Mindy Kaling is showrunner and creator of a new show called Running Point. It’s loosely based on the real-like Lakers president Jeanie Buss, but with a Mindy Kaling-flare. It stars Kate Hudson as a party-girl heiress who has to assume the management of her family’s NBA team. It’s got a dash of Succession, because she has loutish brothers. Plus a dash of Ted Lasso, because it’s also about the team and the players. Time Magazine profiled Mindy about the show and she ended up talking a lot about possibly getting back into acting and how she filmed an episode of the Duchess of Sussex’s With Love, Meghan. This is the second time Mindy has done something with Meghan – Mindy also appeared on Archetypes, and now the Netflix show. Mindy is a big squadie, I think. Some highlights from Time:
How ‘Running Point’ came to be: “It was actually Jeanie Buss who reached out because she liked The Mindy Project and The Office. So many people write about her and make shows where she’s a tertiary character. She was like, “I run this. I want to be a producer on a show about my own life.” She is so open. We consult her for real-life details all the time. There have been very specific players or very specific people in her personal life where she’ll say, “Maybe we won’t touch upon that,” but she says that far less than any other person I’ve ever known. She really gave Ike Barinholtz, Dave Stassen, and I carte blanche on her life because she wanted it to be funny. And she knew the realer it gets, the funnier it will be.”
On Kate Hudson’s rom-com queen credentials: “Kate Hudson and other rom-com stars—like Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock—are the type of people who can say tough things, and you don’t dislike them for saying it. We’re really stealing that for her in this boss role because she’s a tough employer. Also, Kate is so iconically L.A. She’s from her own Hollywood dynasty. She has known Jeanie since she was a kid. She has been going to Lakers games since she was little. She is really involved in that L.A. world.
Whether Mindy will ever come back to acting: “Thank you for asking. I always feel flattered when people remember that I’m a performer since it’s been such a long time. Every show that we’ve done, I’ve been tempted. Never Have I Ever was literally about an Indian-American family living in Southern California. If I can’t cast myself in this world, I don’t know when I will. But nobody was writing, “Where’s Mindy? Why isn’t she on the show?” Maybe it’s better to not be in them. Right now I have three kids under the age of 7, but I miss it. I would like to return to screen in the next couple years.”
How she appears in ‘With Love, Meghan’: “I was on maternity leave with my daughter in March and April, and Meghan texted me that she was doing a show where she was going to cook for her friends. Would I want to come to Montecito and have her cook for me? I wanted to get taken care of in that moment of my life. That was a fun maternity leave field trip. And I left with a basket of fresh produce and homemade jam and hot sauce because she knew I loved hot sauce. She’s a very generous woman who knew I needed a break.”
Whether she picked up any hosting tips from Meghan: “Spoiler alert: I did. The theme was throwing a party for children. I love cooking, but I’m really not good at entertaining. I don’t know anything about how you’re not supposed to use overhead lighting when people come over. You’re supposed to use little lamps. But Meghan just knows how to do that stuff. For kids’ parties I usually just go to the party supply store and get paper things, which I don’t judge and neither does she. But it was fun to learn simple ways to do a homemade kids’ party. I think a misconception about Meghan is that she’s in any way fussy or has expectations of fanciness. She really is a down-to-earth person who knows a lot of fun tricks to make entertaining and cooking easier.
“For kids’ parties I usually just go to the party supply store and get paper things, which I don’t judge and neither does she.” Don’t let the Daily Mail get ahold of this interview, they’ll spin a conspiracy that Meghan was the one who took down the Middletons’ Party Pieces!!! Or they’ll say Meghan was obviously referencing the Middleton family business and they should sue the Sussexes! Anyway, I love that Mindy really dials down the drama when it comes to talking about Meghan. As for Running Point, it comes out at the end of the month on Netflix. I might give it a try.
Photos courtesy of Netflix, Cover Images, Avalon Red.
