In a recent podcast, actor Kumail Nanjiani, who played the character of Kingo in the Marvel film “Eternals” directed by Chloé Zhao, says he was very affected by the criticism of the film. To the point of having started therapy.
It’s an understatement to say that Marvel was proud to have dispatched Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao to place her at the helm of The Eternals, supposed to open a new part of the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe thanks to the adventures of a group of superheroes still unknown to spectators; but certainly less comic book fans.
Released in 2021, in a still very uncertain context linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, the film significantly underperformed at the international Box Office, bringing in only a little over $400 million. On the scale of a Marvel Studio production, accustomed to churning out billions, this is a bitter failure.
It must also be said that abroad, the destiny of the film was quite upset, between censorship and retaliatory measures from the Beijing authorities, who did not appreciate that the director let go in an interview about her previous film , Nomadland, that “China is a country where lies are everywhere”…
“The reviews were bad and I was all too aware of it”
In a very recent podcast, Inside of You With Michael Rosenbaum, actor Kumail Nanjiani, who plays the character of Kingo in the film, indulges in some confidences. An actor accustomed to comedies whom the director did not hesitate to ask to write his comic lines, he says he was very affected by the criticism of the film, to the point of impacting his mental health.
“The reviews were bad and I was all too aware of it” he confides; “I was reading every review and monitoring it way too much. It was really, really hard because Marvel thought this movie was going to be really well reviewed, so they lifted the embargo [sur les critiques] very early and put it into some pretty major film festivals; and they sent us on a big world tour to properly promote the film as the embargo lifted.
I think there was a sort of weirdness to the atmosphere that explains why this film was so criticized, and I think it has little to do with the actual quality of the film. It was really difficult, and that’s when I thought it was unfair to me and unfair to [ma femme] Emily, and I can’t approach my job this way anymore. Some shit needs to change, so I started counseling. I always talk to my therapist about it.”