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Kumail Nanjiani endearingly refers to his Eternals superpowers as 'finger guns'

The actor and his Eternals costar Salma Hayek were a delight discussing their upcoming Marvel movie.

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Published on October 15, 2021 10:36AM EDT

Jimmy Kimmel had a fairly routine question for his guest Kumail Nanjiani on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live Thursday night. It was after they screened a scene from his new Marvel movie Eternals, wherein we see his character Kingo fight a villain known as a Deviant.

"What are your powers exactly?" Kimmel asked. The answer was late-night TV gold.

"I shoot... I shoot s--- from my hands," Kumail said, struggling not to laugh as he sat by Eternals costar Salma Hayek. "Finger guns!"

"I got to work and I said, 'So, how do I shoot?'" the actor remembers asking director Chloe Zhao on the set of Eternals. "Chloe was like, 'Finger guns.' I was like, 'Chloe, that's so goofy.' She's like, 'No! It's gonna be finger guns... I promise it'll look cool.' And so I felt stupid for six months doing this [mimics finger guns] every day."

But he referred to the clip that just screened and exclaimed, "It looks pretty cool!"

The Eternals of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are a group of near-immortal super-beings who came to earth centuries ago to protect humanity from creatures known as the Deviants. In the present day, Nanjiani's Kingo blends into society as a Bollywood megastar.

Kumail Nanjiani on Marvel Studios’ Eternals — Kumail Nanjiani's Kingo doing with that actor calls 'finger guns' in Marvel's 'Eternals'. Marvel Studios

Hayek, who plays the wise leader of the Eternals called Ajak, noticed Nanjiani practicing all his finger movements on set, from his "finger guns" to the Bollywood gestures to ASL, the latter of which Kingo uses to communicate with his deaf teammate, speedster Makkari (Lauren Ridloff).

"Sometimes you would see him on his own going..." Hayek said before going into a trance to do all these different motions with her hands. "You didn't know if it was the Bollywood or sign language or coming up with different ways [for finger guns," she added.

Watch Nanjiani and Hayek on Jimmy Kimmel Live, starting at the 8-minute mark in the video above.

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Kumail Nanjiani endearingly refers to his Eternals superpowers as 'finger guns'

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