“I found myself being very strict with food and using it in so many unhealthy ways. And in a way, by forcing myself to eat unhealthy amounts of unhealthy food, I was able to get out of that trap,” Starr said of his “weird” cycle.
Kumail Nanjiani has forever had a “strange relationship” with food and diet culture, but Marvel’s The Eternals was a turning point for the actor.
Nanjiani underwent a physical transformation to play the divine superhero in the 2021 film, but he had to come to terms with lingering issues related to food consumption.
“Growing up, I was raised to believe that the body is bad, that all the body’s desires are evil, that the soul wants good, and that the body wants evil. I think Sense is also based on that dichotomy,” Nanjiani told NPR. because I was taught to.”
The “Welcome to Chippendales” actor said, “Pakistan’s food is absolutely delicious, but it’s really cruel to have a limit on how much you can eat. I’ve always had a strange relationship with food. I’ve always had guilt and regrets associated with it. I’ve always used food as a punishment or a reward.”
“I didn’t think about it or try to come to terms with it until after I finished The Eternals, because doing The Eternals brought a lot of those issues to the surface. I realized that I was thinking about food in a certain way that I needed to explore and revisit.
Preparing to play real-life true criminal and male exotic dance club founder Somen “Steve” Banerjee was “a lot of work for me,” as Nanjiani said when it came to dealing with food issues. It helped me to do
“I found myself being very strict with food and using it in so many unhealthy ways, and in a way, by forcing me to eat unhealthy amounts of unhealthy food. , I was able to get out of that trap,” he said. It kind of freed me from some of the ways I’ve been thinking about food. “
And even after Nanjiani broke the internet by showing off his toned, stripped-down shirtless photos from “Eternals,” he no longer felt “powerful” in his strength.
“After that, it was mostly negative. In the beginning, I was able to get that kind of reaction from people – I had never had that kind of reaction before and part of me always wanted it. I think it was – it felt powerful. It felt really exciting,” Nanjiani explained. “And soon after, it felt reductive, naked, and vulnerable. It’s still happening all the time I have a complicated relationship with it Those pictures changed my life so I don’t regret releasing the picture. But I hope it doesn’t take up so much space in my head.”
Gendered double standards are also not lost in Nanjiani.
“I think I understand like 0.00001 percent of what women have been through all their lives,” said the writer of “Big Sick.” It means that I am not afraid to walk alone, which means that there is no power difference. In that moment, in a way, men are taking power away from women, and I don’t have it, and when someone makes a comment about my body in public, I feel like there’s a lot of power there. I don’t feel like there’s a difference.
You can watch Nanjiani’s IndieWire interview on “Welcome to Chippendales” here.
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