Mindy Kaling wrote ‘Late Night’ for Emma Thompson.
The 39-year-old actress and writer admitted she had no back-up plan if Emma, 60, turned down the role of talk show host Katherine Newbury in the movie and joked she was a "creep" for being such a huge fan of Emma.
Mindy told chat show host Ellen DeGeneres: "She’s done so much drama and not that much comedy, but she’s really funny and came from comedy. It was a stupid thing to do. I’m in Los Angeles creepily writing this movie about a woman I was a fan of. She’s hilarious and never gets to do funny parts. She just turned 60, and I was excited to see her in this kind of role."
In the movie, Emma’s character Katherine brings in Kaling’s character Molly as diversity hire to join her entirely white male writing staff on her failing talk show.
And the movie is special to Mindy – who also produces – as when she first got into show business she was shocked by the blatant lack of diversity she saw in the workplace.
She said: "When we started on the film, I thought, OK, things are different now. But then I met the first African American female writer on a late-night talk show and she was only hired in, I think, 2016. And these shows are mainly made in New York City! I mean, not having an African American woman until 2016 in New York, that’s hard to do."
And Mindy thinks people often only work with others who are the same race as them because people "feel comfortable" with people who look similar to them.
She said: "I think there’s such pressure when you’re creating a show to keep it on the air that people only hire those who they feel comfortable with, and for a lot of people that’s people who look exactly like them."
Mindy Kaling wrote Late Night for Emma Thompson
