Mindy Kaling revealed the extent of Saturday Night Live’s on-set “whisper culture,” which she experienced briefly during a two-week writing stint for the show.
The Emmy-nominated actress and writer dished about her time on the sketch show in conversation with Matt Rogers and SNL alum Bowen Yang, hosts of the La Culturistas podcast. Kaling, 46, called her experience as a guest writer for the show “intimidating” and “intense,” but overall, a learning experience.
“I’ve always been very curious about your guest writing stint,” Yang, 35, asked Kaling of SNL.
“It was really intimidating. I learned so much. Some people were extremely friendly, and it was intense,” she responded.
The Mindy Project star and creator continued, “There was a little bit more of a whisper culture than I thought, a little bit. But it wasn’t like anyone was unfriendly to me. I just noticed it was kind of anthropologically interesting to come and see it.”
“I could not and did not take anything at all personally,” she clarified, “Because I was just there for two weeks. People were really nice about The Office, and that was before The Office was even, I think, considered to be a cool show. I think this was in a hiatus between Season 2 and 3, but it hadn’t fully become a hit, I think.”
Kaling went into more depth, outlining her observations during her time on Lorne Michaels’ sketch show, saying that while people were nice, there was a sense of competition in the air.
“I remember distinctly, Amy and Tina were so kind,” she explained. “Will Forte was so game and so kind. The Lonely Island guys were really nice. But it was also unmistakably, and I think you would say this, super competitive.”
Kaling has previously spoken about both her affinity for SNL and her history with the show.
In 2019, The Office star revealed to the Daily Beast that she was forced to turn down her dream job at SNL after she auditioned to be in the cast but was offered a writer position instead.
“So I went back and talked to Greg about it and he said to me, ‘no, that’s not the deal we made,’” Kaling explained, referring to Greg Daniels, who adapted the U.K. sitcom for American audiences. “The deal we made is that if you get cast as a cast member, you can go. And it was really a life-changing thing.”
“I think the course of my career would have gone really differently had I left The Office and done that instead,” she concluded.
