Mindy Kaling plays Pop Quiz with Marie Claire
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00:00Jack Harlow, stop bothering me, I'm not gonna date you.
00:04Hello, I'm Mindy Kaling,
00:05and I'm playing Pop Quiz with Marie Claire.
00:10Whoa, that was no joke.
00:12What is the best gift you've ever received?
00:15My children, just kidding, I wouldn't answer it that way.
00:17My children are great, but the best gift I've ever received,
00:21first is a grand piano
00:23that my former boss, Robert Greenblatt, gave me.
00:26And Ike Barinholtz, my old co-star on The Mindy Project
00:29when we wrapped after six seasons, he gave me a Rolex.
00:33Yeah, Ike Barinholtz, too much money on that guy.
00:38Violence.
00:40What is the last text that I sent?
00:42Well, better find out.
00:44Jack Harlow, stop bothering me, I'm not gonna date you.
00:47That's pretty interesting.
00:49Just kidding, I've met him once, he doesn't know who I am.
00:52No, I didn't, I met him, and he said to me,
00:55I met him at the Met Gala, and he said to me,
00:57my mom would be so excited if you knew I was meeting you,
01:00and I was like, oh my God, kill me.
01:02I'm that old, I'm sure his mom is lovely, but.
01:07My last text that I sent was to BJ Novak,
01:10and it said, are you coming to dinner?
01:12Please answer so we can order food.
01:15What is the word your friends would use to describe you?
01:19I wish it was luminous or generous.
01:22It's definitely impatient.
01:25The last song you got stuck in your head.
01:28Okay, this is just like Jack Harlow Central.
01:30I was listening to First Class, like on repeat at my house,
01:33my assistants kept telling me, they're like,
01:35it's like enough, okay, I'm not gonna talk
01:37about Jack Harlow anymore, it's fine, we'll move on.
01:41What is a word that makes you cringe?
01:43Oh, woke, that word, it makes everybody cringe.
01:46We use it too much.
01:49Oh my gosh.
01:50Okay, this is a hostile question.
01:52Last book I read.
01:54You think I read books?
01:56It should have been like, last magazine I skimmed
01:58at the doctor's office.
01:59Okay, the last book I read was NW by Zadie Smith.
02:06Favorite dance move, show us.
02:10I'm a bad dancer, I've been told that multiple times.
02:14I actually have a friend, Tracy Wigfield,
02:16back when people used to do lip sync battle,
02:18and they asked me to do it, I was so excited,
02:20I was like, oh, I'll dance and do my lip syncing,
02:23and at the Mindy Project, all the writers were like,
02:24don't do that, you'll be just, your career will be over
02:29if people can see you dance.
02:31So I am a bad dancer, I guess the only dance
02:34that I would do, I really use my hands a lot,
02:37so I think like, this is my move.
02:41Like I'm really feeling the music, that's it.
02:46How did you make your first dollar?
02:48Okay, this is gonna really age me.
02:50I worked at a video store in the suburbs of Boston,
02:54and back when they were like, actual videos,
02:57and they turned from videos to DVDs.
03:00But yeah, that's how I made my first money.
03:04What should every woman try at least once in her life?
03:09I think it's important for women to live alone,
03:11if you can, at least once.
03:13I think being okay with being by yourself is important.
03:18I think it's actually important for men too,
03:19but if you have the opportunity to do that
03:21and the means, I highly recommend.
03:25What is my guilty pleasure watch?
03:28So, I do not believe in the term guilty pleasures,
03:32because I tend to think as someone who writes things
03:34that star women, guilty pleasures are 90%
03:37things that star women.
03:39Men don't think of the Transformers or Top Gun
03:42as guilty pleasures, they're just like,
03:43it's my pleasure, I love it.
03:44And with women, we're like, I can't believe,
03:46I like Real Housewives, or I like this,
03:49and it's like, no, I like what I like.
03:51So, I don't believe in guilty pleasures.
03:55I can tell I'm gonna be finding this
03:57in my bra later tonight.
03:59Do you have any secret talents?
04:01Show us.
04:02No, I've monetized all of my talents.
04:04You've seen everything.
04:05In fact, I've monetized things that I'm not even good at.
04:11I'm fully eating it now.
04:12Oh, go-to late night snack.
04:17So, I have never gotten leftovers from a restaurant
04:19and not eaten it that night.
04:21So, I would say anything that I won't go out to dinner,
04:24I'll eat that around like 11.30.
04:26The other thing I love late at night is popcorn,
04:28which is a recipe for kernels in your teeth
04:31when you wake up, but I am what I am.
04:35What makes you feel most powerful and confident?
04:40This is a simple answer, but it's something
04:42I think women are embarrassed to talk about.
04:45Being wealthy.
04:46My power came from me having enough money
04:49that I can have independence,
04:51and that's what makes me feel confident.
04:53So, I had kids later in my life,
04:56but I did it so that I could take care of them by myself,
04:59and that makes me feel really good.
05:03What advice would you give your younger self?
05:06So, this would work if my younger self
05:09was someone who was really amenable and open-minded,
05:12but as a young person, I thought I knew all the answers
05:16and that everyone around me was dumb,
05:18so I don't know that I would listen to it.
05:20But the advice that I would try to impart on them
05:24is to never take nude photos of myself.
05:28That's it.
05:28I know there's other bigger things,
05:30but I think if you can go through your life
05:32without having yourself captured naked on your phone,
05:35then I think you're gonna be okay.
05:38The number one thing on my bucket list.
05:44The number one thing on my bucket list this week
05:47is to direct a movie.
05:50What is my most star-struck moment?
05:52Well, one time I was going to Vegas to promote a movie.
05:58On the way back, they kind of randomly assigned you
06:00on a jet to go back to LA,
06:03and it was just me and Bradley Cooper.
06:06And I was like, okay, well, he's Bradley Cooper.
06:09He's here to promote A Star Is Born.
06:10I'll just sit at the back, and he can sit with his reps.
06:14And he just came over and was like,
06:16hey, Mindy, how's it going?
06:17What's going on with your life?
06:18And we spent, I think it was the best 45 minutes of my life.
06:24He was so, he had questions about my life.
06:27That's how you know he's well-raised.
06:28He was asking about boring old me.
06:30But like with a lot of smart people who are inquisitive,
06:34it got like really deep, really fast.
06:36And then when the plane landed,
06:38I felt like I was still in the trance.
06:40And he's like, okay, bye.
06:41And I was like, ah, what about our bond?
06:44The last silver balloon is the bonus question.
06:48How do you fit wellness into your everyday life?
06:51So for me, wellness, I feel well,
06:53and it's easy for me to walk or run 12 to 15 miles a week.
06:58It's like my antidepressant.
07:00Drink a ton of water.
07:02I wake up in the morning and I drink 16 ounces of water
07:04immediately while I'm sitting in bed before I do anything.
07:09Wellness to me is making sure
07:12that I have like a good conversation with my dad
07:14kind of every day.
07:15We speak on the phone or see each other in person every day.
07:19And then just like, you know, my kids are little,
07:21but my daughter's old enough that I can just like
07:24talk to her about her emotional life
07:26and talk to her about mine.
07:28You know, I think saying like, how was your day?
07:31How are you feeling today?
07:33And then even if she doesn't ask,
07:34because she doesn't, because she's so little,
07:34I'll tell her how I'm feeling that day
07:36and how that day went.
07:38And that is good.
07:39It keeps me feeling really connected
07:41to the people in my life,
07:42and also that I took a little time
07:44to make sure that I'm healthy,
07:45which feels like an indulgence.
07:47That was Pop Quiz with Marie Claire.