We were super happy to welcome Mindy Kaling to the OfficeTally Chat Room tonight!
Mindy graciously answered fan questions for a full hour — on everything from the letter Pam reads to Michael in ‘Lecture Circuit,’ to her favorite Oscar night fashion, to who’s hottest in the writers’ room. And of course it wouldn’t be an OfficeTally chat without a few spoilers thrown in!
Thanks, Mindy, for an awesome evening!
Here is the full transcript.
tanster: Hi Mindy!
Mindy Kaling: Hi tanster!
Mindy Kaling: This is so cool.
tanster: Welcome Mindy Kaling! If you’d like to ask Mindy a question, please enter it in the queue. We’ll get to as many as we can!
tanster: I’m so glad you’re here! Yay!
Mindy Kaling: Me too. Thanks for arranging this. It’s fun to chat instead of rewriting stories.
tanster: lol
tanster: we’re queuing up some questions. are you ready, mindy?
Teheheman: Hey Mindy
Kenna: Hi Mindy!!
Kate: Hello from Canada, Mindy!
Mindy Kaling: So international! Hi Kate!
tanster: ok, let’s get started …
Mindy Kaling: Hello everyone. You’re all my friends now. Hi friends.
Kate: Hah, yes Canada, America’s hat
Danny: yes! i finally got a friend!
kalsop: Mindy – Can we get more IAmKellyFierce tweets? It’s so Kelly!
Mindy Kaling: I have to get on twitter! I keep hearing about Iamkellyfierce–it’s written by our adorable and hilarious writers’ assistants Jonathan and Nate
Mindy Kaling: I’m 29 though — isn’t that too old to be twittering?
christy323: no way, Rainn has a twitter
Mindy Kaling: Cuz if not I’ll soooo do it
Kate: pffft, there’s no age limit on awesome!
Mindy Kaling: Rainn’s weird tho
Mindy Kaling: Okay. I shall reconsider.
tanster: lol. he’s like taking over twitter. he’s got like 90 million followers
Denise (ddker): lol
Mindy Kaling: Rainn is starting a religion is why
Kenna: I cracked up during Part Two of “Lecture Circuit” when Dwight smacked Kelly on the rear as she left the conference room. Did Rainn improvise that, or was it written? Dwight and Kelly have always seemed to have a sort of weird chemistry-like thing going on!
Mindy Kaling: Ken Kwapis came up with that actually. I cracked up too. Our characters don’t interact much.
Mindy Kaling: Those scenes, of Dwight-Jim-Kelly in Lecture Circuit, is the most any of the three of us have broken this season.
Mindy Kaling: I believe there is only one usable take of Jim and Dwight in that initial “It is your birthday” banner scene
tanster: good segue into the next question:
MNFan: Mindy, you are known for “breaking” during scenes. :) Which already-aired moments of this season have been the most difficult for you to get through?
Mindy Kaling: It is true, I break the most, and constantly.
Mindy Kaling: I like to believe it is because I have a very European quality of enjoying life to its fullest
Mindy Kaling: But the scene where Dwight is screaming in my face about what I learned in juvie, I honestly did NO takes where I didn’t laugh
Mindy Kaling: Even in the aired scene, you can see my eyes are laughing.
Mindy Kaling: It’s terrible. I should be fired.
tanster: lol. kelly definitely has that joie de vivre
Mindy Kaling: Chillisbannedme is an amazing chat room moniker
Denise (ddker): we call her CBM for short
ChillisBannedMe: THANK you!!!! hahahaha that seriously just made my night.
Mindy Kaling: I keep wanting to call that joke back. Like Jim says to Pam “Feel like Chilis tonight?” and Pam nods sadly and says “Can’t. Banned for life.”
MNFan: lol!
limonada: Niiice!
Mindy Kaling: If we ever do Dundies again (I hope, I hope) maybe it can be a plot point.
christy323: Please do!!!
Skillet86: I love the Dundies
Kenna: More Dundies please!!!
kalsop: What’s happening with Kelly and Ryan? I’ve forgotten where Ryan disappeared too…?
Mindy Kaling: Thailand!
Mindy Kaling: We’re just writing his return, and it is so, so, so funny, I think
Mindy Kaling: When I think of the Ryan who was picking up filet o fish wrappers to where he is now, it makes me laugh
Kenna: LOL!
Amee: Kelly seems just fine after Ryan left… Why isn’t she reacting as strongly as she did the first time?
Mindy Kaling: Amee, you have a point.
Mindy Kaling: Maybe she is having this meltdown but camera doesn’t see it?
Mindy Kaling: Or they’ve broken up so many times, she just assumes they’ll get back together
Mindy Kaling: Soon though, we’ll see she has a hot new crush
tanster: oooooh! spoiler alert! lol
Mindy Kaling: And so will America!
Teheheman: Is it Dwight?
christy323: hot new crush?! oh i can’t wait
aklarkin: As long as it’s not Andy!
andirr: I’d love for Andy and Kelly to hook up
Mindy Kaling: Teheheman, are you serious? Dwight? I said “hot new crush.”
tanster: *giggle*
Was that fun to read or what??!! Thanks so much for transcribing that awesome chat, Tanster. So wonderful! I love Mindy Kaling’s writing, and her voice and humor really shine in the episodes she writes. I’d seriously be excited to read her grocery shopping list, I’m sure it would make me laugh. It’s so sweet how generous she is to stop by and say hi to us fans. Many thanks!
YES!!! Amy’s coming back!!!! This is the best new I’ve heard all day.
Thanks for posting this tanster! Also, Mindy – I agree 100% – Ed Helms is fantastically handsome!
Sorry I missed the chat, but this was a fun read. Thanks!
i love reading these chat transcripts! mindy, you rock!
Thanks for coming in, Mindy! I’m always up for some good fashion talk, lol.
As for the shorts, hot. What Cat Woman would wear shopping for groceries.
One of the best celeb chats ever….. haha i felt bad for the guys in the room though! We got pretty girlie in there pretty quick!
My computer had issues halfway through so THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for the transcript!!(although I have almost gotten caught reading it twice now at work instead of actually working. haha)
Mindy Kaling complimenting your screen name = priceless
funner than a fashion show at lunch
mindy you are so sweet for talking to us fans
the transcript was so funny!
Thank you so much! I love that Mindy writes like she thinks and talks, which cracks me up. Those shorts with heels are weird – definitely NOT hot. They look unnatural and I don’t like the style of either of them. Save your money Mindy and thank you for being awesome!
It never ceases to amaze me that The Office’s cast and writers come in here to chat. specially since mindy was still at WORK! we are the luckiest fans ever.
Mindy, those shorts are hawt :) I love love love them and can’t wait to hear more about the stuff you buy! Keep up the awesome work on The Office and thank you for giving fans a better look at one of the best shows on television.
Thanks, Tanster, for the transcript and for being awesome. This job is tough, but you make it look so easy :)
[from tanster: my pleasure! :) ]
Mindy is so sweet! She seems so funny and down-to-earth.
If you ever see this, Mindy, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
I LOVE MINDY. Wow. She’s so much fun and an awesome writer. Her episodes are always some of the most hilarious through the course of a season. And how cool is it to have Idris Elba on the show? Stringer Bell was pretty much my favorite character on The Wire and that is the only show other than Arrested Development that I’ve watched as religiously as I do with The Office. Aahh, I’m so excited!!
I’ve been thinking about those shorts….. I know. It’s an annoying work day. Clothes are so much more fun to think about.
I LOVE the shoes… but I feel the shorts need to be a different material. Cute look though.
Thanks for getting the transcript up so quickly Tanster! (I missed the chat by probably about 10-15 minutes :P).
Leesa- Me too! I’ve been hoping for her to come back ever since she left.
I’m sad I missed this! Thanks for transcribing it Tanster, as always you are THE BEST!
And love the little tid-bits you threw in there Mindy about what to look forward to with the show coming up this spring. (YEAH AMY RYAN! CAN’T WAIT!!)
Thanks for chatting Mindy, if you read this, I think you are awesome and thanks for doing this for your fans!!!
Ryan and Kelly getting married? Yes please! I hope she wasn’t just joking, I always thought that would be funny.
yay! Thanks Mindy for the awesome chat and spoilers! Idris–YOWZA! So jealous.
I agree with Mindy about Jim buying the house, my man would be sleeping in that house alone haha.
I can’t wait to see what Pam has in store for us in the upcoming episodes. Also great to hear Ryan is coming back. Ack! why does there have to be reruns?:(
That looks like so much fun! Can someone please tell me how I can create an account? Every time I try to click on the create an account link on the chat it never works.
I’m so sorry I missed this live but I’m thrilled to read the transcript. Major big thanks to Mindy and Tanster; this was awesome!
The Office writers are so nice to us fans…
I was about to go to bed when I thought “I haven’t checked OT all day…I’ll just click on over there real quick”. And there’s this! Totally made my night! Mindy is so awesome(also, whenever I type “mindy” into my iPhone it changes it to “money”, which, although annoying, is actually quite appropriate LOL)