![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/01\/chippendales-3-b903858.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Welcome to Chippendales is his first purely dramatic leading role after finding considerable success in the HBO sitcom Silicon Valley, co-headlining the action-comedy Stuber with Dave Bautista and having guest spots in everything from Veep to Broad City.<\/p>\n
The move to the dramatic is spurred by his own ambition for his career to not be boxed into any particular stereotype, something that has informed all of his roles. \u201cI don\u2019t think there is anything wrong in playing a stereotype but I decided I didn\u2019t want to do that and it did limit me. I knew if I was to have success it had to be on my own terms otherwise I would be miserable.\u201d\u00a0Nanjiani also feels the weight of being the most prominent Pakistani-American in US culture: \u201cI knew if I played [stereotypical parts] it would hurt my parents a great deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Success is a subjective thing, especially when you live a public-facing life in a career that can disintegrate in seconds, but Academy Award-nominated Nanjiani says he feels successful. It\u2019s something he first realised when he was auditioning for parts alongside white actors and was being offered roles that weren\u2019t specifically written for a person of South Asian origin. \u201cWhen I was getting parts over other white people, that\u2019s when I realised I was doing well,\u201d he says with a wry smile that acknowledges film and TV\u2019s penchant for tokenism.<\/p>
The idea of success permeates throughout Welcome to Chippendales as it questions the American myth that all things are possible for anybody and the ruthless hypercapitalism of modern society. Nanjiani compares Banerjee\u2019s greed to that of a large corporation. \u201cIn America, it\u2019s still true that nothing is ever enough. You have to keep becoming more successful. There\u2019s no good size for a corporation. The only good size is bigger than it was a quarter ago. And I think individuals carry themselves with that same feeling with the \u2018rise and grind\u2019 culture. I think it\u2019s very damaging and detrimental to mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nanjiani admits there was a time where he was seduced by the culture of success and goal-oriented ambition, but the pandemic made him reevaluate what really matters in life. \u201cMy wife Emily is in a high risk category, so we didn\u2019t do anything. I realise this is incredibly privileged but I really enjoyed just spending time with my family and myself.\u201d It was a drastic change for the workaholic.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce one job was finished, it was always \u2018What\u2019s the next job?\u2019, but now I don\u2019t work so much and want to prioritise my time off.\u201d He admits it\u2019s a risky policy in an industry that views its actors like a bank would a mortgage product. \u201cIt\u2019s a tricky thing to do in a business that pushes you to be more successful than you were the week before. It\u2019s a fickle life, people forget about you but I\u2019m trying to be more thoughtful about it [my work-life balance].\u201d<\/p>\n
Banerjee largely subverts anything Nanjiani has done before in the sense that he is playing someone who has little charm beyond his perseverance to win at capitalism. Nanjiani, despite starting off making his living performing stand-up at always precarious open mic nights, acknowledged that the role \u201cscared\u201d him but made him realise his own skills as a performer. The nature of the role meant he had to almost become an entirely new actor.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of the things that are in my wheelhouse are in this project,\u201d he says. \u201cI can\u2019t feel back to being funny or what I\u2019d consider any of my strengths and it was scary to strip away my comfort zones.\u201d Nanjiani plays Banerjee as a humourless megalomaniac who didn\u2019t need much pushing towards the vile and villainous, which is about as far away from his endearing and affable persona as it\u2019s possible to get. \u201cWithout the comfort zones, all that was left was the acting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loved this\u00a0Big RT Interview<\/a>? Read these:<\/strong><\/p>\n Playing Banerjee also brought him back to an unconfirmed project he had previously turned down, due to feeling his talents weren\u2019t up to playing a weighty character. \u201cBefore doing Chippendales, I was going to do this movie but there were certain things about it that intimidated me. I re-read it after playing Somen and it didn\u2019t feel scary anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n Nanjiani said he has also found it pleasant to move away from playing characters similar to himself after putting so much of his own life into the largely autobiographical The Big Sick. Written with his wife Emily V Gordon, the Oscar-nominated film was an only slightly dramatised version of their relationship. He now admits he never thought their story would be anybody\u2019s but theirs until the reality of sitting in a cinema with hundreds of other people on the night of the premiere. The success of their indie comedy-drama took him by surprise and as a result he found himself \u201cunprepared\u201d for the levels of scrutiny his private life would subsequently face.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want everyone to know everything about me,\u201d he says, and goes on to admit that he would change certain aspects of the film if he got to do it over again to \u201cprotect\u201d himself and his wife.<\/p>\n Though The Big Sick did bring a level of fame he is at least partially uncomfortable with, its success also opened Nanjiani to opportunities he could only otherwise have dreamed of. In the last 18 months, he became the first South Asian actor to feature in a lead role the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Eternals<\/a>, and 2022 also saw him journey to a galaxy far, far away in the form of the Obi-Wan Kenobi<\/a> series. Beaming as if he was a schoolboy watching Star Wars for the first time, Nanjiani appears genuinely shocked he got to be a part of the show. \u201cThe dreamer wouldn\u2019t even dream. I had all the Star Wars action figures. I still can\u2019t believe it. It was so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n Just as The Big Sick proved Nanjiani as a writer and leading man, Welcome to Chippendales is the next step in that evolution to all-round talent. Viewers will not see the computer geek from Silicon Valley, they\u2019ll just see Somen Banerjee \u2013 and it\u2019s Somen Banerjee that has allowed Nanjiani to see just what he is capable of.<\/p> ![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/01\/chippendales-1-6365296.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>