Three questions:
1. Who the heck is Kumail Nanjiani?
2. Why is having a nice physique such a big deal?
3. Is he gay, posing with his boyfriend?
The twitter link goes to Comicsands, which I can't stand because there are two lines of text per page, hidden amid endless popups and slow-loading videos that scroll down with you. So I checked wikipedia, just in case this obscure bodybuilder had his own page.
One of the 100 most influential people in the world, according to Time magazine! Why have I never heard of him?
He was born in Pakistan in 1978, but didn't show up on screen until a Saturday Night Live episode in 2008. He had a recurring role on the buddy-lawyer series Franklin and Bash (2011-2014), and after that a lot of guest spots and voice roles: Prismo on Adventure Time, Skip Marouch on Bob's Burgers.
Nothing particularly influential so far.
Kumail's only significant role seems to be in The Big Sick (2017), which he also wrote with his then-wife Emily Gordon. It's a slightly fictionalized memoir about their romance. dealing with cultural differences and Emily's life-threatening illness. In the end, she recovers, and they break up.
It sounds awful. Who wants to watch a movie about a life-threatening illness? But, depressing or not, it was nominated for an Oscar for best screenplay, and pushed Kumail up into the ranks of the 100 most influential people in the world.
I'm pretty sure I could name 100 actors more influential than the star of one depressing movie, but ok, next question.
Apparently he was rather chunky just a few years ago. Hitting the gym for the first time when you're over 40 is rather daunting, and Kumail deserves praise for sticking with it long enough to see results.
3. Is he gay, and posing with his boyfriend?
An article in Entertainment Weekly called Emily Gordon Kumail's "former wife," implying that they are divorced or she has died. But Wikipedia just says that they've been married since 2007. Which to believe?
He appeared in an episode of the Game of Thrones parody Gay of Thrones, but he doesn't play a gay character: one of the Queer Eye guys gives him a haircut. That's entertaiment?
Also, Kumail and Emily are currently producing Little America, about the lives of immigrants. Episode #8 features Rafiq (Haaz Sleiman), a gay refugee from Syria.
I'm going to go with "straight."
A straight guy who starred in a depressing movie and has a nice physique. Big deal.
This is obviously a photo from a gay romance. I wonder if he's gay in real life.
Google, here I come.
I liked him better when he was chunky- he is probably straight- did the work out stuff for the movie like when Chris Pratt did for Guardians of the Galaxy- chunky Pratt was funnier
ReplyDeleteOne of the characters in The Eternals is gay, apparently. I can tell you that X-Men is teasing bi Scott and Wolvie (both dating Jean and each other) in one timeline. (Considering Wolverine was originally intended to be bisexual...His son is actually ace, but rapes both genders as a narcissistic power trip. Yikes!) This threesome isn't the main timeline, where Scott is the new Magneto.
ReplyDeleteWhat's interesting is how Marvel and DC both had plans for LGBT heroes in their most popular team books in said books' first really popular run, but got cold feet. Wolverine made his debut in the Claremont run.
Teen Titans, as DC's version of X-Men, albeit with more ordinary people (four Robins, one Batgirl, and three Speedys have been on the team's roster), gave us Jericho, a mute son of the mercenary Deathstroke with the power of possession. He was also supposed to be bisexual, but sometimes they treat him as gay. (He refused to sleep with his second girlfriend, signing that she was just a friend.) Apparently Wolfman got cold feet, and only corrected it years later. But we do see a LOT of subtext (and sometimes text) between him and Dick Grayson post-Crisis. (During this time, Starfire was married to a rebel prince.) Ultimately, Jericho is possessed by the demon lord Trigon and begs his father to kill him, and then Dick is ready to do the same to Deathstroke, who actually desires execution at this point, when he finds out the truth. But later we learn he possessed his father.
I see that Haaz Sleiman, who played a gay Syrian refugee in "Little America,"has a role. Maybe he's the gay character.
DeleteListen to his lines in Shadow of War and tell me he's straight
ReplyDelete