BJ Novak Gushes About Mindy Kaling and Their Past Romance in PGA Speech: 'We Were Reckless Idiots'

etonline.com:

BJ Novak didn't hold back when praising his friend, ex, and former collaborator, Mindy Kaling. The 43-year-old actor and writer gave an almost eight-minute speech honoring Kaling, 43, at the 2023 Producers Guild Awards over the weekend.Presenting Kaling with the Norman Lear Award for Achievement in Television, Novak gushed, «The first thing I noticed about Mindy in that writers' room is she cared so much about everything… her opinions were passionate and unstoppable and she cared about all the issues of the day.»Novak touched on meeting Kaling while they were co-writing and co-starring on, sharing details on their passionate on-off romance.«We were in love with each other, and we were reckless idiots.

The two of us would argue about all of these things forever, grinding the writers' room to a halt until we got too upset and we'd go to our respective offices and slam the door where we would continue arguing over AOL Instant Messenger,» Novak quipped. «It was 2005.

My screen name was @DaxSucks because I imagined myself in a rivalry with actor Dax Shepard. Hers was even stupider — @Fairfax1240 because that was her home address.»He added that when producers on the hit comedy caught wind of Novak and Kaling's romance, they decided to put them in more scenes together.He described their relationship as a «tumultuous, romantic, toxic, boundaryless mess,» saying, «We made it work or didn't work, we made it through.»He also praised Kaling's series,, calling it his «favorite» of her work, and joking that the main character, Mindy Lahiri, was «balancing work with her many terrible and toxic relationships with men who all looked weirdly like me.»He concluded his speech, saying, «It would be tempting to tie all this together by saying.