Mindy Kaling may not be the person she is today if it wasn’t for one comedic legend: Marge Simpson.
Kaling, who earned fame on The Office and now has her own show, The Mindy Project, said that Lisa and Marge Simpson were important female role models to her growing up.
“Growing up, I remember my parents feeling a little wary of The Simpsons … This was in the late eighties and there was a wave of articles about TV shows that were bad for America. Then we all started watching it and loved it. Marge Simpson is the one who’s really funny. Her character looks so crazy, but then she’s supposed to be totally demure. I think [ Simpsons creator] Matt Groening is a genius for giving her that hair.”
Kaling proudly displays her love for the Simpson’s matriarch in the pages of Glamour this month. Kaling dons Marge’s famous green dress and blue bee hive hairdo.
In her Glamour interview, Kaling says that female actors have come a long way on television. Women characters have evolved, from Lucile Ball on I Love Lucy to Marge Simpson on The Simpsons to the women on The Office, and Kaling is looking forward to working with flawed and funny women on The Mindy Project.
Kaling said:
“It used to be that you had to make female TV characters perfect so no one would be offended by your ‘portrayal’ of women. Even when I started out on The Office eight years ago, we could write our male characters funny and flawed, but not the women. And now, thankfully, it’s completely different.”
Here’s a trailer for The Mindy Project.
