For years, Kumail Nanjiani has been chiefly known for his comedic work, such as playing Dinesh Chugtai in the HBO series Silicon Valley. That said, while Nanjiani isn’t hanging up his comedy hat anytime soon, he’s also been grabbing a lot of attention lately for his role in the upcoming Marvel movie The Eternals, particularly because of how ripped he got to play his character, Kingo Suren.
Well, recently Kumail Nanjiani put his incredible physique to fun use by bringing iconic characters to life during a photoshoot, which you can check out over at Men's Health.
Kumail Nanjiani recently sat down with Men’s Health to talk about his astounding physical transformation, and during this time, he also decided to channel Hugh Jackman, Bruce Willis and Tom Cruise by posing as X-Men member Wolverine, Die Hard’s John McClane and Top Gun’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in backgrounds that look just like where we’d find each character in their respective movies. As an added bonus, there’s also a shot of Nanjiani jumping rope as part of his work routine... no wait, that's him channeling Patrick Bateman from American Psycho.
Following the initial reports of his casting last April, it was officially confirmed at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con that Kumail Nanjiani would be part of The Eternals’ cast, with filming beginning immediately afterwards. However, it wasn’t until December that Nanjiani shared looks at his jacked body, and the internet went wild, to the point that he was featured on Pornhub (which in turn led to the website giving him a 10-year premium membership).
But it wasn’t just working out that resulted in Kumail Nanjiani’s body looking like this. The actor also went through a diet so intense that until this past January, he hadn’t eaten any pizza or donuts in over a year, resorting to sugar snap peas as his snack of choice. Overall, Nanjiani “drank the Kool-Aid,” as his trainer on The Eternals put it. While Nanjiani plans to keep working out, he’s not focused on maintaining this specific physique, noting that the muscles are “decorative.”
Looking at Kumail Nanjiani playing all these movie characters, one can’t help but wonder if there might come a day where he’s tapped to star in reboots of popular action movies. After all, if his performance in The Eternals is well-received, Nanjiani might find himself being looked at for more blockbuster roles.
For now though, we’re still eight months away from seeing him in The Eternals. Like the other Eternals, Kumail Nanjiani’s Kingo is a long-lived, cosmic-powered being, and while he’s supposed to be keeping a low profile on Earth, he’s instead become a Bollywood star, resulting in Nanjiani getting to take part in a dance number.
Kumail Nanjiani’s cast mates on The Eternals include Richard Madden, Salma Hayek, Brian Tyree Henry, Anglina Jolie, Gemma Chan, Lia McHugh, Done Lee, Barry Keoghan and Kit Harington. Matthew and Ryan Firpo wrote the script, and Chloe Zhao directed.
The Eternals opens in theaters on November 6, but before that, you can see Kumail Nanjiani in The Lovebirds, which comes out on April 3. Look through our 2020 release schedule to learn what other movies are on the way this year.
