Not My Job: Mindy Kaling Gets Quizzed On Do-It-Yourself Projects
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Saturday, November 28, 2015
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Since Kaling was the star of The Mindy Project, we're going to ask her to play a game called "The Home Improvement Project." Originally broadcast June 20, 2015.
Transcript
PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Mindy Kaling went from an unknown to the surprise star of "The Office" to producing and starring in her own sitcom, "The Mindy Project," so quickly, it's hard to believe that she was not a child star.
BILL KURTIS: But when we interviewed her, she insists she never showed a flash of talent.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)
MINDY KALING: No. I was - I was, like, a silent, sullen, fat kid.
(LAUGHTER)
KALING: That was my thing.
SAGAL: Really?
KALING: Yeah. I was kind of - like, I was kind of unfriendly and suspicious of everyone around me. (Laughter) And I kind of - I didn't talk until I was about 15. It's a kind of famous story at my house.
SAGAL: Really? So you were...
KALING: Yeah.
FAITH SALIE: Were you writing furiously in a diary or something? How were you expressing yourself?
KALING: That would've been so much better. I...
(LAUGHTER)
KALING: I did a little bit of - I did a little bit of writing, but mostly I was just, like, harboring jealousies and anxieties.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Really?
KALING: Yeah.
LUKE BURBANK: It's so great that you got into this kind of work, then, 'cause there's no room for jealousy or anxiety in Hollywood.
SAGAL: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
KALING: Yeah. I found it to be smooth sailing - 100 percent smooth sailing my whole career. So…
SAGAL: I think that - yeah, obviously everything's gone perfectly well for you. But in a weird way, it has 'cause you're extremely funny and talented. And did you – when you did start, like, acting that way?
KALING: Well, I think - when I was younger I would audition for plays in junior high and high school, and I would always get cast as, like, the homeless woman or vagrant.
(LAUGHTER)
BURBANK: Was that a high school play or a Phil Collins video?
KALING: Yeah, I know, exactly. And so my parents would come to shows, and - God bless them - they would try to muster up some excitement. They were like, oh, I see - I see you're playing another hobo. And I'm like, yes, thanks.
(LAUGHTER)
KALING: So that, like, happened, like, 23 consecutive times until I moved to New York City after college. And then - and then I wrote a play. And then after that play, I got hired on "The Office."
SAGAL: So you did incredibly well on "The Office." You became well-known, and you got your own sitcom. And could you describe the character that you chose to play on that sitcom? You created it yourself, right?
KALING: Yeah. She's kind of a disaster. Like, she's a very - Mindy Lahiri, the character I play on "The Mindy Project" - is, like, very selfish, very wild. The kind of fun thing about the show is that my character has dated more men than I've ever met in my life.
SAGAL: Really?
(LAUGHTER)
KALING: Yeah. Like, she's dated - I think she's dated, like - I think I've certainly made out with, like, 30 men on my show or something like that.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: I understand that in your book, you reveal that all actors lie about sex scenes in some way?
KALING: Yes, I - that is probably my biggest contribution, I think, with my book - is that I...
(LAUGHTER)
KALING: Every actor pretends that they hate sex scenes, and the truth is that they all love them, and they're lying.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Now, wait a minute.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: My understanding of the way sex scenes work - and I've never been on a set for a sex scene, but I've read about them - is that you're surrounded by crew, and you're cold, and you have to do it eight times 'cause they didn't get the lighting. It doesn't sound pleasant, but you think that actors actually enjoy it?
KALING: Oh, 100 percent. Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
KALING: I mean, you basically get to make out with a good-looking stranger, and it's like the only loophole in existence were like that is allowable within marriage.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: So, Mindy, I want to ask you about the new Pixar movie "Inside Out." It all takes place - or mostly takes place inside the mind of a little girl, and you play one of her emotions. You play Disgust. So what was it like when they came to you and said, we want you, Mindy Kaling, to voice Disgust?
KALING: I said, how dare you.
(LAUGHTER)
KALING: I've never been so insulted in my life (laughter). I'm a beautiful angel. How could you pick me for Disgust?
(LAUGHTER)
BURBANK: Frankly, I'm disgusted you would even suggest that.
KALING: And I'm disgusted. And then I was like wait a second. I like this character. I know I was just upset. Well, the thing with the character of Disgust is she's - she is, like, a tiny, green, mean girl. She's, like, a 12-year-old girl who's, like, incredibly impatient and hates everything and is always rolling her eyes.
SAGAL: Right.
KALING: So I feel like I've made a career off of playing versions of this.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Right.
(LAUGHTER)
KALING: So this was a character, as they say, that was in my wheelhouse.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Well, Mindy Kaling, what a pleasure to talk to you. We've invited you to play a game we're calling...
KURTIS: It's The Home Improvement Project.
SAGAL: So you do a show called "The Mindy Project."
KALING: No, I understood it, and I enjoy it. Thank you.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: All right.
(AAPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Let just explain for the slower people. You have a show called "The Mindy Project," so we thought we'd ask you three questions about different kind of projects - home improvement projects. Get two of these right, you will win our prize for one of our listeners. That prize, of course, Carl Kasell's voice. Bill Curtis, who is Mindy Kaling playing for?
KURTIS: Olivia Otieno (ph) from Nairobi, Kenya.
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: Oh.
SAGAL: Really? Nairobi.
BURBANK: Wow.
KALING: Whoa.
SAGAL: Yeah, I know. It's heavy.
(LAUGHTER)
KALING: The heat is on.
SAGAL: On two separate occasions - this is your first question. On two separate occasions, Home Depot has faced lawsuits from would-be do-it-yourselfers who were very upset when they went to a Home Depot and what happened? A - they went to the restroom and found that the toilet seats were strongly, quote, "adhesive," unquote; B - floor staffers called them, quote, "Homo-Depot-sexuals" (ph)…
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: …Or C - they searched the store for someone to help them and realized the place had been completely abandoned for hours.
KALING: Abandoned how? Like, "Walking Dead"-style, where there's, like, (inaudible). I don't understand.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: That would be - that would be more helpful. I have been at the Home Depot...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: ...looking for help for hours. And if I had seen a zombie...
BURBANK: Yeah.
SAGAL: ...With the apron, I would've asked the zombie for help.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: All right, but one of those things happened twice, leading to lawsuits.
KALING: OK. I wish it was the first one because that is a - that's a great image to have in my head, but I feel it's the last one.
SAGAL: The answer actually was the first one.
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: Oh.
SAGAL: It was the adhesive toilet seats.
KALING: Oh, man.
SAGAL: They feel that the adhesive - this happened once in Colorado and once in St. Louis, and they actually think that that the St. Louis incident was a copycat gluer.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Somebody heard about the first incident and said, I'm to do that at my Home Depot. All right.
KALING: Yeah.
SAGAL: Customers themselves sometimes misbehave down at the Home Depot, such as the case in which two people did what? A - used one of those pre-assembled storage sheds they've got in the parking lot for a private assignation, if you know what I mean; B - had a loud and dangerous light saber fight in the aisle with fluorescent tubes…
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: …C, tried to give one of the many toilets on display a real-life test.
(LAUGHTER)
KALING: It is my God-given right to go to a shed at any Home Depot and do what I like in there, OK?
(LAUGHTER)
KALING: What if it was - what if it was - what if was the first one?
SAGAL: What if it was the first one?
KALING: Yeah.
SAGAL: If it was the first one, I'd say you are right. Do you want to pick the first one?
KALING: I want to pick the first one.
SAGAL: You're right. Hey.
(APPLAUSE)
KALING: (Inaudible).
SAGAL: This happened in South Carolina - 2013. The couple was removed from the shed and charged with indecent exposure and disorderly conduct. All right. Last question, Mindy. If you get this right, you win. There are plenty of celebrity home improvement specialists you can turn to on TV, including which of these? A - Lee Majors, host of "The $6 Million Bathroom;" B - Mr. T., host of "I Pity The Tool." Or, C, Mikael Gorbachev, former Soviet premier, host of "Tear Down That Wall And Put Up A New One."
(LAUGHTER)
KALING: It couldn't - the second one is so silly. That can't be real.
BURBANK: Have you seen TV?
(LAUGHTER)
KALING: You're right. I'm also - I also produce the silliest show on TV.
SAGAL: Yeah.
KALING: OK, yeah, maybe the second one.
SAGAL: Mr. T., "I Pity The Tool" - is that your choice?
KALING: Is that - yes, that's my choice.
SAGAL: It is true. That is the one.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Bill, how did Mindy Kaling do on our show?
KURTIS: Mindy got two right. The audience got three right.
(LAUGHTER)
KURTIS: So put them together, and Mindy's a winner.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Congratulations, Mindy.
KALING: Thank you.
SAGAL: Mindy Kaling is, of course, a TV star and producer, a best-selling author and stars in the new Pixar movie "Inside Out." Mindy Kaling, thank you so much for joining us. What fun to talk to you.
(APPLAUSE)
KALING: Thank you, guys.
SAGAL: Bye-bye.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: When we come back, Richard Price, one of the best storytellers we've ever spoken to, and Tom Ricketts, the owner of the Chicago Cubs, who we interviewed before his team broke his heart, again. We'll be back with more of WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME from NPR.
KURTIS: Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Subaru, with the eighth annual Share The Love event through January 2. More information about the events and the not-for-profit organizations that it supports. Visit subaru.com/share. Love - it's what makes a Subaru a Subaru. LifeLock, reminding consumers that while shopping online or in stores this holiday season, a trail of personal information's left behind, increasing risk of identity theft. More at lifelock.com, and Progressive insurance, working to make progress for more than 75 years. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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