On a recent edition of NPR’s “Wild Card” with Rachel Martin, Kumail Nanjiani spoke about his experience shooting the critically acclaimed Marvel film “Eternals,” stating that it altered his approach to work, for which he is “very grateful.” He declared, “I’m very proud of my performance in it. And it’s rare to say, but I actually wouldn’t change anything about how I am in that movie.”
Together with Kit Harrington, Richard Madden, and Angelina Jolie, he portrayed the superhero Kingo in the 2021 fantasy flick. Despite having a stellar ensemble, the movie had a poor box office debut and received a mediocre response from viewers.
Nanjiani continued to discuss his main lessons learned from the event on the podcast, emphasizing the significance of distinguishing “my experience of something versus the result of something.”
“Most times if I’m acting in something, I do not get to decide how good it’s gonna be,” he elaborated. “I do not get to choose how the audience is going to receive it. I do not get to choose how much money it’s going to make. I do not get to choose what the reviewers are going to think of it. What I do get to choose is whether or not I learned from it, you know? So to me, that’s been a thing that I have to remind myself over and over and over and over – is that a failure is not a failure. It truly is an opportunity to learn… What I can control is learning from every job and taking a joyful approach to every job.”
In the past, Nanjiani has been candid about his sentiments regarding the project, sharing on veteran stand-up comedian Mike Birbiglia’s “Working It Out” podcast how the unfavorable reception of “Eternals” prompted him to seek therapy. “I signed on for six movies,” said Nanjiani. “They make you sign up for all this stuff… and then none of that happened.”
