Mindy Kaling is addressing the criticism of her role as the beloved “Scooby-Doo” character Velma in a new spinoff series.
The actress admitted to Seth Meyers on Thursday’s “Late Night” that people were okay with her being the voice of Velma. However, people drew the line when they realized Velma was going to be of East Asian descent.
Kaling told Meyers, “People were not happy. There were a lot of ‘so not Velma’ tweets. First of all, I didn’t know that she elicited such strong reactions, in either direction.
“She’s such a great character, she’s so smart. And I just couldn’t understand how people couldn’t imagine a really smart, nerdy girl with terrible eyesight and loved to solve mysteries could not be Indian.
“Like, there are Indian nerds. It shouldn’t be a surprise to people.”
She went on, “It really made me think, Okay, we’ve got to be really careful with this character, which we will be because we really love her and she’s going to have great adventures.”
During the interview, Kaling also spoke about her role on “Monsters At Work”, “Never Have I Ever”, and the support of her daughter.
See more in the clip above.
