Since we first heard about Late Night, which stars Mindy Kaling and Emma Thompson with a script written by Kaling, we’ve been eagerly awaiting a trailer. Now, the first Late Night trailer has arrived and it’s clear that Kaling and Thompson are the comedy duo we’ve always wanted — and they’re ready to shake up the late-night TV boys club. Honestly, the trailer gives us big Devil Wears Prada and 30 Rock, making us all the more excited for both this film and for the future of women-centric comedies going forward.
The Late Night trailer begins showing Thompson’s character, Katherine, firing writer after writer, most of them white men. Then Kaling’s character, Molly, arrives on the scene and it’s clear from the get-go that she refuses to be pushed out of the writer’s room even though she’s the only woman of color there.
“Think about why the show is bad and come up with ways to fix it,” Katherine demands, after being informed that her current season will be her last. Later, she asks Molly for help, commenting “What exactly is wrong with my bits?” to which Molly candidly replies, “You’re a little old and a little white.”
The rest of the trailer teases Katherine and Molly team up to improve the show and get Katherine back into her spot as a top-tier late-night host, all thanks to Molly’s influence behind the scenes. Katherine eventually admits that she needs Molly, for her “pushiness and lack of boundaries,” which prompts what looks like one of several funny exchanges between Kaling and Thompson in the film.
In a recent interview with Variety, Kaling opened up about her early career experiences and how they informed the plot of Late Night. “Obviously I’m making a comedy movie, so things are exaggerated for comic effect, but similar things have happened to me in my career,” she said. “It’s not so much that the people in the film that I portray are bigoted. They’ve just been sheltered by the status quo. And every one of these people in the movie change. They’re not evil. They evolve.”
She added that when she first joined the writers room on The Office, “There used to be a sense of obligation — of being shamed into having a token person of color to prove that you weren’t racist. Now people are realizing it’s actually valuable to have different perspectives. It’s actually a better way to make money and to reach more people.”
Late Night hits theaters June 7— and you can bet that we’ll be there on opening night.
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