"I was really surprised, to be honest, that it remained," Mindy Kaling tells PEOPLE of the cheeky nod to Kate Hudson's 2003 rom-com
Credit: Katrina Marcinowski/Netflix; Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock
Warning: This post contains spoilers for Running Point season 2, streaming on Netflix.
NEED TO KNOW
- Kate Hudson has a cheeky moment in season 2 of Running Point where she references How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, the 2003 rom-com she starred in with Matthew McConaughey
- Creator Mindy Kaling tells PEOPLE she was “80% certain” Hudson would shoot the idea down when she read the script, but Hudson explains why she let it stay
- Season 2 of Running Point is now streaming on Netflix
Mindy Kaling was not expecting Kate Hudson to be willing to get so meta in Running Point season 2.
Moments after calling off her wedding to Lev (Max Greenfield), Isla (Hudson) looks directly at the camera and quips, "That's how you lose a guy in 10 minutes." It's a direct reference to her 2003 romantic comedy, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, in which she starred alongside Matthew McConaughey, and Kaling was ready for Hudson to shoot it down.
"Listen, listen. I know it's corny to be meta with Kate's movies," Kaling, who created the series alongside David Stassen and Ike Barinholtz, tells PEOPLE. "I was 80% certain that Kate was going to be like, 'Hey, Mindy. I get what you're trying to do here. It's corny. We can't do it.'"
Hudson, 47, admits she's "really weird about that stuff," but says this line "was really fun" so she made an exception.
"And it is corny," Kaling says. "I can say that it is corny, and it is a wink to one of her most iconic roles, but it's fun. And I was really surprised, to be honest, that it remained."
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Credit: Courtesy of Netflix
The reason Hudson let the line stay, she tells PEOPLE, is "because it was so well executed."
"If you're going to do it, it's got to be something like that — in this moment, that's actually quite sad and hard," she says, referring to the emotional breakup scene that happens before for Lev and Isla on the eve of their wedding. "The timing of it was just really well executed, and if something's funny, it's funny. You can't just say no."
Does this one exception mean that Hudson has opened the floodgates for more?
Kaling, 46, jokes in her interview with Hudson that "Song Sung Blue references" are next, and then maybe "some Almost Famous lines" too, and the Oscar nominee doesn't shy away.
"I'll come out in the coat — the Penny Lane coat," she offers, referring to her Almost Famous character's signature look from the 2000 film that launched her career with an Oscar nomination.
Credit: Katrina Marcinowski/Netflix
In the meantime, Kaling and Hudson are more focused on celebrating the release of the current season of Running Point.
In season 2 of the hit comedy, Isla is "no longer the surprise choice to lead the Los Angeles Waves, she’s the one everyone is watching."
"With the franchise finally rebounding after last year’s scandal, Isla is determined to prove she’s not just keeping the seat warm for her brother Cam (Justin Theroux). What she doesn’t know is that Cam is quietly maneuvering behind the scenes to reclaim his post, turning every misstep into ammunition," per the official synopsis.
"As she tries to balance the pressure of running a franchise with devoting time to her personal life, every decision on and off the court counts. To survive the family power plays and the scrutiny of the board, she’ll have to rip up last season’s game plan and come up with a whole new playbook if she wants to close out the season on top."
Running Point season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
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