Back in December, actor-comedian Kumail Nanjiani broke the internet when he posted a picture of his newly-chiseled body on Instagram. The picture showed the culmination of months of preparation for his role in Marvel Studios’ upcoming “Eternals” and, once again, proved that Marvel Studios probably has the best fitness bootcamp on the planet. But muscles aren’t all that’s required to be a successful superhero on the big screen. And in the case of Nanjiani, he had to look elsewhere for inspiration to help complete his transformation for “Eternals.”
According to a new interview with Men’s Health, Kumail Nanjiani not only talks about the workout routine that got him in shape for “Eternals” (probably way more intense than you are guessing), but he also talks about his film inspiration for how he approached the role of Kingo. The actor admits that he turned to “Die Hard” and Bruce Willis to see how he should portray the arrogant, cosmic-powered god-like being that is hiding amongst humans disguised as a Bollywood star.
“That movie’s life-or-death, and ‘Eternals’ is life-or-death, too,” Nanjiani Said. “I was like, ‘How can a character crack wise but still have tension, and not make it feel like you’re making fun of the whole thing?’”
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Interestingly, behind-the-scenes, there are parallels between Nanjiani’s role in “Eternals” and Willis’ role in “Die Hard.” At the time of production on their respective films, both actors were attempting to shed the “funny guy” label that has followed them and embrace a new “action star” identity.
For Willis, that was making people believe he could be a cop against a building full of terrorists when audiences really only knew him as the wise-cracking guy on “Moonlighting.” Nanjiani is best known as the wise-cracking comic relief on “Silicon Valley” and his Oscar-nominated film “The Big Sick.” Now, he’s turning himself into Marvel’s newest superhero icon. Hopefully, at least.
“Eternals” is set to hit theaters on November 6.
