Welcome to Chippendales’ Kumail Nanjiani Dissects Performance

To portray this feeling on-screen, Nanjiani said he imagined Banerjee would move like RoboCop—just “not as cool,” according to the actor. 

However, this stiff, robotic movement had an adverse effect on Nanjiani, who formed a tight, painful knot under his shoulder during filming. “Certainly in specific scenes, it would hurt more and more,” he shared. “I was like, that’s where Steve lives. I can’t get rid of this knot until I wrap.”

In contrast, Bartlett’s character Nick, a world-renowned choreographer who took the Chippendales on tour, is confident and comfortable in his own skin.  “Kumail was talking about Steve hating himself,” Bartlett said. “I think Nick loves himself, but has an inner life that he’s hiding from everybody.”

Bartlett said that Nick’s ability to suppress his insecurities puts his character at odds with Steve, explaining, “I think it’s a little infuriating to Steve because he’s really disconnected from his body. And you can see he’s very stiff, whereas Nick is very fluid and comfortable with movement.”