While most fans of The Office know Mindy Kaling as the actor who hilariously played customer service rep, Kelly Kapoor, she did much more than just that. Kaling was also one of the original writers of the hit show and penned fan-favorite episodes like “The Injury”, “Classy Christmas”, and “Niagara.” In later seasons, Kaling got even more involved and also served as one of the show’s executive producers. Considering Kaling wore so many hats during her tenure at The Office, it’s no surprise that she worked exceptionally long hours.
While acting is sometimes considered to be a glamorous profession, a lot of hard work is often required. For example, most TV and film actors are accustom to long hours, with the average workday ranging from 10 hours to 14 hours. However, because Kaling was also a writer, she often worked 18-hour days on The Office. If she wasn’t filming a scene, she didn’t have to be on set until around 10AM. However, on the days she was filming, she was expected to be on set before sunrise at 6AM. And no matter when her day started, she usually wouldn’t leave set until close to midnight.
Mindy Kaling explains while she put in crazy hours while working on ‘The Office’
Of course, Kaling’s long hours weren’t always required. The actor often volunteered to stay late because she didn’t want to miss out on any potential opportunities to contribute to the show. Back in 2011, she gave an interview with The New York Times Magazine and explained her thought-process about this choice. “I’d rather be in the [The Office] writers’ room complaining about how overworked I am than in the Bahamas, where I’m like, What am I doing here? By Monday night of a long weekend, I’m getting stir-crazy.” Kaling admitted. “Oftentimes, the show runner will be like: ‘Hey, we don’t need everybody to stay. Who wants to leave?’ I have never volunteered. What if this is the time when they make some great discovery or there’s this great line of jokes and I would have not been a part of that?”
Why the writer would always show up early and leave late
But there were even times when Kaling would extend her hours despite having absolutely no work to do. In fact, the talented writer would often show up an hour before her call time and stay an hour late during the first year she spent working on the hit comedy series. According to Kaling, this was a habit that she picked up from her mother. “The first year I was working on The Office—and this is literally only because I saw my mom do this in the early ’80s—I would come in an hour early and I would always be the last person to leave,” she revealed in a conversation for Interview Magazine. “Sometimes I didn’t even have work to do! Because those kinds of appearances are almost more important than the work itself.” Clearly, Kaling’s unwavering work ethic and commitment paid off for her. Her success has only skyrocketed since leaving The Office and we’re sure her loyal fans are looking forward to seeing what she does next.
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