Kumail Nanjiani: I was told filmmakers don't want to cast non-white people as bad guys 

Kumail Nanjiani, who is known for his performance in films like Eternals, The Big Sick, and Silicon Valley, recently opened up about how Hollywood is still restricting the kinds of roles that actors of colour can play. The actor, who is currently promoting his series Welcome to Chippendales, said in a recent interview that filmmakers are hesitant to cast non-white actors as antagonists. 

Speaking to Esquire UK, the actor expressed, “I want to play more bad guys.” Referring to actor Sebastian Stan, who plays Marvel superhero the Winter Solider as well as a cannibal in the film Fresh, Nanjiani said, “He does these big Marvel movies, and then he’ll play a psychopath. I was told that’s going to be hard because people don’t want to cast nonwhite people as bad guys.”

In Welcome to Chippendales, Nanjiani plays the role of Somen Steve Banerjee, the founder of the male strippers club Chippendales. Speaking about his character in the series, Nanjiani said that the lead role may have gone to a white actor if the film was not based on a true story. The series is created by Robert Siegel and inspired by the book Deadly Dance: The Chippendales Murders by K. Scot Macdonald and Patrick MontesDeOca.