Kumail Nanjiani says 'Eternals' reviews led him to start counseling: 'I do have trauma'

When the reviews came in for the 2021 Marvel film "Eternals," the impact hit deeply for Kumail Nanjiani.

The actor opened up as a guest on the podcast "Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum" about how being on a global press tour while the less-than-favorable reviews came in caused the actor to pursue counseling.

"I do have trauma from it," he said while sharing the experience.

Nanjiani said that Marvel was sure the movie was going to receive positive reviews, so the Disney property lifted the embargo early and sent the cast on a world tour to promote the film. But things didn't play out entirely as planned.

"The reviews were really bad," Nanjiani recalled. "I was too aware of it. I was reading every review. I was checking too much. This thing had become too much in my head."

He said an additional layer to the situation was that the film came out in 2021 after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and everything felt particularly "heightened."

"I think there was some weird soup in the atmosphere for why that movie got slammed so much, and I think not much of it has to do with the actual quality of the movie,” he said.

“It was really hard, and that was when I thought it was unfair to me and unfair to [my wife] Emily, and I can’t approach my work this way anymore. Some s--- has to change. So I started counseling. I still talk to my therapist about that.”

That said, Nanjiani said he's incredibly proud of that movie regardless of what critics said.

"I can't be so results based in my work anymore because I can't really control it," he said. "I can control my experience. I can control how I am to the people around me. I can control what I learn form it. I can control how I work. I can't control what people are gonna think of it."

The actor opened up earlier in the podcast about having anxiety and said that he realized a few years ago that it was becoming "untenable." He continues to see a therapist and has incorporated a daily meditation practice to help.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com