How Mindy Kaling Pulled Pranks On B.J. Novak During Their Time On ‘The Office’
Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak, both 36-years-old, are not only well known for their roles on the American version of The Office, but also the incredibly close friendship they enjoy despite the fact they used to date. How many exes remain such good friends after breaking up? Vulture reports the duo shared “an endearing on-off flirtation” through their years together on the NBC sitcom.
Kaling played Kelly Kapoor while Novak played Ryan Howard, and their characters dated off and on over the course of the show and got into all kinds of shenanigans, some painfully funny and others just plain hilarious. Off the set, the two actors dated, but broke up when they realized they weren’t getting along. As mentioned above, they remained close.
BJ Novak: ‘Mindy Kaling used to bully me on set. She would lie to me’ https://t.co/Gf8nS9nEvi
— Tiffany Bonaparte (@OneTrueTiff) May 30, 2016
In a recent interview with the Guardian, Novak revealed how Kaling “bullied” him on the set of The Office, which was actually a series of pranks Kaling played on him over the years. The jokes were all in good fun and demonstrative that when it comes to Kaling, Novak tends to be gullible in a cute way, believing everything she told him.
“She would lie to me. She would make up these — just out of nowhere — purposeless lies that I believed. Like saying that Allison Jones, the casting director of The Office, was also an actress who had been the third lead in Cold Mountain. And so I just thought that.”
Kaling also convinced him that Office showrunner Greg Daniels used to date one of the show’s actresses when they were in college, Entertainment Weekly reports. Novak said that fib changed the way he did his job.
“Greg (once) 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.”
He learned Kaling had pulled a prank on him when he brought up the alleged former relationship to Daniels.
“He was like, ‘What are you talking about? She’s 20 years older than I am, we didn’t go to college together!’ I realized that Mindy just made it up and. it actually affected my work life!”
Kaling owns up to pranking her co-star, because, in the Guardian interview, it’s noted that Novak texts Kaling and asks her to send him a list of times she “bullied” him on set so he could make a list on the list-making app he developed called, unsurprisingly, The List App.
“I texted her: ‘I”m writing a list: Eight Times Mindy Kaling Bullied Me on the Set of The Office.’ So I was asking her details for that,” Novak said.
“We’re very close in sort of a natural, eternal way,” he added.
Kaling’s pranks didn’t cause any kind of rift in their relationship, proven by the fact that they’re closer than ever and writing a book together. Last year Kaling and Novak signed a $7.5 million book deal to write about their romance and friendship.
In the past, Kaling has described her former co-star as “intoxicating” and called the two of them “soup snakes,” which is an Office reference where a character misreads “soul-mates” as “soup-snakes” in a romantic note to his girlfriend.
BJ Novak says Mindy Kaling pranked him on the set of The Office https://t.co/OejdB3BP5z
— The Office Report (@TheOfficeReport) May 30, 2016
The Office, which came to an end in 2013, wasn’t the end for Kaling or B.J. Novak. Novak had roles in the films Inglourious Basterds and Saving Mr. Banks and wrote a New York Times bestselling children’s book, The Book With No Pictures. He also was executive producer for the sitcom Kaling created and starred in, The Mindy Project. Kaling has also written two books, Why Not Me? and Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?
Do you plan on snagging a copy of Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak’s book when it’s published?
[Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images]
