Kumail Nanjiani is, by all accounts, a bloody lovely person. But like all comedians who have broken through to the promised land TV and film, he had to pick up a few odd jobs and less-than-glamourous gigs along the way. One of those gigs, back in the pre-fame days, brought him in contact with Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson. And, as Nanjiani recalls it, if you needed one more reason to go check out the flick, the story of their encounter is more than likely gonna do just nicely.
Nanjiani – co-star of this year’s utterly excellent The Big Sick whose criminal omission from the Golden Globes writing nominations should be investigated by the UN – recalled how back in 2012, well before landing the gig on Silicon Valley, he took a job hosting red carpet arrivals at the San Diego International Comic Con.
A job that he… was not very good at.
While most of the people he interviewed were disinterested and in one case rude and curt, it was a heroic flub when encountering Johnson that stuck with him the most.
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In a slightly more readable format:
I know y’all don’t need another reason to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but I’m gonna give you one more. This is a story about its director, Rian Johnson, and why he’s awesome.
In 2012, before Silicon Valley, I got a job doing interviews on the red carpet at Comic Con. I’d never done red carpet interviews before, but it was decent money and it would give me a way to go to Comic Con.
The job turned out to be very tough. I was running from red carpet to red carpet, interviewing people who were sometimes rude, sometimes fine, always disinterested.
By the way, I completely get the disinterested part. They’d been doing press all day and I was one of like 100 interviews they had that day. I get it.
The job was tough ‘cuz sometimes I’d only get 40 seconds with someone and had to give my producers something usable, otherwise it was a total bust. One person, who shall go unnamed, was so rude to me and made me feel so stupid that I got a talking to from my producer (I totally get the producer being upset, by the way). I wasn’t able to get anything usable ‘cuz he just mocked me, dismissed me, walked away. I bet he doesn’t remember, but I do.
After that awful encounter, we run across to the red carpet for Looper/Total Recall. Still upset by the encounter. They hand me the list of people walking down the red carpet that I’ll be interviewing. After a couple of people, Rian walks up. I love his work, I’m a huge fan of his.
But, in the moment, I say “Can’t wait to see the remake of Total Recall you’re directing.” I know Looper. I’m excited for it. [I] know his work. It was just one of those stupid brain things. He says “I wish! I did Looper.” I’m mortified. My ears turn hot, my producer gives me a look. I’m like “Dammit. I messed up another interview and look like a fool in front of someone I’m a huge fan of.”
But, instead of being upset, he started laughing. Not in an “at me” way. In a “with me” way. He saw how upset I was, put his hand on my shoulder, laughing. He truly went out of his way to make me feel ok, to make me not feel like a loser. He didn’t have to. He could have just been cold after that, not made such an attempt to lift me up. I would have understood. He doesn’t know me from Adam. But helped someone in crises just ‘cuz.
It truly meant so much to me in that moment, on that specific day. Especially right after someone with a millionth of his talent had dressed me down for no reason. I got the interview, finished out the worst Comic Con I’ve ever had and went home.
My two take-aways from the weekend were: 1) Red carpet interviews are tough and I’m bad at them, and 2) Rian Johnson is a good dude. (This is why I try and be nice on the carpet and give usable interviews, no matter how tired I am. If I’ve ever been rude or dismissive, I apologise.)
Anyway, cut to years later. I’m at a friend’s party, and Rian Johnson is there. Someone introduces us, he says he loves Silicon Valley, we talk for about 10 minutes and I go “I’m about to blow your mind.” ‘Cuz I knew he would remember!
I say “Remember on the Looper red carpet when someone thought you directed Total Recall?” He said yes. I say “That was me!” And we both started laughing again. I knew he would remember it! He said “Those days can get tiring so it was great to have a real moment with someone.”
I told him how much his kindness meant to me. He said it was no big deal. But it was a big deal to me. You can tell a lot about someone by how they are to people they don’t have to be nice to. He didn’t have to be nice. I was just some scrub who’d gotten his film wrong. But he was.
Anyway, that’s reason 4,908,786 to go see Star Wars: The Last Jedi on opening weekend. I know I’ll be there.
Isn’t that just the best? Two nice people being nice to each other. IT WARMS THE HEART.
Not that you needed any more encouragement to do so, but get out and see The Last Jedi as soon as you can. With all these garbage idiots galavanting about Hollywood, it’s always nice to support someone good.
