Mindy Kaling Reveals How Gigi Hadid’s “Not Suitable for Work” Cameo as Jay Ellis’ Girlfriend Happened (Exclusive)

Warning: this post contains spoilers for episode 3 of Not Suitable for Work.

NEED TO KNOW

• Gigi Hadid makes a surprise appearance in Not Suitable for Work as Jay Ellis’ girlfriend

• Creator Mindy Kaling tells PEOPLE how she got the supermodel involved in the “larger-than-life scene”

• “We knew we just had this one scene, and we thought, ‘It would be so funny if Gigi Hadid did this,’ ” Kaling says

Your eyes did not deceive you: that was actually Gigi Hadid playing Jay Ellis‘ angry ex-girlfriend in Not Suitable for Work.

The supermodel makes a surprise appearance in episode 3 of Mindy Kaling‘s new comedy series, which premiered on June 2 on Hulu. In the scene, Hadid, 31, arrives unexpectedly at Bill’s (Ellis) office, a fur coat covering her pajamas, and calls him out for leaving for work without saying goodbye on their anniversary.

“I have been up since 4, planning a whole elaborate morning, and there was gonna be chilaquiles and sex — and I guess that’s it, but both of those would have been mind-blowing,” Catherine (Hadid) tells Bill. Then, she throws the pan of said chilaquiles at him and announces she’s going to sell the Birkin he bought her on eBay — all while A.J. (Ella Hunt) and Davis (Will Angus) watch.

Kaling, 46, had worked with Hadid before on Never Have I Ever — the model did a voiceover for a season 2 episode centered on Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet)— and tells PEOPLE she was “so funny” for that.

“That was a very different type of thing, but I knew she was funny. But I didn’t know if she wanted to do anything on screen,” Kaling says. “So we just asked her, and the commitment was low, and she lives in New York, and we felt so lucky that she said yes.”

Kaling says they knew Bill’s girlfriend “has to make a big impression” in the “larger-than-life scene,” because Bill himself is a “larger-than-life character who has this famously gorgeous, tempestuous girlfriend.” She recalls, “We knew we just had this one scene, and we thought, ‘It would be so funny if Gigi Hadid did this.’ “

“I think she’s fabulous on the show,” she adds. In fact, she teases that Hadid could return as Catherine in a potential future season. “It was really great. I was, like, thinking about how we could bring back that character.”

Ellis, 44, wasn’t the only person Hadid shared the screen with. Both Hunt and Angus, whose characters, A.J. and Davis, work for Bill, tell PEOPLE they had no idea the supermodel would be making an appearance — or any warning about when she’d be on set.

“They didn’t tell me,” Hunt, 28, says. “I mean, they did this to me all throughout the shoot, where amazing people would come in, and they wouldn’t tell me until we were literally in Fisher-Stassen, about to shoot the scene.”

“Like, Gigi Hadid walks in, I see her from behind, and I come up to her to compliment her on her coat, and she turns around, and I’m like, I love your coat, Gigi Hadid,” he recalled.

Angus, 27, was similarly surprised. “It was awesome,” he says. “I mean, it was weird, it was so weird. I don’t even know what to say. Mindy knows everybody.”

Per the official logline, Not Suitable for Work centers on “five work-obsessed 20-somethings striving for professional success and, if they have time, personal happiness in Manhattan’s most glamorous neighborhood, Murray Hill.” Along with Ellis, Hunt and Davis, Avantika Vandanapu, Jack Martin and Nicholas Duvernay also star.

Victor Garber, Greg Germann, Judy Gold, Ego Nwodim, Harry Richardson and Constance Wu are among the recurring guest stars.

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The first three episodes of Not Suitable for Work are now streaming on Hulu, and new episodes drop weekly on Wednesdays through June 23.

Read the original article on People