Finding the funny in diversity and comas

Husband and wife team write personal story

A medically- induced coma is an unlikely incident for a romantic comedy but that’s the conceit of The Big Sick; boy meets girl, girl breaks up with boy, boy tries to reconnect with comatose girl through her bedside parents.

The story is loosely based on the courtship between Pakistani-born standup comic and Silicon Valley sitcom star Kumail Nanjiani and his now wife Emily V. Gordon. Married 10 years, the couple decided five years ago to co-write a script based on the events revolving around Gordon’s Still’s disease and the subsequent drug- i nduced coma that assisted in her recovery.

Complicating matters was Nanjiani, who kept his nonPakistani girlfriend ( played by Zoe Kazan in the film) a secret from his traditional Pakistani Muslim mother and father even as they were trying to engineer an arranged marriage for their son.

The movie includes the sub-plot of Nanjiani’s experiences as a comic trying to make it in the competitive comedy club landscape of Chicago. First and foremost, though, is the romance reimagined with wit and style. “It was therapeutic and a great writing exercise, as well,” says Gordon with Nanjiani promoting The Big Sick in Toronto. “I would recommend it for anyone revisiting something from the past from other people’s perspectives.”

Initially, they decided to take their time by workshopping the screenplay and experimenting with the structure. When power producer Judd Apatow became their champion in 2014, Nanjiani and Gordon became more focused. With director Michael Showalter signed on, they started taking the cinematic possibility seriously.

“I was very excited,” Nanjiani says. “I worked with an acting coach for a yearand-a-half before we started filming, but while filming it also helped that I got to work with such amazing actors.”

The hiring of Kazan to play Gordon seemed appropriate for more than a few reasons.

“We do look similar but it wasn’t just my decision,” Gordon says. “When we all watched Zoey’s audition tape, she was clearly the one who came in with a fully realized woman.”

They had one more obstacle to overcome — explaining to their parents what was about to unfold.

“Once we got funding and realized this might actually happen, we talked to each of them about the whole thing so there would be no surprises,” Gordon says. “We explained to them a movie is supposed to be heightened and really schooled them on that.” Adds Nanjiani: “We literally told them, ‘ This is what really happened and this is a little different,’ to make sure they understood, and we eventually had their blessing.”

The movie had a successful debut at last winter’s Sundance Film Festival and it won the audience award at the recent SXSW Film Festival.

The husband and wife team say they weren’t trying to make an overt political statement. They were more concerned that some might feel the narrative is insensitive to a serious illness like Still’s, which Gordon continues to deal with.

“But the story supports more jokes than I thought it would,” Nanjiani says. “We found out as long as we were to true to what’s happening and true to the characters, we could get away with a lot more.”

Another collaboration is on their to- do list, although they haven’t quite figured out what that will be. Meanwhile, Gordon sold a pilot to FX.

“It’s basically about one of the jobs I had out of graduate school,” she says. “But I probably can’t talk about it.”

Nanjiani starts shooting the fifth season of Silicon Valley in October.