BJ Novak Gave A Touching Speech For Mindy Kaling At The 2023 Producer's Guild Awards, "We Were In Love With Each Other, And We Were Reckless Idiots"
BJ Novak and Mindy Kaling are maybe one of my favorite couples to exist, and that includes their breakup and friendship present day. It's nearly impossible to be friends with an ex, especially one you shared so much of your "life" with, and such a BIG part of your life (like helping to create one of the biggest TV shows of all time.)
Not only were they in love, they worked together closely for years, they had to perform scenes together, but what I find most interesting about all of it is that they continued to do it, despite getting in full blown arguments (to each other's faces, and then dragged out over AIM of course.) They recognized that what they were doing was bigger than their petty drama, and adapted. The relationship to me is both mature and immature, which I think most relationships end up being whether we like it or not. It's almost like high school, but with extremely high stakes considering it's your adult life and career. To some degree, it matters.
I think it's possible to be in love with someone, or have mutual love for each other, and not actually be WITH them. Sometimes people just don't work in a relationship setting, but testing out the "relationship" can bring you to a place of genuine respect and REAL love. These two know everything about each other, all of the positives and negatives, and they still want to at least be friends. They still need each other, work together, laugh together - doesn't that sound nice?
Sure, I'm still on the side of things where I pray/hope/think that BJ Novak is the baby daddy for Mindy and they're secretly going to be together forever, but honestly, after this speech I'm swayed to think that he really is just their Godparent. It takes a special kind of admiration to look back fondly on a "tumultuous, toxic, boundary-less relationship" and have made it through to the other side.