Muscles, murder and mayhem: Stripping back the layers on the Chippendales
Quentin Plair in a scene from Welcome to Chippendales, on Disney+.
When Kumail Nanjiani signed up to lead a new series based on the Chippendales, his knowledge of the male dance troupe, like many of us, was limited to risqué performances and a particular uniform.
“I knew it was a cultural phenomenon and had seen it [parodied by Patrick Swayze] as part of a Saturday Night Live sketch…” admits the Pakistani-American actor, 44.
“I knew it was cuffs, collars and bow ties, but I had no idea of the backstory, that it was so wild and full of crime.”
It’s a narrative unbeknown to many – yet it’s one that Disney+ is set to explore in its latest biographical drama, Welcome to Chippendales.
Created by Robert Siegel and inspired by the 2014 book Deadly Dance: The Chippendales Murders by K Scot Macdonald and Patrick MonstesDeOca, the eight-part miniseries – dubbed a sprawling true-crime saga – details the darkly comedic, crime-ridden story behind the male revue.
Specifically, it tells the story of Somen ‘Steve’ Banerjee, an Indian immigrant who became the unlikely founder of the stripping empire – and let nothing stand in his way in the process.
For Pakistan-born Nanjiani, who has become synonymous for such comic roles as Dinesh in the HBO hit Sillicone valley, playing someone like Banerjee was a chance to flex a different muscle entirely.
His portrayal follows the character as he navigates the ups and downs of business: from first having purchased failing LA bar Destiny II to establishing the exotic Chippendales in 1979 for a thrilled female audience.
But while he worked to transform his failing club into a lucrative enterprise, the sold-out dance tours, VHS tapes and merchandise were underpinned by sex, drugs, and murder.
“I’d never gotten the opportunity to play someone like him before; someone who does have so much darkness and then doesn’t reckon with it,” Nanjiani says of landing the role.
However, the lack of overt comedy and the “emotional work” required was certainly a challenge, he says, explaining: “It wasn’t as much getting into the emotions, but sometimes it was about how to get out of it after a scene.
“But Emma Thompson once said, ‘When you go on stage, you start your job. And then when it’s over, you walk off and then you’re done’. And so to me, having that attitude to it was very important because I didn’t want to take any of that stuff home with me.”
Were there also conversations had about the way in which the series confronts themes of racism, sexism and sexual exploitation?
“It deals with racism in a way that I find very nuanced,” Nanjiani notes. “I don’t think any of these things we can have any answers about – all you can do is ask the questions and show the world as it is.
“And I think this show does that and it explores, for me, racism in a way that I have never seen explored before in American pop culture.”
For example, he elaborates: “I think it’s interesting that we see Steve being the victim of racism and then also the perpetrator of racism – race dynamics are complicated like that.
“You like to think that people who have traditionally been marginalised would have more empathy for other groups that have been marginalised but that’s kind of not the case,” he says.
“People who are bullied will turn around and bully other people. And I hadn’t really seen that very much.
“Usually when you see racism happen in pop culture, it’s got a very specific perspective, but it was interesting here to have minorities bumping up against each other in that way. I know it’s going to be provocative.”
“There’s also a duty, when you do a period piece, to help the audience reflect on what was wrong and right in that period of time…” adds his co-star Annaleigh Ashford, who plays his wife Irene Banerjee.
“And if you’re looking back on that era you lived in, how you could have done better”
“Another thematic strand in this is we look back at the Chippendales emergence and it is sort of connected to the women’s liberation movement – it was the first time in the history of mankind where men were not just watching women take off clothes, the tables were turned,” states the Masters of Sex actor, 37.
“But it was still being run by men – and it was also an accident. Nobody got into this saying, ‘We need to liberate women and their sexuality. It was like, ‘Oh we can make money off of this’.
“So I found my character was an interesting window into how the women who were a part of this business were not only treated, but also the way that they had to get in, which was through men,” she says.
Also joining Nanjiani and Ashford in the ensemble cast are Juliette Lewis as no-nonsense Denise, who goes from Chippendales groupie to loyal right-hand consigliere to Nick; and Nicola Peltz Beckham (married to Brooklyn Beckham) as Dorothy, a key player in the founding of the Chippendales. It all has the potential to be one of the early TV hits of the year.
- Welcome to Chippendales premieres on Disney+ on Wednesday, January 11
