Mindy Kaling | Pop Quiz | Marie Claire

Marie Claire

6/26/2025

Mindy Kaling plays Pop Quiz with Marie Claire

Transcript

00:00Jack Harlow, stop bothering me.

00:02I'm not going to date you.

00:04Hello.

00:05I'm Mindy Kaling, and 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.

00:16Just kidding.

00:16I wouldn't answer it that lame.

00:17My children are great.

00:18But the best gift I've ever received first 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.

00:34Too 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.

00:46I'm not going to date you.

00:47That's pretty interesting.

00:49Just kidding, I've met him once.

00:51He doesn't know who I am.

00:52No, I didn't.

00:52I met him, and he said to me, I met him at the Met Gala,

00:56and he said to me, my mom would be so excited

00:59if you knew I was meeting you.

01:00And I was like, oh my god, kill me.

01:02I'm that old.

01:03I'm sure his mom is lovely.

01:04But my 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.

01:13What is the word your friends would use to describe you?

01:19I wish it was luminous or generous.

01:22It's definitely impatient.

01:26The last song you got stuck in your head.

01:28OK, this is just like Jack Harlow Central.

01:30I was listening to First Class on repeat at my house.

01:33My assistants can tell me they're like, it's enough.

01:36OK, I'm not going to talk about Jack Harlow anymore.

01:38It's fine.

01:39We'll move on.

01:41What is a word that makes you cringe?

01:43Oh, woke.

01:44That word, it makes everybody cringe.

01:46We use it too much.

01:49Oh my gosh.

01:50OK, this is a hostile question.

01:52Last book I read?

01:54You think I read books?

01:56It should have been like, last magazine

01:57I skimmed at the doctor's office.

01:59OK, the last book I read was NW by Zadie Smith.

02:06Favorite dance move?

02:08Show us.

02:10I'm a bad dancer.

02:12I'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.

02:19I 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.

02:26You'll be just, your career will be over

02:29if people could see you dance.

02:31So I am a bad dancer.

02:32I guess the only dance that I would do,

02:35I really use my hands a lot.

02:37So I think like, this is my move.

02:41Like, I'm really feeling the music.

02:43That's it.

02:46How did you make your first dollar?

02:48OK, this is going to 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 OK 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 and the means,

03:22I 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% things

03:38that star women.

03:39Men don't think of the Transformers or Top Gun

03:42as guilty pleasures.

03:42They're just like, it's my pleasure.

03:44I love it.

03:44And with women, we're like, I can't believe I

03:47like 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 going to be finding this in my bra later

03:58tonight.

03:59Do you have any secret talents?

04:01Show us.

04:01No, 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.

04:07I'm fully eating it now.

04:12Oh, go to late night snack.

04:17So I have never done leftovers from a restaurant

04:19and not eaten it that night.

04:21So I would say anything that I go out to dinner,

04:24I'll eat that around like 1130.

04:26The other thing I love late at night is popcorn,

04:28which is a recipe for kernels in your teeth when you wake up.

04:31But 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, being 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, but I did it

04:56so that I could take care of them by myself.

04:59And that makes me feel really good.

05:01What advice would you give your younger self?

05:06So this would work if my younger self was someone

05:09who was really like 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.

05:28And 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 going to be OK.

05:39The number one thing on my bucket list.

05:44The number one thing on my bucket list this week

05:47is to direct a movie.

05:48What is my most starstruck 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 on a jet

06:01to go back to L.A.

06:03And it was just me and Bradley Cooper.

06:06And I was like, OK, well, he's Bradley Cooper.

06:08Like, he's here to promote A Star Is Born.

06:10I'll just like 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, I felt like I was still in the trance.

06:40And he's like, OK, bye.

06:41And I was like, huh, 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.

07:00I drink 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 that I have

07:12like a good conversation with my dad kind 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 talk to her

07:24about her emotional life and talk to her about mine.

07:28You know, I think saying like, how was your day?

07:30How are you feeling today?

07:32And then even if she doesn't ask because she doesn't

07:34because she's so little, I'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 to the people in my life

07:42and also that I took a little time to make sure

07:44that I'm healthy, which feels like an indulgence.

07:47That was Pop Quiz with Marie Claire.

Mindy Kaling | Pop Quiz | Marie Claire

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