Kumail Nanjiani Interview: 5 Best Moments
Lifestyle January 06, 2023
Kumail Nanjiani came by “The Jennifer Hudson Show” to chat with JHud about his new Hulu show “Welcome to Chippendales,” his cat with the very unique name, and the unusual way his wife charmed him when they first met.
Check out all the best moments from Kumail’s sit-down with Jennifer!
Kumail’s ‘meet cute’ with his wife
Kumail and his wife, writer and producer Emily V. Gordon, just celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary! The couple originally met at a comedy club in Chicago where Kumail was performing and Emily was in the audience.
“I was a stand-up comedian and she heckled me at a comedy show,” he told JHud. He recalls thinking of Emily, “Oh, she’s rude but cute.” He saw her a few days later and asked her out, and the rest is history! (It’s also an Oscar-winning movie, as their early courtship is depicted in their 2017 romantic comedy “The Big Sick.”)
JHud & Kumail bond over living in Chicago
Both Kumail and Jennifer have lived in Chi-town. The actor and his wife had to leave Chicago “on bad terms,” but Kumail said, “I want to go back and reclaim Chicago… I do miss Chicago.”
“Just don’t go when it’s too cold,” advised JHud. “Okay, so don’t go for those eight months of the year,” Kumail joked.
He gets emotional talking about his cat
Kumail and Emily don’t currently have any children, but they do have a precious cat named Bagel! “I just wanted a cat named Bagel,” he said of his kitty’s unique name.
When he first met Bagel, the runt of the litter, she was very shy and hiding under a couch. “She’s absolutely wonderful,” he said. “I’m getting emotional talking about this!”
“She’s sort of like a hot cat,” he said of his darling kitty. “So all the cats in the neighborhood come to check her out.”
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Kumail on looking out of place on the set of ‘Welcome to Chippendales’
Kumail plays the “bad guy” in the Hulu miniseries. “I love to play bad guys,” he said. “It’s a little scary, but it’s also kind of freeing” to play the villain. “I usually get to play comedic roles, but to play something like this, like a really dark, intense guy… the way he solves problems are illegal and amoral, and that’s fun to pretend to do.”
Kumail said he wanted to look different from the rest of the cast made up of muscular dancers, so he went in the other direction. “I wanted to look like I don’t belong in this world,” he explained. “Everyone else on the show was eating carrots and fruits, and I was eating multiple doughnuts for every meal.” He adds, “It was great!”
“I love your commitment to your character!” said JHud, laughing.
Kumail on being Marvel’s first South Asian superhero in ‘Eternals’
Kumail made history playing the first superhero of South Asian descent in Marvel’s “Eternals.” “No cupcakes on that set! That was definitely carrot times for me,” Kumail joked.
“As someone who started out as a comedian telling jokes onstage, to end up pretending to shoot laser beams from my fingers — best case scenario!”
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