Mindy Kaling: Hollywood is not a meritocracy ‘if you’re a woman of color’

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Mindy Kaling is going to the Sundance Film Festival to premiere her new film, Late Night. She wrote the screenplay, she stars in it with Emma Thompson, and she produced it. She also made sure a woman of Indian descent, Nisha Ganatra, was hired as the director. Late Night is about an Indian-American comedy writer (played by Mindy) who becomes the “diversity hire” for a late-night talk show, with Emma playing the late-night talk show host. The fictional writers’ room is all white and mostly bros, and the film is sort of a platform for Mindy to address issues like feminism, diversity in Hollywood, the hiring of qualified women, and on and on. Don’t go into the film expecting to see a bubbly, rom-com-obsessed character talk about fashion. To promote the film, Mindy covers the Sundance-preview issue of Variety, and it’s a great read. Some highlights:

People feel like they know her: “I’ll never be this very glamorous person who people see from a distance … frosty and remote. I’ve never been demure or mysterious. People always tell me they feel like I could be their friend.”

Nisha Ganatra on why few female directors get to direct big movies. She remembers going to see “Jurassic World.” Afterward, the film’s director, Colin Trevorrow, participated in a Q&A in which he told a story about how producer Steven Spielberg saw an indie film he’d made, “Safety Not Guaranteed,” and was so impressed that he tapped him to direct the dinosaur adventure. “Steven Spielberg saw himself in that director and hired him,” Ganatra says. “That didn’t happen for me. There was no Indian female Spielberg saying, ‘Here, plucky young one: Take care of my billion-dollar franchise.’”

Mindy on “diversity hiring”: “There used to be a sense of obligation — of being shamed into having a token person of color to prove that you weren’t racist. Now people are realizing it’s actually valuable to have different perspectives. It’s actually a better way to make money and to reach more people.”

Whether white bros in writers’ rooms have ever mocked her because of her race: “Obviously I’m making a comedy movie, so things are exaggerated for comic effect, but similar things have happened to me in my career. It’s not so much that the people in the film that I portray are bigoted. They’ve just been sheltered by the status quo. And every one of these people in the movie change. They’re not evil. They evolve.”

Telling a “coming to Hollywood” story through the perspective of an Indian woman: “So much of this movie is about being a fan and being on the outside of the entertainment business. That story has been told many, many, many times by 52-year-old white men, and I love all those movies. And as a comedy nerd I’ve always identified with them because it was the closest thing that I could identify with. There was no one like me making those kind of films.”

Whether Mindy believes comedy/Hollywood is a meritocracy: “For many years, I thought that hard work was the only way you could succeed, but it’s simply not true. Particularly if you’re a woman of color, you need people to give you opportunities, because otherwise it won’t happen. Talent is an important part of success, but you also need mentors to find promise in people that don’t necessarily seem like they will fit in.”

Working on Late Night just months after giving birth: “Don’t do it,” she advises young mothers. “You don’t want to have to breastfeed between scenes.”

On the danger of complacency: “Almost no one who is funny when they were younger is still funny when they’re old. Success is terrible because as you get more successful, it leeches away your talent. It makes you rich and it makes you complacent.”

[From Variety]

I like what she says about meritocracy, which is basically that the meritocracy exists, but only for white dudes. For women of color, it’s not just about merit and hard work, it’s about opportunity and mentorship. I’ve never thought Mindy has gotten enough credit for being as groundbreaking as she is, not just as a high-profile Indian-American woman on screen, but as a talented writer, producer, director, showrunner, etc. When she talked about people getting less funny and more complacent as they get older and more successful, I felt that too. Damn.

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Photos courtesy of WENN, cover courtesy of Variety.

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18 Responses to “Mindy Kaling: Hollywood is not a meritocracy ‘if you’re a woman of color’”

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  1. lana86 says:

    Love her!!

  2. Abby says:

    I’ve always thought if we met in person, we would be friends. 🙂 Sorry Mindy! She has some great things to say here.

  3. Maya says:

    Bang on and I just love her.

  4. Sarah says:

    Can’t wait for her four weddings and a funeral remake. Just wish she would stop messing with her lips, but that’s what Hollywood does to people.

  5. Cidy says:

    Shes amazing!

  6. Nev says:

    Yayyyyy Mindy!

  7. CommentingBunny says:

    My girl crush! Just a couple of days ago I went down a youtube spiral that started with a video of Mindy saying “how dare you.” I ended up wasting so much time on Kelly Kapoor clips 🤣

  8. OriginalLala says:

    I LOVE Mindy! that is all 🙂

  9. BaronSamedi says:

    She is so great and that’s why it so sad to me that she messed with her face. It is so prominent that it’s the first thing I think about whenever I see. I absolutely cannot take her seriously anymore. It’s the Nicole Kidman, Meg Ryan, etc. problem…

  10. ElleBee says:

    You see Gina??? This is how to uplift your people without trying to throw others under the bus!

  11. Tiffany says:

    So all it took was her working with Ava to change her tune. Yep, I said it.

  12. lucy2 says:

    I’m glad to see her in more stuff, especially if she’s producing. The movie sounds good.
    It’s also good to hear she made sure the directing job went to someone who may not get as much opportunity. When you succeed, pull others up along with you.

  13. Patty says:

    It’s sad that she’s been tweaking her face and still doesn’t wear foundation that is right for her skin. Mindy has great things to say sometimes but she also strikes me as someone who is desperate for white people to accept and approve her. And then there’s that whole BJ Novak thing, yuck.

  14. ST says:

    I can’t comment about Steven Spielberg, but I remember reading an interview with Francis Ford Coppola, and the interviewer asked him about his daughter’s first movie, The Virgin Suicides. I’m paraphrasing his response but when he saw it, he said he was relieved to see men in the movie. Why would this be so important? What does Francis think other people in the US do when they don’t see themselves in movies? They go to the movies anyway. It was truly a disappointment because I admire him so much. The interviewer did not ask him why that would be a requirement but this is an unacknowledged blindspot that I suspect many have. In other words, if you don’t look like me then I can’t relate to you. I can’t relate to you, your story or anything about you. It’s not about your talent. I can’t see myself in you.

    • Sam says:

      Coppola has continued to support and defend Victor Salva. He’s gross. Probably should just stick to his vineyard.

  15. Mumbles says:

    Someone should ask playwright Annie Baker how supportive Mindy is to other women (esp women who are more talented than her, like Baker is).

    • lucy2 says:

      I haven’t heard about this so I looked it up. Unless I missed something, that accusation only came from Mindy’s brother, who is…problematic, to say the least.