Kumail Najiani Says That Getting Buff Gave Him Body Dysmorphia
Kumail Najiani is still buff and he’s still talking about it. We’ve got another year of The Eternals promo to thank for this. Kumail is now covering the latest issue of Men’s Health, and he’s letting us know the dark-side to getting buff. He apparently developed body dysmorphia after getting a superhero bod.
41-year-old Kumail said that it’s not just us who saw his buff pictures and then realized how much we hate our own bodies, the same thing happened to him! Kumail talked about how he was made fun of pre-sexy body by one of Hollywood’s hunks:
“A few years ago. I was working with a great guy–I won’t say who, but he’s a very handsome, really in-shape guy–who was making fun of me for being doughy. And I was like, “I could weigh another 50 pounds and I’ll still work. But if you gain ten pounds, you’ll never work another day in your life.””
Drag her, Kumail! He told Men’s Health that he brought his trainer a picture of Bollywood action star, Hrithik Roshan, and asked to look like him. Mission accomplished. Kumail said that working out for a Marvel movie taught him what working out really was:
“I realized, if this is what working out is, I’ve never really worked out a moment in my life… I had to change my relationship to pain. You’re so designed to avoid it, but in that situation you really have to be okay with it. You have to want it. It’s almost trying to rewire your brain.”
His wife, Emily Gordon, recalls when his hot shirtlessness was revealed:
“Half the messages I got that day were from people being like, “Hey, I want to have sex with your husband,” ” says Gordon, “and the other half were from people making sure I was okay with my husband’s naked body being everywhere.” She compares the experience to that of The Big Sick: “It took a very private thing from our lives and made it incredibly public. And all I could be was really proud, because he looks amazing.”
Here’s Kumail showing off his action star abs as Wolverine, Maverick, John McClane, and Patrick Bateman:
Kumail said that he did get self-conscious though because of all the working out:
“I don’t want to discount people who genuinely have debilitating body issues,” he says. “I don’t have that. But I did start getting some body dysmorphia. I’d look in the mirror and I’d see my abs–and when I looked again, they would fade. I would just see the flaws.” The Instagram photos helped. “When I saw that reaction was when I was like, “Okay, I clearly don’t see what’s actually there.” It’s something that I’m trying to be aware of and be better at, because that’s not a good way to be. You want to be easy on yourself.”
Yeah, I believe it. Thank god we’re not beautiful famous people who can hire personal trainers to make us even more beautiful and give us body issues, amirite? Will never be us! We just get body issues the old-fashioned way by comparing ourselves to beautiful famous people who hire personal trainers and get plastic surgery. Yay!
Pic: Men’s Health