Mindy Kaling is just happy Ben Affleck hasn’t sued her.
The multi-hyphenate sat down for a conversation as part of the Paley Media Council Series on Thursday, and she revealed that Affleck isn’t the biggest fan of her career-making play, Matt & Ben, about Matt Damon and Affleck’s time as roommates cowriting Good Will Hunting.
Kaling wrote and starred in the play back in 2002, and it landed her a writing job on The Office. “I played and [her friend Brenda Withers] played Matt Damon in a fictionalized version of a time of strife in their relationship, with a creative difference,” Kaling said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “It was them writing Good Will Hunting and it takes place over a course of like one day in their lives.”
Greg Daniels, who created The Office and is also behind upcoming spinoff The Paper, saw Kaling in the play and offered her a job on his staff.
During the earliest parts of her career, Kaling said that she’d never met Damon or Affleck, but that has since changed — and it turns out that Affleck isn’t that into the play. “Ben Affleck is to this day the most fun role I’ve ever played,” she said. “For the record, he’s not, like, crazy about it.”
“He’s like such a good sport but he had a Christmas party a couple of years ago and I remember going, and he’s like, ‘You still owe me residuals from that play you did,'” she continued. “But he’s nice — I would have sued.”
Representatives for Affleck did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly‘s request for comment.
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Kaling wrote more extensively of her experiences writing and starring in the play in her first memoir Is Everyone Hanging Out With Me? (and Other Concerns).
The creator of Running Point and The Mindy Project hasn’t performed on screen in six years, but she also spoke at the Paley event about a possible return to acting. “I miss it, and I would like to write or co-create a show for me to act in soon,” she said. “I would love to do [something like The Mindy Project] again…that’s the thing that maybe in the next couple years, when I launch a couple other things that are earlier in the pipeline, that would be something that would be fun to do again.”
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