Kumail Nanjiani played Kingo in Eternals, who had the power to create cosmic energy projectiles and dance a Bollywood jig. After the 2021 Marvel film’s negative reviews deteriorated Nanjiani’s mental health, he decided to seek help from a therapist.
The Silicon Valley star prepared himself for Eternals by getting into shape and training for the film’s Bollywood sequence. On the podcast Inside of You With Michael Rosenbaum, Kumail Nanjiani said his mental health suffered when Eternals got negative reviews.
“I was too aware of it. I was reading every review. I was checking too much because this thing had become too much in my head.”
Rotten Tomatoes scores with Marvel movies tend to do well, as high as 96% and as low as 62%. Then came Eternals as the first Marvel movie to get generally negative reviews, receiving a Rotten 47%.
“It was really, really hard because Marvel thought that movie was going to be really, really well reviewed, so they lifted the embargo early and put it in some fancy movie festivals, and they sent us on a big global tour promoting the movie right as the embargo lifted,” said Nanjimi.
Nanjiani continued to talk about the negative effect the bad reviews had on him and how he treated it.
“I think there was some weird soup in the atmosphere for why that movie got slammed so much, and I think not much of it has to do with the actual quality of the movie,” said the stand-up comedian. “It was really, really hard, and that was when I thought it was unfair to me and unfair to [my wife] Emily. I can’t approach my work this way anymore. Some shit has to change. And so very intentionally, I started counseling. I still talk to my therapist about that.”
