Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon on Turning Their Real-Life Love Into a Rom-Com Hit
In a crowded box office of reboots, sequels, and superheroes, good romantic comedies are increasingly hard to find.
But with The Big Sick, comedian Kumail Nanjiani and his therapist-turned-writer wife Emily V. Gordon have created a near-perfect entry into the rom-com hall of fame — one that's entirely based on their own real-life love story.
The Big Sick follows a struggling Chicago comedian named Kumail (and played by Kumail) whose devout Muslim parents want nothing more than for him to take a Pakistani bride. But alas, he instead falls in love with a white grad student named Emily (played by Zoe Kazan). Weeks into their relationship, however, she falls ill and is placed in a medically induced coma.
Spoiler alert, which you probably figured out by Emily's involvement in co-writing the script: She pulls through.
Five years after the incident, the couple began exploring ways to turn their experience into a film.
"What you don't want is a comedy that comes at the expense of the person that's sick," Emily tells TheFIX. "It has to feel real, it has to feel grounded, it has to feel respectful to the person that's in the coma. But if you've been through any kind of medical situation or know anyone who has, you realise there are parts of it that are kind of ridiculous and funny. You're in this situation where you're so helpless."
Adds 39-year-old Kumail, "All comedy is pretty much people dealing with a situation that they're not equipped to deal with."
The result is a cosy gem of a movie that's equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking. But despite the indie film's smash success in the US, the couple isn't certain they'd go down this road again.
"I feel like having something this personal out there for everyone to see, you feel a little vulnerable all the time," admits Kumail.
Emily, however, does have one idea for a possible follow-up project:
"We could make a movie about this experience, which is just us promoting a movie about ourselves and then we're just fully Being John Malkovich at this point and going inside our own brains," she laughs. "I don't think anything as bizarre as what's happened in this year of our life has happened – yet."
The Big Sick is in Australian cinemas now.
