Mindy Kaling is putting a modern twist on Richard Curtis’s beloved 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral for her miniseries adaption, now streaming on Hulu.
Sitting down with The Hollywood Reporter In Studio alongside showrunner Tracey Wigfield, Kaling discusses putting together the “super diverse” cast for the series, with Game of Thrones star Nathalie Emmanuel and Nikesh Patel as the leads.
“When someone says, ‘Do you want to adapt Four Weddings and a Funeral?’ there’s a lot of excitement about it. MGM really wanted us to do something with the property but… I did it with The Office where we tried to replicate something that was perfect and everyone got really mad for the first six episodes,” she said.
“More time had gone by since Four Weddings, and we decided we’re not going to have anyone who’s Hugh Grant. We’re not going to try to find a guy who is a floppy-haired, white, incredibly compelling — no one could do that. And to be honest, that was very of its time and Hugh Grant is Hugh Grant because of it, so we thought, ‘What are the new icons? What are the kind of things that we would love to see?'”
Kaling goes on to explain how they “definitely wanted an African-American woman to be the star, and we wanted a British Pakistani man to be the male lead.”
“That felt different and worth doing,” she added.
Kaling and Wigfield also discuss snagging Game of Thrones star Emmanuel as the female lead following the finale of the HBO series.
“The amount of people that love her and feel — I mean, I don’t know how you could relate to a character on Game of Thrones, but just loved her and felt seen by her because she was one of the most prominent people of color on the show was really moving to us, and we were really excited that fans can see her do something completely different,” Kaling told In Studio.
Four Weddings and a Funeral is now streaming on Hulu.
