Mindy Kaling is reflecting on a decades-old conversation with Amy Poehler and Tina Fey that has stayed with her ever since.
During an appearance on Poehler’s Good Hang podcast, Kaling recalled meeting the comedian around 2005. At the time, Kaling was a guest writer on Saturday Night Live, where Poehler and Fey were cast members.
“I remember this story, and I’m not proud of it,” Kaling said, recalling a conversation with the two women she admired. “We were somewhere, and I was like, ‘I just want to lose 30 pounds,’ and the two of you stopped and were like, ‘What? That is too much weight.'”
“I remember I was so happy for like three weeks after,” Kaling continued. “I was like, ‘Wow, Amy and Tina don’t think I’m a fat load.’ I was so happy.”
Kaling, now 47, recalled that conversations about weight were common at the time, particularly with the popularity of platforms like Weight Watchers.
“Just like everybody else, we’re constantly trying to figure out everybody’s relationship to being on camera,” Poehler said. “And I do think that, for better or for worse, what women do for each other and to each other is they talk about their bodies to each other.”
Kaling said what resonated most wasn’t that Poehler and Fey disagreed with her, but that they acknowledged the conversation instead of brushing it aside.
“I think to be able to be with two of my heroes and have them acknowledge — because you could have easily been like, ‘We don’t ever think about it. We’re naturally thin,’ ” she said. “I think really it was a kindness for you to acknowledge.”
The pair went on to discuss how conversations surrounding body image have changed over the years, while agreeing that some aspects have remained much the same.
Kaling has spoken candidly about her body image throughout her career.
While appearing on The View on May 27 to promote her Hulu series Not Suitable for Work, she addressed the public attention surrounding her changing appearance.
“I think we all think it’s weird when public figures lose weight because we want this perfectly consistent narrative of their lives,” Mindy Kaling said at that time.
