Kumail Nanjiani shares the toll negative reviews of the 2021 superhero film ‘Eternals’ took on his mental health. While early reviews were generally positive, the movie faced a challenging turn of events in November 2021, being labelled as the lowest-scoring Marvel film on Rotten Tomatoes with a current score of 47 per cent.
Directed by Chloé Zhao and featuring a star-studded cast, including Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kit Harrington, Barry Keoghan and Angelina Jolie, ‘Eternals’ grossed $402 million at the box office against a $236 million budget.
Speaking on the 'Inside Of You With Michael Rosenbaum' podcast, Nanjiani expressed the difficulty of handling the negative reviews. "The reviews were bad, and I was too aware of it," he shared. Reading every review took a toll on him, especially as Marvel had anticipated a positive reception, leading to an early embargo lift and a global promotional tour.
The impact on Nanjiani was profound, leading him to seek therapy to navigate through the aftermath. Reflecting on the experience, he mentioned, "It was really hard, and that was when I thought it was unfair to me and unfair to [my wife] Emily, and I can’t approach my work this way anymore. Some shit has to change, so I started counselling. I still talk to my therapist about that."
Nanjiani's wife, Emily, pointed out the lasting impact, stating that he carries trauma from the experience.
Sharing the sentiment with a fellow cast member, Nanjiani revealed, "We actually just got dinner with somebody else from that movie, and we were like, ‘That was tough, wasn’t it?’ and he’s like ‘Yeah, that was really tough,’ and I think we all went through something similar."
– Farheen Ali
