Sundance: Kumail Nanjiani on his breakout 'Big Sick' and Trump-era comedy
PARK CITY, Utah — Hours after Donald Trump was sworn in as president, Sundance film festival-goers found a cure to post-inauguration blues.
Romantic comedy The Big Sick premiered at the 33rd annual fest Friday, earning across-the-board raves from critics (100% positive reviews on aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes) and acquired by Amazon for distribution for a reported $12 million. The semi-autobiographical film was co-written by Silicon Valley's Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, his frequent collaborator and wife of nearly 10 years. Key moments of their relationship are brought to life onscreen, as Kumail (playing himself) struggles to tell his Pakistani immigrant family that he's dating a white woman, only to reevaluate what Emily (Zoe Kazan) means to him when she falls ill from a mysterious infection and is put in a medically induced coma.
Nanjiani caught up with USA TODAY in Park City to talk about working with producer Judd Apatow and seeing Big Sick through a political lens.
Sundance: Apatow's 'Big Sick,' 'Icarus' fly high with festival-goers
Q: How long had you and Emily been kicking around this idea before you started writing?
A: Well, we had a video-game podcast (The Indoor Kids) together and we produced (The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail) on Comedy Central for a few years. So we collaborated a bunch and really the only thing we've written together so far is this script, which made perfect sense because she's a fantastic writer. It was just really great to get both perspectives into the movie. You want to do it so there aren't any bad guys and you see everyone's point of view.
Q: Did you have any trepidation about releasing something so personal?
A: There is a little piece of it where your story now becomes everybody's story. You're giving something that's very close to you and it becomes a public thing. Emily said that before the screening (Friday), like, "Hey, this is the last time it's going to be our story." For me, I like doing personal stuff; I don't really know how to do it any other way. And we just felt like people might be able to relate to the story, even if they haven't gone through the exact same experiences. Everyone has parents and that's a big part of the movie: trying to have a relationship with your parents after you're an adult. When you're both adults, you have to sort of renegotiate and have a new relationship with them as equals.
Q: What role did Judd have in shaping the script once he came aboard?
A: It was his idea that Emily's parents (played by Holly Hunter and Ray Romano) come into the story with their own personal baggage. He was the one that said, "Hey, I think it should be that they're all dealing with something outside of this." He was also the one that forced me to write more about religious stuff. We had done a bunch of drafts and he kept being like, "Why is there no religious stuff in this?" And I was like, "I don't know what to say about religion." And he was like, "So just say that; you don't have to have all the answers. If you express that you don't know (everything), then it's going to be good and relatable."
Q: This is one of, if not the first time a Pakistani immigrant family has been depicted onscreen. What did that mean to you to premiere it at this festival, on Inauguration Day of all days?
A: It was interesting, because we had never written this movie to be political. It's just a love story and it's about people negotiating their identities and who they are and dealing with their parents. We thought of it as a very thoughtful, small story, but now I feel like the movie will be seen in a very different political context and sort of mean different things. I can't really control that. I wish everyone loved everyone and this movie could just be seen as a romantic comedy, but it would be naive of me to say it will be. It's obviously a movie about cross-cultural issues and that's a big global challenge that we're facing right now. Because of the Internet, you're sort of forced to deal with people from very different backgrounds and beliefs. It's a great challenge of our time, and depending on when you ask me, I feel optimistic or pessimistic about it.
Q: What do you think is the responsibility of comedians and filmmakers going into these next four years?
A: I always felt that it was never the duty of a person to really stand up for their gender or their race or anything like that — I always felt that was a personal choice. But I do feel now that maybe my opinion is evolving or changing a little bit. I never thought of myself as a political comedian and it's just this big thing happening right now. But if you're not speaking about it, you're sort of ignoring the elephant in the room.
