In 2021, 46-year-old Kumail Nanjiani famously transformed himself from the soft-bodied uber-nerd he played in Silicon Valley to the super-ripped superhero Kingo from his Marvel movie debut, Eternals. While some actors do intense physical prep for parts only to backslide after shooting wraps, Nanjiani made his gains stick. With a change of physique has come a change of roles, including his more, well, muscular parts as a rebel in the 2022 Star Wars mini-series Obi-Wan Kenobi, strip club pioneer in Welcome to Chippendales (2023), and a Ghostbuster in 2024.
In addition to the dramatic roles, Nanjiani has returned to standup comedy—he’s in the midst of a nine-month cross-country run—and is managing a fledgling production company, Winter Coat Films, with his co-founder and wife, the writer-producer Emily Gordon. He has also partnered with the nutrition company Quest. “I want to live for a long time,” he says. “And I want to feel good for a long time.”
GQ: It’s the classic question for guys who want to get in shape: Do big muscles solve all your problems?
Kumail Nanjiani: Oh, God no. Maybe, maybe, maybe I sleep a little better and I have slightly less anxiety because I’m working out pretty hard. But I’m seeing a therapist more regularly, so it’s hard to know what’s what. [Laughs.] So, no, it doesn’t solve shit.
How has your fitness transformation affected you on set and on stage?
On set, I don’t think as much. I’ve certainly grown in confidence on set, but I think that’s come from doing more reps—learning more on all aspects of filmmaking and feeling more comfortable. However, I started doing standup again about a year ago, and the last time I did, I looked very different. And so when I started doing standup again, my wife was, like, people’s experience of seeing you on stage is different now. You look different on stage. So even though you don’t see yourself differently, the audience perceives you differently. My standup used to be self-deprecating. I can’t do that as much anymore. It just has to be different. I used to talk about being a nerd—I still talk about being a nerd, but it’s changed the math.
You’re on tour now for a few months, but often performing on the weekends. Do you make sure to work out while traveling, or do you just enjoy your time out of the gym and get back to it on Monday?
This is so dorky, but I look up the gyms of the hotels I’m going to. I’m quite obsessed with working out now. It helps with anxiety, feeling more grounded, and my energy’s better. And so, I will look at the gym setup. Sometimes that information is hard to find. There’s a website called Hotel Gyms that ranks everything, but it doesn’t give you a ton of detail. But from the pictures, you can sleuth. Like, Oh my God, this place has a leg press machine. So, at home, I can skip legs, because I don’t have a leg press machine at home. I’m traveling Saturday, and I know that the hotel I’m in for the first few days has an amazing gym. So when I plan out my day, even with shooting, I’m figuring out when I can go to the gym.
What’s the best hotel gym you’ve visited?
Well, the one I’m actually going to now, the Forth Hotel in Atlanta, has a really, really good gym. And the Equinox Hotel in New York, Hudson Yards, is an actual Equinox, so it’s tough to beat.
It’s said that if muscles are built in the gym, abs are built in the kitchen. What parts of that rigorous Marvel-prepping diet have you continued?
When I first started trying to get in shape five years ago, I noticed how certain foods would make me feel. I didn’t know that. Eating sugar, you have the crash a couple of hours later. Eating gluten, you have a histamine response. To me, that’s been the biggest change. I have a pretty wicked sweet tooth, so I’ll still find room to eat dessert, but I know how it makes me feel afterwards. Days on set are pretty long, and when I’m on tour, I’m landing in a city, doing two shows that night, flying early the next morning to another city, doing another show or two that night. Energy’s so important. I’m finding that cutting out refined sugar has really made my energy more even through the day instead of these peaks and valleys, which I thought were [just part of] being a human. When I’m more thoughtful about what I eat, I certainly feel better, and I have more energy for the work that I need to do.
Are there other areas besides sugar where you have shifted your diet?
For a long time, I was tracking everything I was eating. But I stopped doing that almost two years ago, because now it’s a feel. I try to maximize protein, and I try to minimize simple sugars. I’m not keto or anything—I eat fruit. So what’s really stayed is the idea of protein content, which is where all the Quest stuff helps: It’s high protein, low carbs. Unless I’m preparing for something specific, if I’m eating high protein and minimizing simple sugars, I’m going to stay on track. Lean meats: chicken, steak. I love going to steak places. I ask, What’s the leanest cut of steak you have? I know that’s not the tastiest, but to me, the difference in taste and experience isn’t that big.
So you’re not a Wagyu guy then?
Listen, Wagyu tastes amazing. And I’ll do it every now and then, and if someone else gets it, I’ll try a bite. But generally, no, I’m getting a lean cut—a filet.
You got married pretty young compared to many Americans. How has your change in your fitness affected your relationship with Emily?
Well, at the beginning, she’s just, like, you just feel so different. She’s like, “It’s like hugging the corner of a building.” [Laughs.] But now, we have a gym at our home, and Emily’s started doing serious weight training, too, so that’s been the biggest change. She loves doing it. And the way she looks and feels is very different.
Does she feel like the corner of a building as well?
[Laughs.] Yes, just a couple of building corners bumping into each other. Sparks. But she really loves it. She saw what I was getting out of it, she got a trainer, and now she does it on her own. She loves it. But beyond that, when you’ve been married 17 years, you change a lot. So much about you changes, obviously. We’ve both changed in so, so many ways. So I think the biggest excitement in being in a relationship this long is how you change and how you change together, right? Because you’re changing as people, so your relationship has to change. There’s never a point where you’re, like, And now the relationship is done. It’s a growing, evolving thing that you need to keep talking about. It’s really about communication. And we just started a production company, so we’re working together more now than we ever have. All this stuff requires constant communication. “Hey, when you said that in the business meeting that we had, it hurt my feelings.” [Laughs.] So that’s the most exciting thing to me about being with her: Watching her change and watching us change together.
You’ve described your weight room prep for your Marvel role as “vomit-inducing” and “chasing the pain.” Has that level of intensity changed as you’ve moved past that movie?
It ebbs and flows based on my mood. Right now, I’m in a non-hardcore training phase. I just sort of go based on how my body’s feeling and how I’m feeling mentally. I also change up my workouts quite a bit, because you get bored. Right now I’m on a pretty easy split—it’s not a ton of exercises per workout. But honestly, if you have a stressful day or a tough day or a bad day, you feel like I want to work out really, really hard. And it really helps me feel better. It’s one to one. I’ll be in a bad mood, I’ll work out really hard, and I’ll be great. That said, I’m not able to put myself through a vomit-inducing workout. Like you said, I’m not trying to peak. I’m trying to maintain. There’s no reason for me to be buff anymore—it’s just because I like doing the thing, you know?
In their 40s, guys start to think about longevity rather than performance. So when you think about training to stay healthy for the rest of your life, how does that change your approach to fitness and diet?
I’ve read studies that say stronger muscle is good for longevity—older people break bones and get hurt, and having more muscle mass helps with that. My whole family has a history of cardiovascular issues, and working out helps with that. I take my blood pressure all the time, and at my age, and I can see the difference working out has made. I thought it would hit me at 40, mentally. It didn’t hit me at 40. In your early 40s, you’re like, OK, double that, 80s, a lot of people make it to their 80s. But when you hit 45, you’re like, OK, most people don’t make it to 90. At 45, I was, like, Oh, I’m probably more than halfway through this journey. For a long time, I was scared of opening that door to taking care of my cholesterol or my blood pressure, because it feels so scary—I’ve lost family members to it. Everyone I know in my family is dealing with it, to some degree. My generation is generally healthier; we’re more aware of what we eat, so we’re doing better than the older generation.
I want to live! [Laughs.] And I want to live for a long time. And I want to feel good for a long time. Right now, I feel better than I did through most of my 20s and 30s, and I think a lot of that has to do with what I’m eating and what I’m not eating, and how I’m exercising. But also, a lot of psychological stuff: Being more in touch with myself and my emotions, being aware of what I’m feeling and why I’m feeling it, talking to therapists, talking to Emily, talking to friends about stuff that’s scaring me or making me sad. I think all that stuff I’m prioritizing more now.
In Real-Life Diet, athletes, celebrities, and other high performers talk about their diet, exercise routines, and pursuit of wellness. Keep in mind that what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.
