoor Kids — set about remaking himself. He’s gone from a scrawny kid to a sort-of-pudgy adult man to a boxy, square-jawed beefcake at ease among the mountains of muscle that line modern superhero cinema.
It’s an impressive transformation. But beyond all the hard work and boring meal-planning, Nanjiani’s new body tells a whole sto- ry — an epic tale of one chicken-shouldered kid’s scramble to the hallowed halls of jockdom, and the cultural ascent of nerdery itself.
•••
At the time, Iron Man wasn’t likely to be a first-round draft pick for anyone putting together an all-star superhero team. The character didn’t have the cultural resonance of Batman or Superman — or even Marvel-branded heroes like Spider-man or the Incredible Hulk. To a lot of people, Iron Man was a Black Sabbath song. Or a Ghostface Killah album. But anchored by a memorable, quippy performance by Robert Downey Jr. and moved along by some fleet, fun direction courtesy of Jon Favreau, the film turned out to
be a hit. And the Marvel formula was minted.
The company didn’t need to tap into a relatively small fan base of
dedicated, ultra-nerdy readers of superhero comics. It could, effectively, create those fans. A decade-plus later, as Marvel Studios pictures dominate the global box office, the studio has made nerds of us all.
IT’S SOMETIMES HARD TO REMEMBER — OR EVEN conceive of — but when Marvel kicked off the modern su- perhero movie revival with 2008’s Iron Man, it was seen as a bit of a gamble.
WINTER 2022 77























































































   75   76   77   78   79