Mindy Kaling stirred up some controversy last year when she said she didn't think it would be appropriate to tackle the issue of abortion on "The Mindy Project," but that didn't stop the star from taking on other key feminist topics on the show. In one episode last season, Kaling's character, Mindy Lahiri, sort-of-inadvertently has anal sex with her boyfriend, played by Chris Messina, raising questions about consent and violation the star was pushed to address publicly.
And that, co-star Messina told HuffPost Live this week, is one of the many reasons Kaling is such an inspiration. In a conversation with HuffPost's Ricky Camilleri, Messina lauded the "Mindy Project" creator for being unafraid to test limits and then press on past them.
"Mindy and her writers have incredible balls," Messina said. "The stuff they do and pull off and go for on network television is interesting to me, and I'm proud to be part of a show that has that kind of balls, that has that kind of push."
Kaling has said she doesn't want the show to be a mouthpiece for political issues, but Messina's comments highlight the ways in which everyday political reality infuses her characters' lives. And that's why we want to keep watching.
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