American actor-writer and filmmaker Mindy Kaling recently recalled her journey about embracing her body, the struggles she went through and the lack of diverse body types in Hollywood. In a detailed conversation on Good Morning America, Kaling opened up about the 'devastating' point in her life when she felt self-conscious about her body. This happened when she was working as a writer and actor around 25-year-ago. She mentioned that when she was in the writer's room for a TV show, one of her co-stars on the show suggested that her character could reduce 15 lbs. That was the moment that hit Mindy, as the 42-year-old stated how someone called her out on her biggest insecurity, leaving her devastated. 

Mindy Kaling recounts devastating body-conscious experience 

The incident sent the actor into self-reflection, despite having a fixed morning routine of going to the gym before her dual jobs. She said, "I had a reckoning where I am like, people are scrutinising [me], and not only are they scrutinising [me], they're verbalising their displeasure with how I look because I don't look a certain way. That kind of dissonance has really affected so much of what I write about [and] the kind of characters I play. Almost all of those kinds of things [in my work] come from something really real." 

The Never Have I Ever co-creator also spoke about how she thinks there is a lack of diverse body types in Hollywood. "On TV, if you were really thin, then you could be the lead. Otherwise, you had to be like 250 pounds, and you had to be the slapstick comic relief." Calling the whole idea crazy, she mentioned that this range left out the majority of American women over the age of 24. "What if you're like a [size] 12 and you want to just live your life and look cute and date?", she added. 

Calling it "a no man's land" for women with other body types in early 2010, she added: "That has really changed, I think". Kaling thinks that now there has been a positive shift for body and racial diversity and Never Have I Ever, fits into that new landscape.

Mindy Kaling on Never Have I Ever 

Talking about the Netflix show, centring around a dark-skinned Indian girl, The Office actor added, "It makes me so happy that this show can be on Netflix, 40 million people can watch it, it's No. 1 around the world and it stars a girl who is a young, dark-skinned Indian girl.".

She lauded the lead actor Maitreyi Ramakrishnan's character- Devi Vishwakumar and said, "She's real, and she dates and boys like her, boys hate her, she goes in and out of drama, fights with her friends, but she's normal and she's the point of view character and so you can look to that and feel seen, to use a phrase that people much younger than me use."

(Source- Good Morning America)

(Image- AP)