- 7 weeks ago
"We definitely wanted an African-American woman to be the star and we wanted a British Pakistani man to be the male lead," Kaling explained. "That felt different and worth doing."
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Hi, I'm Mindy Kaling and I'm Tracy Wigfield and we're in studio with The Hollywood Reporter
00:09Very exciting, Four Weddings and a Funeral. The first thing I wanted to ask you is what's your most
00:15romantic comedy moment in real life?
00:18Romantic comedy moment in real life?
00:21These days I'm having more of those like, you know, new parent baby comedy moments and romantic comedy moment.
00:29Where it's like, I'm answering the door. I met my husband on Mindy's show.
00:35So that was kind of romantic. I wish you had been foes at the beginning. I know.
00:39But you were friends to start. No, unfortunately, he never was like trying to stick it to me or something.
00:43And then you found love. I bested him in the office and then in the bedroom. That didn't happen.
00:48I went to, I went to, I was at a wedding once
00:52that a hurricane hit that felt like it was, like from a movie. It was like, it was in Texas
00:58and it destroyed the whole thing. We all got alerts on our phone that was like, a hurricane's coming.
01:04And then it did. And it like hit the whole tent, got knocked over and we had to all hide
01:09in the catering house.
01:10It felt like something romantic to happen, but it was like scary.
01:14So it's kind of romantic comedy slash horror.
01:16Yeah, yeah, that's right.
01:17There are so many great meet-cutes in Four Weddings.
01:21Yes.
01:22What was your meet-cute?
01:24Oh, we have a good one.
01:25We do have a good meet-cute. We have a couple of things.
01:27One is, so we were working on the Mindy Project season one and then 30 Rock was ending when our,
01:32the fall that we were starting.
01:33And we kept hearing about writers over there that might have been good to hire when 30 Rock ended.
01:39And one name that came up was this girl, Tracy Wakefield. And I was like, she's so funny. And you
01:43know, she got married really young and has a kid and she's, so she's married and has a kid and
01:49the kids are like 10 years old.
01:51And we're like, what an interesting story.
01:53What a Christian woman.
01:54What a Christian woman.
01:55And what a, what a true love story. And then, and Jack Burnett, your, your friend.
01:59And so, and then she came to work on the show and for a while we didn't know that that
02:05was your deal until someone was like, how old is your son?
02:08I was like, no son, single woman.
02:10Single woman.
02:11Yeah.
02:11Why did that rumor get started?
02:12I don't, we never got to the bottom of it. I don't know.
02:15So specific.
02:16Also, I don't know if you remember, but the first day of work, I was like, I was, I had
02:20never met Mindy, but I was like a big fan of hers and wanted to make a good impression, obviously.
02:24And like, I got through the whole day and I was like, I, and I was like, this went like
02:28really well.
02:29I feel like I like contributed a lot and she like thinks I'm cool.
02:31And then at the end of the day, I was like peeing in the bathroom stall and you just like
02:35opened the door and saw me like bottomless.
02:39Was it that, I thought you walked in on me.
02:41I thought you walked.
02:42You walked.
02:42I'm so sorry.
02:43I thought you walked in on you.
02:44Because remember the door didn't walk?
02:45Yes.
02:46Yeah.
02:46And you just walked in on me.
02:48I was like, oh no, I ruined it all.
02:50No, but it made us.
02:51She's seen my pubes.
02:52It had the opposite effect.
02:54It drew us closer.
02:55It drew us closer.
02:55It drew us closer together.
02:56Me seeing her pubes.
02:56It was a good me.
02:57It was a wonderful me.
02:58I was like, great pubes.
03:00Great pubes.
03:01Still to this day.
03:02Let's talk a little bit about the cast of Four Weddings because the original movie, it's
03:06an amazing movie, but it's very British pasty white.
03:10Yes.
03:10And so what did you hope to accomplish with your super diverse cast?
03:16You know, when someone says, do you want to adapt Four Weddings and a funeral, there's a lot
03:19of excitement about it.
03:20MGM really wanted us to do something with the property, but it was this thing of, I
03:25don't know, I did it with The Office where we tried to replicate something that was perfect
03:32and everyone got really mad for the first six episodes.
03:35And I thought, well, it would have to be, you know, more time had gone by since Four Weddings
03:39had started and it was like, we decided we're not going to have anyone who's going to be Hugh
03:42Grant.
03:43We're not going to try to find a guy who is like a floppy haired, white, incredibly compelling.
03:48Bumbling, kind of.
03:48No one could do that.
03:50Like, and to be honest, that was very of its time and Hugh Grant is Hugh Grant because
03:54of it.
03:54So we thought, what were like the new icons?
03:56What are the kind of things that we would love to see?
03:58You know, I'm Indian, Tracy, you're like in an interracial marriage.
04:02Yes.
04:02I said relationship, but it's a full marriage.
04:04No, we're married.
04:05You're married.
04:06Stop saying that.
04:07But the people we surround ourselves with don't necessarily look like what's reflected
04:11in a lot of TV shows and our friendship.
04:13So we wanted to do something, we wanted the cast to, we definitely wanted an African American
04:18woman to be the star and we wanted a British Pakistani man to be the male lead.
04:22And that felt different and worth doing.
04:24Yeah.
04:25Yeah.
04:25And Natalie Emmanuelle.
04:27Yes.
04:27She's amazing.
04:28Yeah.
04:28Coming off of Game of Thrones, she was very vocal about the lack of diversity with Game
04:33of Thrones and how that affected how her character, when her character died, the audience was
04:39really affected by it.
04:41So can you guarantee that she's not the funeral only?
04:43I know.
04:44Gets her head cut off.
04:45It was the same, we didn't know that was how she was going to die.
04:48We beheaded Natalie Emmanuelle.
04:49We killed her on the show in the same way.
04:51In the same way.
04:51We wanted to traumatize the world all over again.
04:54Embarrassing.
04:54No, we can say that she does not die.
04:57She does not die.
04:58She does not die.
04:58She does not die.
04:59But having her, you know, because we obviously started shooting this nine months before she
05:06had her big climactic scene on Game of Thrones, but the amount of people that love her and
05:12feel, I mean, I don't know how you could relate to a character in Game of Thrones, but
05:17just like loved her and felt seen by her because she was one of the most prominent people of
05:22color on the show was, was really moving to us.
05:25And we're really excited that the fans there can see her doing something completely different.
05:28Yeah.
05:28I'm excited for people to see her doing comedy too.
05:31Yeah.
05:31And it's such a different thing for her, but she, one of, one of my favorite things about
05:36it is she's just so winning.
05:38Like she naturally is so likable that you, you know, that you're just like, oh, I root
05:43for her even though she is, her character is constantly making mistakes and sleeping with
05:47another woman's husband and doing things that you know she shouldn't be doing.
05:50You kind of don't care because she, you just, you know.
05:54You're always in her side.
05:55Yeah.
05:55You're invested in her.
05:56Yeah.
05:57Yeah.
05:57And that, that's a good segue to my question that a lot of people define their relationships
06:04for better or for worse from the first romantic comedies they saw.
06:08So, you know, for a lot of the young audience, you're on Hulu, it's a streamer.
06:14There's going to be a young audience watching the show.
06:17What do you hope that they take away from the show?
06:21That's such a nice question.
06:22Being their first romantic comedy.
06:23I think there's, there's so much stuff in this that I would have loved to have seen when
06:28I was growing up.
06:29So it's nice that you bring that up and I think I hadn't thought about it in that terms.
06:32But it would be great for people to see, first of all, London this way and neighborhoods
06:39in London that you don't get to see.
06:41You know, Notting Hill is beautiful and we see a lot of that, but Hounslow, which is
06:44a really diverse, not wealthy neighborhood that we spend a lot of time in the show in.
06:49And just for people to say like, oh wow, like, look, someone like me is finding love
06:53with someone who's great looking and funny and it's, you don't have to.
06:56Because, you know, I spend my childhood watching While You Were Sleeping and You've Got Mail
07:00and, you know, all these movies and just being like, yeah, yeah, no one looks like me in this,
07:03but I'm just going to project myself on it because I love it so much.
07:07And to make it so that people don't have to do that as much is great.
07:11Yeah.
07:11It turns out there's good looking people in every color.
07:14You proved me wrong.
07:15Yes.
07:15I've always said that.
07:17I've always said.
07:18But like, it's no small thing.
07:19I mean, when we, when we watched Crazy Rich Asians, what was one of the profound things
07:23it did was show the, like, the female gaze onto Asian men.
07:28Like, they were so gorgeous.
07:30And it's, like, great that Brandon and Nikesh get to be these, like, people so appealing
07:36and handsome and they play you like best friends in the movie and those relationships exist.
07:41We just don't see them.
07:42Yeah.
07:42They have amazing chemistry as well.
07:44I know.
07:44Aren't they great in those scenes at the bank?
07:46They're so good.
07:46They're really good together.
07:47You made a conscious decision to keep, stay true to the original Four Weddings and shoot
07:52in London.
07:53Was that, um, helpful?
07:55Do you find London to be particularly romantic or was it challenging?
07:59Oh my god.
07:59Yeah.
08:00So romantic.
08:01I mean, you moved there for so long.
08:02Yeah.
08:03We were there for, like, three months and each, and Mindy was there too for, like,
08:06we each took a chunk, um, the EPs.
08:09And it's such a beautiful, it's such an old city with, like, such history and there's
08:13so many iconic places there.
08:16It's, it's just, like, really, especially compared to, like, LA where everything's from, like,
08:2114 years ago.
08:22It's just, like, such a, like, um, iconic romantic city naturally.
08:27And it was great that we got that production value that we could shoot, you know, in Trafalgar
08:32Square and, you know, in, in, like, manor houses and have a, you know, have a wedding.
08:38Um, in, in just these, like, beautiful, we have, one of our weddings is in, um, the house where,
08:44from the favorite where, like, Queen Elizabeth I grew up.
08:48It's, like, crazy.
08:49Like, we get to just see all these places and a lot of them in different ways than you've
08:53seen them in other TV shows and movies.
08:55And London is racially, you know, one of the reasons it's great to live in LA and to shoot
09:01things in New York is, like, they're really diverse and that's interesting to me.
09:04And London is the same way and it's just different racial populations.
09:08And they were ones that I was excited to tell stories about.
09:11They have the same issues of illegal immigration and racism towards, um, immigrants.
09:16We do that.
09:17We talk about that a lot in the series.
09:18And especially what's going on right now with Brexit and, and this sort of, you know,
09:22it's just an interesting time to tell a story about London.
09:25Mm-hmm.
09:25Another thing, uh, that I noticed was you had a play within a play, which is the reality
09:30show that's in the plot.
09:33Um, it's kind of great because it really kind of brings this version to today.
09:39Mm-hmm.
09:39And how people's lives are, especially among, with romance, uh, reality shows are another
09:45way that people look at their own relationships.
09:48Right.
09:49Uh, so what, you know, how did you come up, how did it come about that you wanted to create
09:53this reality show?
09:54You love reality TV.
09:55I love reality shows.
09:56You love reality TV.
09:57Three and not multiple television shows.
09:58And always.
09:59Episodes about reality television.
10:01There's one time when Tracy Whitfield will be like, you know what I have an idea about.
10:04How about if we do a send-up.
10:04My life experience.
10:06Of Real Housewives.
10:07So I'm just, it's just a ticking clock.
10:09I don't go a lot of places.
10:10Yeah.
10:10And, you know, I had never heard of Love Island.
10:12Uh, they, the other British writers in the room had told me about it and then we would
10:17watch clips of it and stuff and it was like, okay, well I've never seen this parody and
10:20this specific kind of, you know, cause you've seen trashy American girls on reality shows,
10:25but I've never seen a parody of that kind of girl, that sort of Northern British girl.
10:30Uh, and you know, the actress, um, who plays-
10:34Sophia.
10:34Sophia who plays Zara just had such a specific funny take on and she has such sweetness to
10:40her that, um, you know, it just felt like a great mind for comedy.
10:44Do we really have to go to this party?
10:46Your friends don't even like me.
10:47What are you talking about?
10:48My friends love you.
10:49No, they don't.
10:50They think I'm trashy and that my boobs are fake, which they are, but your friends don't
10:52know that.
10:53It was fun shooting that stuff, but just, it's a, it's kind of fun for us to flex where
10:57we get to be like, okay, now we get to edit and show this Love Island parody.
11:01The credits were so funny.
11:02They were so funny with like the horrible stock shots of like rose petals and-
11:06Of like people on rose petals and stuff.
11:07So, you know, that's what's nice about an hour long is we get to have these ideas and let
11:12them breathe.
11:12And luckily Love Island is such a phenomenon that people immediately-
11:16People know what we're parodying now.
11:17Yeah.
11:18It's amazing that dichotomy between extremely proper and very trashy.
11:23Oh, yes.
11:23London is, I thought it, I know Chris Schlaker, one of our writers was saying like,
11:27you always thought London was like the queen and like really fancy.
11:30And he's like, London's like trash too.
11:32Like you watch television shows where like guys' penises are out at like eight o'clock on
11:37like network television.
11:38Like it's disgusting also.
11:40And we wanted to show that in our show.
11:42Do you each have a favorite quote from a romantic comedy you want to leave us with?
11:47Yes.
11:47My favorite quote from a romantic comedy is from Bridget Jones' Diary when Darcy,
11:53played by Colin Firth, says to Bridget Jones, played by Renee Selviger,
11:55I like you just as you are.
11:58Oh, that's really nice.
11:59Yes.
11:59I like that.
12:00That was my favorite.
12:01Do you have one?
12:02Oh gee.
12:03I don't know.
12:04I love Love Actually and I love, and we kind of straight up rip it off in our show.
12:12I love In Love Actually when Colin Firth again says to his maid that driving you home is the
12:20best part of my day.
12:21I always thought was so sweet.
12:23And we kind of do a sort of a play on that with two of our characters.
12:29Excellent.
12:30Colin Firth.
12:31Yeah.
12:32Way to go Colin Firth.
12:33I know.
12:33Getting a lot of representation.
12:35I like him in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
12:38Another romantic film.
12:40The most romantic film of all.
12:41Hilarious.
12:43Hilarious movie.
12:44Mindy Kaling, Tracy Wigfield, thank you so much for being here for Weddings and the Funeral
12:48on Hulu.
12:48Check it out.
Comments