Key Points
Mindy Kaling says Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were shocked when she revealed her weight loss goal.
The Office breakout told the Parks and Rec star that she was “so happy” when the funny ladies reacted to her desire to lose 30 pounds with a blunt, “Are you crazy?”
“I think that that really was a kindness,” Kaling told Poehler on her Good Hang podcast.
When a friend’s in need, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are friends indeed.
Mindy Kaling fondly recalled a perspective-shifting conversation with the funny ladies from 20 years back on Tuesday’s episode of Poehler’s Good Hangpodcast.
Before Kaling made it big as a writer and star on The Office, she was a guest writer on Saturday Night Live, which Fey appeared on from 2000-2006, and which Poehler appeared on from 2001-2008. Kaling told Poehler that in 2005, when the three all overlapped, “We were somewhere, and I was like, ‘Yeah 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 that. I was like, ‘Wow, Amy and Tina don’t think I’m a fat load,'” Kaling joked. “Even in the aughts, you guys were like, ‘What, are you crazy?'”
Mindy Kaling and Amy Poehler in Cannes in 2015Credit: George Pimentel/WireImage
Kaling recalled how discourse around weight loss and impossible beauty standards saturated the culture at the time. “Weight Watchers! It was because at the time there was a conversation about Weight Watchers,” she said, pointing to the wellness program that assigns points to food based on calorie count.
Poehler added that there is a particular focus on body image among on-camera entertainers. “We, just like everybody else, were constantly trying to figure out everybody’s relationship to being on camera, 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,” she reasoned.
Kaling brought it back around to praising Poehler and Fey for their support, particularly at a time when empathy around fuller figures was scarce. “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.’ Do you know what I mean?” she told Poehler. “I think that that really was a kindness for you to acknowledge.”
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Mindy Kaling at the Los Angeles premiere of ‘Running Point’ in 2026Credit: Maya Dehlin Spach/FilmMagic
In May, Kaling opened up about her recent weight loss journey. She cited a desire to “live at least 20 more years” for her three children, Katherine, Spencer, and Anne, as among the chief instigators for the decision.
“When I was younger, I would want to lose weight because of vanity reasons. Now I want to lose weight or have lost weight because I want to stave off things like diabetes,” she said. “I had it on both sides of my family, and trying to avoid those kinds of things will, I think, help longevity for me, and that’s my goal.”
You can watch Kaling’s full appearance on the Good Hang podcast above.
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