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Mindy Kaling is addressing the criticism that the South Asian Scooby-Doo spinoff had been at the center of.
During an interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Kaling spoke about the criticism that her spin-off series Velma had received.
“It was announced about a month ago that the Velma character would be reimagined as South Asian. And people were not happy,” the 42-year-old said.
“When it was announced that I was going to do the voice of Velma, people were very supportive and happy on Twitter, and so I felt great,” Kaling went on to say.
“These are really intense fans, you know? Like cartoon, comic book — those are huge fans. And especially a legacy show,” she said.
“There was a lot of ‘So not Velma’ . . . ‘Not the classic Velma that I’m always thinking about,’” she shared.
“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 who loved to solve mysteries, could be Indian,” Kaling told Meyers.
“Like, there are Indian nerds. It shouldn’t be a surprise to people,” she quipped.
“It really made me think, ‘OK, we’ve got to be really careful with this character.’ Which we will be, because we really love her,” Kaling added.