The Big Sick’s Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon say every couple should write their story
BOY meets girls, girl falls into coma ... Comedian Kumail Nanjiani and his wife recreated their relationship for The Big Sick, an incredible rom-com.
KUMAIL Nanjiani loves Four Weddings and a Funeral. Really, really loves it.
The star of HBO comedy Silicon Valley watched the movie on the day of his own wedding to therapist turned writer Emily V. Gordon.
And he now counts among his most treasured possessions four frames of Richard Curtis’s original print of the film — a gift from the writer after seeing Nanjiani’s own romantic comedy, The Big Sick.
Hugh Grant’s floppy hair, which Nanjiani tried to emulate as a schoolboy back in Pakistan, “is a big part” of his obsession, he admits with a laugh.
“BROWN MUSLIM IN AMERICA”: Kumail insists The Big Sick is not political
“And part of it was because I saw it in high school and I liked girls, but I couldn’t talk to girls, I felt very shy and stuttery. And Four Weddings has a guy who’s shy and stuttery and good with the ladies, so I’m like, ‘Oooh, that’s possible!’ It was aspirational.
“I love every frame of that movie, it’s gorgeous to look at. It’s just a really charming, very funny movie that’s fun to watch.”
The same could be said of The Big Sick, one of the best-reviewed and most loveable films of 2017.
THE BIG SICK REVIEW: Hilarious and full of heart
An adaptation of Nanjiani and Gordon’s real-life love story — he was a struggling comedian in Chicago whose devout Muslim parents were trying to set him up with a good Pakistani girl, she was a grad student who ended up in a coma just a few months into their relationship — the rom-com has won them fans in high places.
“We got to meet Bono because of this movie,” says Gordon.
“Yeah, frickin’ Bono saw the movie,” Nanjiani adds, emphatically.
“A U2 song was in the trailer so we got to go see a U2 show and ended up talking to Bono,” Gordon continues, still slightly bewildered. “That’s not anything I thought would end up happening in my whole life.”
David Duchovny also sent “a very nice text” — a big deal for X-Files tragic Nanjiani.
“Kumail has a lot of boyfriends; a lot of lovely, middle aged, very sensitive actor men who just are in love with him,” Gordon teases, to protests of “Don’t! Don’t!” from her husband.
Gordon and Nanjiani last month celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary, quite an achievement given the rough start documented in The Big Sick.
The film begins with Kumail (playing himself) meeting Emily (Zoe Kazan) at one of his stand-up gigs. Their sweet union is derailed not only by Kumail’s parents’ attempts to arrange a marriage for their son, but Emily falling sick. After baulking at meeting Emily’s parents (played by Ray Romano and Holly Hunter) while she’s still awake, Kumail winds up awkwardly getting to know them at the hospital as she lays in a coma.
Nanjiani likes to say that the movie version of their story is “only exaggerated, not created”. He and Gordon wrote the script together, with the encouragement of producer Judd Apatow.
Did the couple take the opportunity to write improved versions of themselves?
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“Mine is a worse version. Emily’s is a better version. I don’t know how this happened!” Nanjiani wails.
“The only thing that’s better,” Gordon counters, “is Kumail hit on me in a very specific way, where he wrote my name in Urdu — in real life I completely fell for it and thought it was the coolest and most romantic thing, whereas the movie version of Emily calls him on it being a line.”
Nanjiani: “That’s a big improvement though. I’m worse at stand-up in the movie than I was in real life.”
Gordon: “Weeeeeell ...”
Nanjiani: “What? I was better than I am in the movie, for sure. I would do well in front of crowds. I also had my s--- together a little bit more.”
Gordon: “He didn’t have an air mattress, he had an actual bed.”
Nanjiani: “But the air mattress had just left; I had just upgraded.”
Gordon is also sure that that Nanjiani’s mother would never “ghost” her son for going out with a white girl, as threatened in the movie. “Not the woman I know,” she says.
“That was the fear, though,” says Nanjiani. “But I did not give my parents enough credit.”
Their cross-cultural union has certainly turned out to have its benefits. Cricket lover Nanjiani has taught Gordon all about the Ashes, and she introduced him to the joys of pimento cheese.
Though they banter and bicker about the details, as most couples do, Nanjiani and Gordon believe the process of turning their relationship into a movie has been good for their marriage.
“You’ve gotta check your ego a little bit, and have different hats that you wear, like the ‘spouse’ hat and the ‘co-worker’ hat and keep those boundaries clear ... but I think every couple should go back and write their origin story, even if never becomes a movie,” Gordon argues.
“It’s a really cool thing for couples to do, to get each other’s perspectives and solidify their story.”
Nanjiani looks serious for a moment. “I’m sure there’s some couples who shouldn’t do it.”
THE BIG SICK OPENS TODAY
Originally published as The Big Sick’s Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon say every couple should write their story
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