Actor Kumail Nanjiani Says ‘People Don’t Want to Cast Non-White People as Bad Guys’ in Hollywood
Photo By Scott Kirkland/Sipa USA
Actor Kumail Nanjiani was excited to star as the bad guy in his latest role, but argued similar roles for non-White actors are harder to come by.
Speaking with Esquire earlier this week, Nanjiani discussed his latest role in Hulu’s Welcome to Chippendales, in which he takes on a much darker role than ever before.
“I’ve never gotten to play an arc like this,” Nanjiani said about playing Chippendales founder Somen Banerjee. “By far the most layered, complex, complicated person I’ve ever played.”
According to the magazine, “If Welcome to Chippendales were not based on a true story, Nanjiani believes that the central role would have gone to a White actor.”
“I think that Hollywood now – even though they’re trying to be more diverse – is still weird,” Nanjiani said.
He said despite their efforts, good intentions sometimes lead to misguided solutions. For example “if the bad guy is a brown guy, what message is that sending?”
Nanjiani disagrees, saying, “I want to play more bad guys.”
Despite a role in Marvel’s Eternals, Nanjiani claims that someone told him playing a villain will be harder to accomplish.
Speaking of fellow Marvel actor Sebastian Stan, Nanjiani said, “He does these big Marvel movies, and then he’ll play a psychopath. I was told that’s going to be hard because people don’t want to cast non-White people as bad guys.”
Nanjiani has previously starred in the 2017 film The Big Sick and shows like Portlandia.
