Actress unlikely to rest on laurels when series ends
When we last saw “The Mindy Project,” a newly married Mindy Lahiri was gazing out a subway window when a shadow of doubt crossed her face. Which was crazy, because wasn’t this what she’d always wanted?
Blame Mindy Kaling, who wasn’t about to let her alterego off the hook with a fairy-tale ending in the series’ sixth and final season, starting Tuesday on the streaming service Hulu.
“The joy of being the show runner on this with my partner, Matt Warburton, is that we just torture the character,” she said. “She has so many flaws, and does so many questionable things, that we have to put her through the wringer. Inarguably she has the nicest husband, a wonderful child and a great stepdaughter. But we needed it not to be perfect for her.”
Maybe she was saving perfection for her real life.
In a whirlwind year, Kaling — who is expecting her first child — is seguing from “Mindy” into “Champions,” her midseason NBC series about a slacker gym owner whose highschool fling (Kaling) drops their son on his doorstep.
She is also portraying Mrs. Who in Ava DuVernay’s “A Wrinkle in Time” and will appear with Rihanna and Cate Blanchett in Gary Ross’ “Ocean’s Eight,” both set for release next year.
Her workaholic madness is a preemptive strike against “Mindy” withdrawal, Kaling, 38, acknowledged during a phone call from Los Angeles.
“I’m not one of those sophisticated people who are like, ‘I just needed a couple months to read a lot of books and reflect,’” she said. “I would malfunction and get very depressed.”
How do you feel as you wrap up your show?
Today is actually our last table read. I’m not an overly sentimental person, and I had this specific kind of stress, which was, “This show has made a profound difference in my life, and I love it, but will people think I’m a sociopath if I don’t cry?” But this morning my alarm went off and I started brimming with tears — so, luckily, my sentimentality came surprisingly easily.
Where do we find Mindy now?
She has a marriage so short that it would rival a Liza Minnelli-Kim Kardashian marriage. But the cool thing is Mindy abandoning what she thinks is a childish pose of “my life can be a romantic comedy” and having a sad, weary, cynical take. That’s how we kick off the season, and, by the end, I want the audience to be rooting for her to take that back.
What do you consider your show’s legacy?
God, maybe I’ve been watching too much “Game of Thrones,” but I feel like I’m a person who could very easily slip into the narcissism of a mad king obsessed with his legacy. I try not to think about legacy too much because it can steer me awry while I’m still making the thing I’m making. I don’t want to be the sweet wife. And, yeah, if that can be the legacy, and I had really funny jokes and said crazy things that women had not said before, then that’s really nice.