Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
Mindy Kaling says getting fired from her own sitcom was her “worst experience” in Hollywood.
Before the 46-year-old actress found fame on The Office and The Mindy Project, she and college friend and co-writer Brenda Withers were working on a show about their real life friendship, only for bosses to recast them with “much better-looking actors”.
She told The Hollywood Reporter: “I’ve had some bad experiences in Hollywood, but this was the worst experience…
“They [The WB] loved the idea of a show based on our friendship [her and Brenda Withers, her college friend with whom she co-wrote Matt and Ben], but they didn’t want us to play the leads.
“So we had to write the show, and then we had to audition against other, much better-looking actors than us, for our show.”
Despite not getting cast in their own comedy, they still had to keep working on the project.
She recalled: “Then, we didn’t get cast, so we had to produce a pilot for the show with two very beautiful and very talented actresses, and that didn’t go.
“But that show not going — that pilot not getting picked up — was the best thing that ever happened to me, because I wouldn’t have been able to write on The Office if it had.”
Mindy was glad to get the chance to work on The Office, and she was initially being hired as a writer despite her contract having a clause saying she could be “used as a performer”.
She said: “Honestly, I didn’t even know about that clause, and my agent at the time didn’t tell me about it.
“But the great thing about The Office was that … because it was a mockumentary, and it was based on the iconic and incredible British Office, everyone needed to look very normal.
“I was like, ‘I definitely look normal!’ “
She ended up landing her on-screen role because the show’s second episode Diversity Day wouldn’t have been “as funny if the room was white” with no “minorities in there who were offended” by Michael Scott’s (Steve Carrell) comments.
She explained: “Greg [Daniels, the showrunner] was like, ‘Well, could you just be on camera and be one of the people in the office?’
“And if it had been any other show, I don’t know that NBC would’ve approved it, but on this show, where we look like people you might actually know, they were like, ‘Yeah, she can do it.’
“And so, I got Taft-Hartley’d, and I got to be Kelly in that second episode [famously smacking Michael].”
