When Kumail Met Obi-Wan….

Nanjiani and McGregor Inside the World of Star Wars

Sometimes the most remarkable Star Wars story of the week hits the net on a Tuesday (and you read it on a Wednesday, posting about it on a Thursday). Hey, I have a 9-to-5 job and three kids!

Now, what do you think you would do if you:

1. Got signed to act in a Star Wars project.
2. Then got to act alongside Ewan McGregor.

Me, I would pretty well do what I did in my sixth-grade musical – forget my lines and mumble through the entire show.

Starstruck on Star Wars?

Now, Kumail Nanjiani is “a little” more experienced than I; however, his reaction was at least in the realm of my own grade-school stagefright (if not being starstruck).

Recently, the red hot actor (set to star in Eternals) told Rolling Stone’s Brian Hiatt that, on the day he found out about the part, he was called by his agency – all of his agency.

I was like, “OK, this is either amazing news or really awful news.” And they’re like, “They want you to play a part in Obi-Wan, and apparently it’s substantial.” So then I talked to [director Deborah Chow] and we had a great conversation.”

Unique to the Universe

That conversation led to a unique character for Nanjiani.

[T]he character sounded awesome — I was so excited… We haven’t seen this exact thing in Star Wars yet. This is like a new version of a type of Star Wars character we’ve seen before. And she was trying to sell me on it. And I was like, “I was gonna do it before the conversation!”

But that’s not even the starstruck piece of it for Nanjiani.

Nanjiani encountered the Star Wars galaxy’s Obi-Wan at work, and let’s say Kumail needed to be brought down to earth by McGregor.

“[T]here was this weird moment where I’m talking to Ewan, and they yell “Action,” and he’d started talking to me, and I was like, “Oh, I’m talking to Obi-Wan right now. This is not Ewan McGregor. This is Obi-Wan Kenobi that I’m talking to.” My character is supposed to be a little bit intimidated by him, and I was a little bit intimidated. You know, it’s… Obi-Wan, what are you gonna do?

Well, if you are Kenobi, you say, “You know, none of this is real.”

Inside the World of Star Wars

Now, McGregor was talking about the fantastic digital backgrounds on the set. However, it probably didn’t hurt Nanjani to plant his feet on the ground; that’s especially so because of his lifelong fandom.”

“It’s amazing to be inside the world of Star Wars, the world that I’ve been watching since I was born,” he told Rolling Stone. “I’ve been a fan as long as I can remember.”

About Post Author

John Bishop

A graduate of Boston U. and Northeastern University, John Bishop, became the beat reporter for BostonBruins.com before the Boston Bruins 2006-07 NHL hockey season. While with the Black & Gold, “^BISH” traveled North America and Europe to cover the team’s every move via laptop, blog, and smartphone. The co-author of two books, “Bygone Boston” and “Full 60 to History: The Inside Story of the 2011 Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins,” John also covered the XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver in 2010 and the Bs 2011 Stanley Cup championship run and banner raising before taking a faculty/communications position at a prep school outside Boston in 2013. He lives with his wife Andrea, and sons Jack, Scott, and Luke, in central Massachusetts.

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