'Mindy Project' Star Mindy Kaling Previews the 'Cliffhanger' Finale, Talks Season 4 Hopes

The Mindy Project has never been accused of being the CSI of sitcoms, but star/creator Mindy Kaling has gotten used to life on the bubble.

“We’ve never been a show that just glides through the renewal process, so we live in that space and try to make a show that feels fresh and funny,” Kaling admits in an exclusive interview with Yahoo TV. “I feel really good about our chances for another season. I can’t imagine not seeing these characters again.”

She also previewed the Season 3 finale, which airs Tuesday. It features a cliffhanger ending, a strong possibility that viewers meet Mindy’s never-before-seen parents, the return of Max Greenfield, B.J. Novak, and Anders Holm… and maybe even a wedding. It is titled “Best Man,” after all.

Give me the basic preview of the season finale.
Mindy is now pregnant, and she finds out she has been asked to be the best man at Peter’s wedding. It brings up a lot for Mindy and Danny, and what is going to happen with them: whether they will get engaged themselves or married. We sort of come to a head with those two characters and where their arc has been headed all season.

Related: How ‘The Mindy Project’ Became One of the Funniest Shows

The introduction of pregnancies and babies has ruined many a show. As a huge TV fan, I’m sure you know that. So why take the risk and introduce this plot point?
I think that kids ruin shows only when there aren’t good strong characters in the show. I know a lot of interesting people who have gotten pregnant and have had children, and it isn’t like they stopped being interesting. And their problems don’t go away; their lives [don’t get] less funny. I just thought it was an interesting way to go.

I know a lot of people were worried, but then again, a lot of people told me I was wrong to pair Danny and Mindy — that they’d never work and that it would ruin the dynamic. When you have two characters that are interesting, the sexual tension and whether or not they are gonna kiss and fall in love is not the only value they bring to a show.

And I found that with Mindy in her 30s and Danny being 40, if you kept them together for too long and it is just happy and wonderful, you’re not rooting for her anymore because she has everything she wants. I’m not interested in doing a show that is just one character getting everything she wants all the time. That’s boring, and not fun to play. We thought an unexpected pregnancy with someone who she is in a very volatile relationship with, while also figuring out her career, was fun. I’ve also loved the complications pregnancy introduces for Mindy and his parents and with her co-workers. It makes you root for her more.

Danny and Mindy’s wildly different backgrounds and his religious guilt for knocking her up has given you so much to play with.
It’s a real testament to Chris Messina. He is able to play a guy who has a pregnant girlfriend, who happens to be the lead and point-of-view character of the show, and who has mixed feelings about the pregnancy and is openly apprehensive without seeming like a jerk. He makes Danny relatable and likable. Even when he lies to a priest about her last name and about her being Catholic, you still cheer him on and laugh with him instead of thinking it is absurd and awful. We can only pull that stuff off because Chris is a really strong actor.

I understand we also meet your parents in this episode.
Well, we have some hinting about that. I don’t want to talk too much about it, because I think it is a really big deal for the show and it is something I have been excited to do for a while and we were waiting for the right time, so I want to surprise people when they watch the episode.

Related: Stephen Colbert Condemned ‘The Mindy Project’
 
You have been very upfront that there are a lot of similarities between you and Mindy the character: You both love fashion, New York, pop culture, etc. Are her parents anything like your parents?
The similarities between me and the character are more superficial things than not. She is such a weird and wild and wonderful character and I don’t identify with a lot of that. We hadn’t introduced them for a while because I don’t know a lot of Indian actors in their 60s. I was like, “I can’t picture the actors so it is hard to picture the characters.”

In the past year, I had abandoned the idea that they would be anything like my parents. They needed to be larger-than-life to have produced Mindy and her brother, who is one of the biggest characters on the show. My parents would never had either of these two children. That was a very freeing conclusion to come to. My parents are very quiet, reliable great parents. We wanted these characters to have giant personalities and be fun so that they can keep coming back in the way that Danny’s mom does.

Were they hard to cast? Rhea Perlman as Danny’s mom is beyond awesome, so I’m guessing casting your own parents became an even bigger challenge.
The Rhea thing changed everything in my mind. That’s the power of Rhea Perlman. She is such a great addition to the cast because when you met her, she made you understand Danny better and their relationship became one of the most important ones on the show, and you didn’t even know she existed until Season 3. That really opened up what we could do with my parents.

Danny is so much more of a dramatic character than Mindy, so if Rhea is his mom, what must then be Mindy’s parents? And then we thought about what their relationship would be to each other and with me and my little brother, and that becomes its own show. And hopefully if we get a Season 4, we could explore a lot more of that.
 
Max Greenfield, Anders Holm, and B.J. Novak, who have all played Mindy suitors of varying degrees of seriousness, are all back for this episode.
It was probably one of the most fun days of shooting I have had on any episode, any season. A finale doesn’t just tie up storylines and look forward to next season, it is also a way to look back at the season and what the season was about. We were really lucky to get back some of the most popular guest stars we’ve had and ones I loved working with.

It was a big deal to get all these guys in one room together, especially because most of them have their own shows to worry about. You want to service your show first and make sure you aren’t having guest stars just to have them, but that said, I think these guys are a great part of the finale.

There has been a lot of talk lately about the show’s prospects for another season being questionable. Are you freaking out?
There has never been a time for our show where people haven’t said those things. I feel like we live on the bubble. I’ve never heard someone say, “This show has nothing to worry about. They are going to stay on for years. They have tenure track.” After Season 1, we got a lot of “There’s no chance in hell they are coming back.” And we did. Same thing for Season 2, so now I focus on making as good a show as I can instead of worrying. I have only ever done a show that I love. I have never had to change anything to try to stay on the air. That is one thing I have in common with my character. I am very cheerful and confident, so I feel very good about our chances for Season 4.
 
If it doesn’t get renewed, will you be satisfied with where it ends? Will fans?
No. Listen, I loved our season and I think it is a good finale, but it is a cliffhanger and the people who watch will want to know what happens to these characters.
 
I’m assuming, if you do come back, that we’ll see you dealing with an actual baby.
Yes, I don’t think I can get away with a three-year gestation period. I really want to see Danny and Mindy as parents and watch them tackle those new challenges, even if just to prove people who keep writing that they will be terrible parents wrong. Lots of flawed people are great parents. Michael Scott became a father, and he wasn’t even a doctor.
 
The Mindy Project airs Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on Fox.