-How great is it to hear an audience?
-Oh, my God, it's amazing. It feels new.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Right. It's amazing.
-Thank you. Thank you.
-Thank you for coming in studio and for doing this.
-I mean, yeah, I'm so excited to be back
out in the world a little bit. -Yeah, right?
You know, I'm a fan of yours, but I loved your movie --
I love your stand-up, but I love your movie,
"The Big Sick." It's one of my favorites.
[ Cheers and applause ] Phenomenal job.
But now you are a superhero.
You're -- You're a superhero, dude.
-I can't believe it. I really can't.
I'll know Friday, when the movie comes out,
that it's not an elaborate prank.
[ Laughter ]
-No, it's not a prank. You're real.
-It feels wild, man. -How did it come about?
Did you get the call from -- Who called you?
-So, I'm out of town for a few weeks,
and I get a call, and they say, "Hey, Marvel wants to meet you."
And I was like, "What does that mean?
Marvel's not a person, like --" -No, no, exactly right.
-"What do you mean?" They're like, "Chloé Zhao
and Nate Moore, a producer, want to meet you."
And I knew Chloé was directing "Eternals."
Amazing director, huge fan of hers.
I don't know why they want to meet me.
-Yeah. -So I have this meeting.
And Chloé talks me through the entire movie in 45 minutes.
She's like, 45 minutes, beginning to end,
tells me the entire movie.
And then she's like, "So, what do you think?"
And I was like, "What do you -- It sounds great.
I'd love to go watch it." [ Laughter ]
"Are you just, like..." -"Sounds like a hit, yeah."
I mean -- -"Yeah, do that.
That sounds great." -"What do you want me for?"
-"You're gonna make millions." [ Laughter ]
"You just wanted my feedback?
It is a thumbs-up from me, Chloé."
[ Laughter ] -Yeah.
-I was like, "Thumbs up." And she's like,
"No. Do you want to be in it?"
And I said yes before she had finished the sentence.
[ Laughter ] Which you should not do,
'cause what you do is, "Let me think about it,"
then you go tell your agent to try and get you more money.
-Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. -I was like, "Yes! Of course!
I'll pay you to do it, whatever."
[ Laughter ] -Exactly correct.
-"Whatever needs done." -You pay them to --
I'll pay you to be in a Marvel movie.
You have your own action figure, buddy.
Look at this. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Look at him! [ Laughing ]
-I mean, how cool is that?
In your wildest dreams, did you ever go, like,
"Oh, yeah, I'm gonna be a superhero,
and I'm gonna have a doll,
and kids are gonna buy my doll in the toy store."
-It's not a doll, it's an action figure.
[ Laughter ]
You know, the difference is points of articulation.
I say that because I own a lot of action figures.
-Oh, you do? -Yeah, I buy them.
And, yeah, it's really, really unbelievable.
You know, when I first saw it, I was just so happy,
and then I was like, "Emily, they messed up my profile."
[ Laughter ]
And she was like, "No, they didn't."
-They nailed it, yeah. -She was like,
"They got it exactly right." -Yeah.
-Because I was like, "Stuff is sticking out
where it shouldn't be sticking out
and not sticking out where it should be,"
and she was like, "Well, that's how your face looks."
[ Laughter ]
-Tell everybody about your character and your superpower.
-So I play a character named Kingo, and, you know,
Eternals have sort of been on Earth for 7,000 years,
we're here to fight these monsters called Deviants,
and we're sort of all supposed to go off
on our own and keep a low profile.
-Yeah. -And so my character
goes and becomes a Bollywood movie star.
[ Cheers ] That's sort of --
-Kind of the opposite, yeah. -Yeah. Yeah, he does.
But he's just -- You know, so many superheroes,
like, the power is, like, a big responsibility on them.
You know, this guy loves it.
He loves being a superhero. He loves having powers.
He loves being a Bollywood movie star.
No notes, his life is perfect. -Yeah.
You do a big, giant Bollywood dance number.
-Yeah, and we're gonna show a clip from that a little bit,
you know, so... [ Cheers and applause ]
-I didn't know -- Do you know how to do this?
-Well, no, I don't know how to do this.
Emily can't even get me on the dance floor to dance,
and I was like, "In front of millions of people?
I can't do this." So when I first met Chloé,
she was like, "You're gonna do a Bollywood dance number,"
and I was like, "Can we do something else?"
-Yeah, anything else, yeah. -And she was like,
"Okay. We'll do a Bollywood action sequence."
I was like, "Great." And then, we got to London
to shoot it, she was like, "I lied.
It's a Bollywood dance number." [ Laughter ]
She lied to me. She put a lie in the script.
[ Laughter ]
She printed out the lie. -Yeah.
-And so I got a -- I was like, "Get me a teacher,"
and we -- I trained for four months to do it.
But it was really cool, you know?
The first -- So, I trained with --
Milika is her name.
She choreographed the dance, too.
And when I first walked in to the big rehearsal
with everybody, I walked into the gym
where we were doing the rehearsal.
And I got really emotional.
It was like 50 South Asian people.
[ Cheers ] And I was like --
Yeah, man! Cheer for South Asia!
[ Cheers and applause ]
So many years, you barely have any South Asian people,
and then suddenly, there's like 52 of us
in one scene, you know? [ Laughter ]
It was awesome! -Yeah.
-And it's, you know, it's a little tough 'cause it's --
There are 52 people, and 51 of them are professional dancers.
[ Laughter ] And the one who's in focus
is really trying to hang on. -Oh, no, no, no.
I got to say, I'm just --
I'm happy for you. Couldn't happen to nicer guy.
-Oh, thank you. -All the success.
But this is major on so many levels.
-I love this movie so much.
I'm just so thrilled to be a part of it.
-Good man. [ Cheers and applause ]
I want to show everyone a clip.
Here's Kumail Nanjiani in "Eternals."
Take a look.
♪♪
[ Music stops ]
-Cut! Okay, everyone.
That was good.
Think we can do 10% better. That was beautiful.
Very, very good.
Aah!
All my friends from college are here.
Boss! Perfect timing.
Welcome to the set of... [ Speaking Hindi ]
I'm playing you! You like the costume?
-We need to talk.
-Tell the director I have some notes for him.
-We need to talk to you in private.
-Oh, Karun? He's worked with me for 50 years.
I trust him completely.
Actually, when we first met, he thought I was vampire,
and he tried to stake me through the heart.
-I have apologized so many times.
-Not quite enough times. Very close, though.
I'll let you know.
-That's what I'm talking about, come on.
[ Cheers and applause ] Very funny, bud.
Kumail Nanjiani, everybody!
"Eternals" opens in theaters this Friday.