BJ Novak Speaks at Mindy Kaling's Hollywood Walk of Fame Ceremony
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00Thank you so much, Steve. How dare you stack my accomplishments after Mindy's like that.
00:07They're not bad in isolation, but my God. What an honor to be here with so many of Mindy's
00:14friends and collaborators and especially to directly address the photographers who mean
00:18so much to Mindy. Thank you for being here. I know how much they mean to both of us. It
00:25is a special feeling to be here as we add the star of Mindy Kaling to the Hollywood
00:31Walk of Fame. Now, different people have come to know Mindy at different times. There are
00:41the old school fans who say they still remember her from her acclaimed experimental off-Broadway
00:47debut Matt and Ben, which she co-wrote and co-starred in as Ben Affleck, who I believe
00:54does not have a star here, and Steve, on behalf of the city of Boston, we'd like you
00:58to look into that, a play which is still performed across the country 20 years later. You may
01:05have learned who Mindy Kaling was, as I did, from the television show The Office, where
01:11she played the iconic Kelly Kapoor and rose behind the scenes to executive producer and
01:16star writer who wrote more episodes of the show than anyone else, as she always reminds
01:20me, including my favorite episode, The Injury. You may have learned her name when she published
01:27her first book of personal essays, Heartfelt and Funny Modern Classics, which sold millions
01:33of copies and spawned an entire mini-genre in publishing. And when I see people come
01:38up to her and tell her how much she means to them, I've noticed the ones who clutch
01:42their hearts are often about to talk about the books. Or you may have come to know her
01:47as the star and creator of the exceptional The Mindy Project, or from movies, or you
01:52may have come to assume that her name is executive producer Mindy Kaling from hearing, seeing
01:57those words so often on television shows that are smart, funny, and popular for all the
02:02right reasons. And at this point, after all these successes, you also just know her from
02:09being famous. And that's the part I want to say a few words about. We are here at the
02:19walk of fame. This is not the walk of hard work. Mindy's the daughter of immigrants.
02:26She would have been on that since first grade. This is also not the walk of talent. She'd
02:32have been on that since birth. This is not even the walk of success, which half of this
02:39audience would be on by now, some of whom are probably thinking, hmm, walk of success,
02:43that's not a bad idea. Brian Lord's going to call Karen Bass about that tomorrow. No!
02:49We are at the walk of fame. Fame is a unique job. It exists only in the minds of others.
02:57I'm not talking about the job that made a person famous. I'm talking about the job of
03:02fame itself, which is to be a character in other people's minds, to be someone they talk
03:08about and gossip about, someone they compare their friends to, someone they want their
03:12kids to be like, someone whose fashion choices excite or appall them, someone whose dating
03:17life they have a lot of opinions about. That's the job of fame. It's a weird job. It's a
03:22special job. It can even be an important job. But it's never the job a person signed up
03:28for. It can't be. Mindy respects and understands this in a very intuitive way. Because in addition
03:37to being a brilliant and wildly successful showrunner, an incredible mother of three,
03:42a deep and caring daughter and friend and mentor to so many, Mindy is also in her spare
03:47time, I assure you, very superficial. She likes red carpet drama. She wants to know
03:57what really happened on the junket. She's actually kind of interested in who wore it
04:02better and has some opinions. She understands what fame means to people because she's a
04:07normal person and it means something to her. She knows it can be fun and interesting. She
04:13knows it can be inspiring. She knows it can be false and unfair and misleading. And she
04:19knows it's human nature to be curious about all of it. And as a result, even though it's
04:23a job you can never fully control, it's a job she handles beautifully. She always makes
04:28the extra effort to show people her real personality, her real values, her real standards, her real
04:33sense of style, her real sense of humor. And I've seen what a difference it makes. It's
04:38impossible to leave a restaurant with her without people wanting not just a picture
04:42but to share a memory or an anecdote about why she matters so much. Mindy, as I look
04:48around and see all these people from your life who have believed in you from the beginning,
04:58I'm just sorry that none of us doubted you because I know how much more fun that would
05:02make this for you. But we couldn't help it. We always knew you'd be famous, but we had
05:13no idea how beautifully you'd handle the job. And so it's high time your name joined those
05:18of your heroes right here on Hollywood Boulevard. Not just names like Mary Tyler Moore and Lucille
05:23Ball, but names like H&M and Zara. I know how much all of it means to you. Congratulations
05:31my soup snake. You'd be on the walk of talent if they had one. You'd be on the walk of friendship.
05:36You'd be on the walk of compassionate parenthood. But let's face it, all of these would be terrible
05:41field trips. So here you are instead, very deservedly, a person who means so much to
05:46so many on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.