How Mindy Kaling used to prank BJ Novak when they worked together
The two Massachusetts actors both appeared on 'The Office.'
Normally, characters Jim Halpert and Dwight Schrute did all the pranking on NBC’s comedy The Office. Little did we know, cast member and writer Mindy Kaling was playing jokes of her own behind the scenes.
According to The Guardian‘s recent profile on Kaling’s best friend and fellow Massachusetts-ite BJ Novak, Kaling frequently “bullied” Novak on the set of The Office. (Before you read too much into it, this “bullying” was all in good fun.)
“She would lie to me,” Novak told The Guardian. “She would make up these – just out of nowhere – purposeless lies that I believed.”
He went on to tell the story about a specific piece of fiction Kaling made up that took her lies to a new level of pranking.
There was this director, this older woman who directed a couple of episodes [of The Office], and Mindy told me I couldn’t tell anyone, but Greg Daniels, the show runner, used to date this woman in college. And then Greg asked me what I thought of her cut and I lied to Greg and said I thought it was great, because I was nervous to insult his ex-girlfriend, so he didn’t make the edits that I wanted.
And later I asked him about it and he was like, ‘What are you talking about? She’s 20 years older than I am, we didn’t go to college together!’ I realised that Mindy just made it up and … it actually affected my work life!
Mindy and BJ: the new Jim and Dwight.
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