>> from our studios in new york city, this is "charlie rose." >> kristen wigg stars in a new film. she made a name of herself over seven years on "saturday night live."

she starred in "bridesmaids" and made almost $300 million worldwide. wigg in an adaptation of a short story by a nobel prize-winning author. the director and kristen wigg, the film star. i am pleased to have them at the table. being a comedic actor? >> can i look in the camera? >> and did you want to change that? you have come a long way, dear. >> yes, and i am grateful. we have talked about this a lot when we shot the movie, and i get it. i know that people know me from comedy, and when you see actors like that, there are people waiting for them to do something funny, and it was really interesting in toronto.

people were laughing at certain things, and i kind of wanted to turn around and say, no, i am serious, but it is really interesting to watch the movie with an audience, and i don't know if it would have been a different reaction if it were somebody else, but i hope i can do all different types of things. >> when you first moved to los angeles, you needed a job. >> yes. i was terrified, because i had not told my parents that my car was packed, and my cat was in a little carrier, and i was in arizona at the time, yes, tucson. and it really was a day of thinking about it, and i packed my car. >> a day? >> yes, pretty much. >> i have to do this? >> it just felt like one of

those things where i have learned that you can't lie to yourself in the mirror. like if you look in the mere and ask yourself the question, you cannot lie, and i looked myself in the near, and i was, what do you want to do, and it almost surprised me a little bit, and i am so bad at years. 90 something. >> what year in college were you? >> oh, oh, i was a junior. yes, and it just sort of happened, and my roommate at the time in college lived in l.a., so i was with her, and that is kind of how it happened. i got two very different reactions. i mean, they were both like, what are you talking about? i think they showed support in different ways.

my dad is more of a concern, like what the hell are you doing, but they were both very surprised. i had never really talked about acting or did anything like that, and, you know, when you tell your parents that, they tend to look at the numbers. a lot of people go there, and not a lot make it. why did i go? >> yes, why did you act? >> i do not know. it was in me. i took a class in school, and i liked it, but, i don't know, my teacher was actually really supportive. >> was it the groundlings? >> yes, the theater improv comedy group, and i had never seen it before, and i went to see a show, and i was, like, i

want to do that. and that theater changed my life. >> and how did they hear about you? >> a lot of times, you just sort of write "snl, new york," and it gets there. i have a lot of stuff from groundlings. >> you auditioned before both lorne and tina? >> yes, when you audition, you go into the studio, and then you go on the stage, and they are there. you hear they are all there. whenever i watch the show, i am like, it is like this. it goes on forever. you go up there, and it is five minutes, and they were very clear, like, five minutes, and,

yes, i just did every character in succession, anything i could think of. >> and how did you think you did? >> i never usually leave and go, oh, i nailed it. it is not like a room of -- the camera is on you. it is very intimidating, and then i got the call to come back again and audition, and i was, what am i going to do? i have done every voice that i can do, so i went back again, and i did not hear anything, and then the season started, so i figured i did not get it. >> when you do a character, do you try to get the boys first? >> it is all different. sometimes it is the voice. sometimes you're over here, at the grocery store, it is funny, and you write it down, and somehow, yes, or somebody in

your family. >> bill. >> yes. >> he is great when he came here. >> he is one of those people that when we do the table read on wednesday, it is like to get excited when he is going to do something, because you read the character description, and bill walks in, blah blah blah, and you will wait to see what he does with the description, the way he can manipulate his voice, and not to mention he is just like the nicest guy. >> lorne michaels says he is -- you are one of the three or four he has ever seen. >> oh, my gosh. very nice. >> that is pretty good. >> yes. i am speechless. very nice. >> how do you grow on saturday night live?

you just do it, or is it the input of all of the people there? >> it is a lot, the ever-changing family. i think it is a lot of things, and this is going to sound is so cliché and stupid, but you can't really expect anything, and you have to remember it is fine, because it is, by the nature of the show, it could be very competitive because we read 40 sketches a week, and saturday at 11:30 at 8:00, so you want to know how much you're going to be in the show, and you can did weeks and bad weeks, and you have to always know there is always next week, and, you know, just be supportive of each other, because it is an ensemble, and if you think about yourself, you probably would have a worse time. skeleton plans. we play twins. >> you play twins? >> yes.

i have brown hair. yes, we play twins. i'm very excited about it. i am going to see. >> like a black hole. ♪ julia louis-dreyfus is here. "rolling stone" calls her the "first lady of comedy," and i am pleased to have her back here. >> thank you very much. in "veep," your character. who is she? >> oh, lord, who is she? she is a political animal that i would say has been too long inside the beltway and is someone who is desperate for power and also obviously completely frustrated and thwarted by power and has sort of lost her moral center, and --

>> like people in washington. >> yes, to a certain extent, yes. parallels. >> you have talked about the parallels. >> i make the parallels are you have to constantly be working to stay alive, to stay sort of crucial, and you are selling yourself in a sense. you are selling a brand, i guess you can say, and you are selling an image of yourself. hopefully, you know, there is more depth to it than that, but we are talking about it as work. right. exactly. >> people who don't suffer from the stereotype. >> you are looking at one of them. >> it was often said people in washington often admire people in hollywood and went to be with them, and people in hollywood love people in washington and went to be with them. they want to be together.

>> yes, that's true. but and the ego. >> yes, there is a bubble aspect to both universes that israel, but anyways, this is somebody who is -- i feel bad for her. she is a terrible person in many ways, but i understand why she is frustrated and angry and as narcissistic as she is. >> but when you heard about the script, you wanted the role. you said to everyone around, this is me. >> lord, there wasn't even a script. i just turned the concept. i heard unhappy vice president, and i was, like, i am in. i have got to have this job. >> what was it about that job description? >> what is not to love? first of all, she is vice president and not president, so

immediately, with all due respect, there is a conflict there. there is a problem. >> she wants to be number one. >> she is number two. who wants to be number two? if you are running a race, do you want to come in second? and she is not happy about it, and it seemed very right for me for comedy, and it has proven to be the case. >> you grow between washington and new york. >> i did. >> he could have been a politician. >> never, never. >> what could you have been if you were not a comedian and actress? >> i think the only thing i could have been -- i don't know if this job exists, but if somebody could give me money to buy things for myself, is that job available? otherwise, i have no skills. >> to go have a good time, i imagine. jeffrey would win. >> see maybe right choice. i have no other skills. >> you happened to do the right thing for you. >> i think so.

>> you have a great marriage. >> i have a very, very great marriage. it is a beautiful marriage, and i have a lovely husband, and i lucked out. >> you work together? >> yes. >> we love it? >> we have obviously known each other a long time, and we have a similar sensibility and aesthetic sense, and so, most recently, we made this documentary, and -- >> about your father. >> about my father. "the generosity of eye. anybody can watch it for free. >> and it is about? >> it is about my father. he has been an art collector for 50 years now, and he has amassed a huge collection, and he made the decision to set it up as an endowment to benefit the harlan children's fund. >> to sell it? >> the idea if it is a long-term endowment, so it is structured as particular pieces are sold,

those funds would then go to the harlem children's fund. it is not like they are all old. so it is a long-term, very long-term gift, but it is an unusual one because it is art transforming into education, so we did this documentary about it. it goes to many of the artist who are represented in the collection, and at length with my father, and it was actually a great opportunity to get to know certain things about my dad. >> george, you have an e-mail. listen to what he said. it is very sweet. "i wanted to relay a thought to your father. yesterday, when he was talking about how strongly he felt about art, which is so clear. he said it was what he would be doing if he did, indeed, have the chops. although it does seem true that the artist works alone, that is not really the case. when your father started collecting my work, i was on the verge of burnout.

i was relative to nobody, still am, basically, and it was not just help in a financial way, it was a huge vote of confidence. i can say with certainty that i would not be where i am without him. he is a true patron in the best sense of the word, so i hope he realizes that he is, indeed, an integral part of the process of creating art, and a brush isn't in his hand." that is sweet. >> he is a very serious artist,

george, and it is sweet of him to take the time to say all of that. >> yes. >> i think his work is wonderful. >> what did you learn about your dad? >> i learned that my father is much more -- i didn't understand the depth of his emotional invest, the energy that he has put into the artist whose work he has collected. he has a very, very big life in the art world, and i wasn't really familiar with it. >> are you serious? he is your father. >> i know, but he is a private guy, and a lot of this art was not in our house, and he amassed all of this art, but i did not know the extent of the relationships that he had with these various people. i mean, that is a part of it, and it was exciting to see. also, very sort of exhilarating to talk to him about why he was doing, making this gift, and that was sort of nice also. >> am i pronouncing that right? >> yes. >> she is not just a natural comedic performer. she is a natural comedic brain. >> i don't know. i guess, what does he mean?

>> you have an intellectual or some sort of very smart sense of comedy. >> well, i have been doing in a long time, so i very much enjoy sort of picking things apart comedically and mining stuff within a scene, so maybe that is what he means. his material is so brilliant that it is easy to do, because when it is working -- when material is working on the page, it is that much easier to find more to add to it, not because it needs it, but just to help enhance and make it, so the material is so rich that he

create that it is kind of, frankly, it is a breeze. >> it is. >> well, because the material is so good. you know what i mean? >> it makes your work a lot easier. >> yes, it does. >> but he says you are a natural comedic brain and performer. if i had known you as a teenager, would i have seen that or known you that way then? >> yes, yes. >> so you were destined to be a comedic -- >> well, i always wanted to ask. i never thought i am to get into comedy. i have never done standup or anything like that. these jobs that i have gotten have been mainly comedic. not everything, but it is a happy place for me to work. it is a happy place to work, but i love doing drama also. >> was "seinfeld" a natural home for you? >> yes, yes, yes. oh, totally. "seinfeld" was -- it was funny, because larry david, as you know, created the show with larry, and larry and i knew each other from "snl" days, and he, you know, he and i were both miserable at "snl" at the time

-- >> because? >> does it was not a good time at "snl." it was dog eat dog, and there was no material, and i was getting on the air little. we were miserable and sort of enjoyed being miserable together, and then he got this show on nbc, and it was like all of a sudden, this feeling that the people who were running the show, our shows i felt, we were sort of like, you know, the nuts running the asylum. i cannot believe we are getting away with this, and that is what it felt like, and that was fun. >> i want to talk about the other projects. you went from "snl" to "seinfeld," and then the film he made with james gandolfini. >> "enough said." >> and then he died. >> written and directed by nicole holofcener, that was

another joy to make. i have had some very good gigs recently. needless to say, i wish that jim gandolfini was here to enjoy the work, but i was really proud of that, how it came out, yes. >> sort of returning to drama for you. >> yes, exactly. i mean, there were comedic elements to it, but i think ultimately it was more of a drama. >> is film different than television? >> well, certain kinds of television. i mean, "veep," which is shot with a single camera, it would be movie hours. and then on seinfeld, we had a laugh track all of the time, which is a delicious experience to calm you know, have an audience, but now that i have not been doing it for a while, i am kind of used to be doing the

single camera thing, and i've gotten used to that, yes. correct and what was the picture paris about? >> picture paris was a short film i made with my husband brad hall. our youngest has gone off to college, and she has a plan for her husband, and they are going to go off to paris together and reinvent their lives, and things don't quite work out the way they should, and that was a short film. but there are some twists and turns that you don't see coming. >> here is a clip from that. here it is. ♪ >> [singing in foreign language] >> you are not just a

francophile. you are in some way french. >> yes, my father was born in france, and that part of my family is very french, yes, but my father is an american citizen. he has lived here many years. >> do you go back and forth a lot? >> not as much as i would like to. >> going back to paris as much as we would like to. >> yes, things keep getting in the way, but there is plenty of life ahead, so i plan to. >> what is it you would like to do that you have not yet done in terms of acting and comedy, drama?

>> well, i guess i would like -- >> you have had hits, television hits of two kinds. >> yes. i think i would like to keep it up. i mean, really, i would like to. i do very much like working, and i love collaborating with people whom i respect tremendously, so i would like to keep doing that. i wouldn't mind dipping my toe in the dramatic material area. it was really a thrill for me to do that in "enough said," and i would like to do more of it, only because i have not done tons and tons of it. >> where do you want to take this? the vice presidency? >> this vice president became president at the end of season three, so we have a new sort of

landscape, a news date starting in season four. >> and what did she want to be now that she is president? >> well, exactly, what does she want to be? she is president, but she is also running for president at the same time. she has got to try to stay alive. nothing is easy. nothing comes easy for her, and certainly, she gets in her own way, so she is trying to figure out we have not shot it yet, but she has to find a way to stay alive in the position she has always wanted, and i mean stay alive physically and politically. >> we also have this clip of you at the correspondents dinner. here it is.

>> [chuckles] [phone rings] hello? >> selena? what are you doing? >> oh, god. i thought you were the president. are you going to this tonight? >> no, i am not going. i have been there once. it is a bunch of politicians trying to explain politics. >> exactly, who wants to see david gregory crying in the corner all night? actually, i would not mind seeing that. [horn honks] ♪ what the hell are you doing? >> come on. >> yellow? seriously, yellow? >> get in the car. >> there you go. >> he is good. >> fantastic. thank you for having me back. ♪

>> mindy kaling is the star of "the mindy project," which has just been renewed.

welcome. >> so happy to be here. there was a measure of stardom. there is a whole lot of young people who work here, and when they somehow converge on the floor where i have my studio, you know that something special is going on. what do you think it is? >> i am so excited to hear that. >> what do you represent? >> what do i represent? i don't know. i think that for young women, particularly minority women, that i have the job that i have is exciting for them, and i know that i try not to think about it too much, because i have too many other things to do, but being able to have your own show, it is really exciting for people, and i love that. it feels like a nice

responsibility. >> what is it about? >> what is the show about? >> the show is about being a better person. it is about someone who is selfish and boy crazy, who is terrified of aging, who is very professionally busy and accomplished but who is fixated on things that are sort of a little bit and need her intelligence, but she is still fixated on them. i know plenty of women who are college educated, doctors, lawyers, professors even, who are candidly want to get married, and they have great lives. they have money. they have got relationships with their friends, and they want to get married, and there is an embarrassment you feel if you are a little overeducated for wanting those things, but it exists, and that is kind of what this show is about. >> i knew a little bit about you

preparing for this conversation. you know a little bit about me. when i sat down with you, and this is true, you just seem like a person i would really like to know. we talked about magazine covers. we talked about observations about life, and i think that is part of what you have. people are interested in what you say and who you are because there is an authenticity about you. >> that is very kind of you. that is such a nice complement. the nicest thing that i hear, and i hear it a lot, is women are specially saying that they wish i was there best friend. >> i wish you are my best friend. >> i don't hear it from straight men often, but that is nice to hear. >> here is your book. everybody hanging out without me. here is "elle" magazine. all of this suggests that you created your own thing and then they came to you.

>> i am very proud of the way that i have made my way, because i do feel -- my mother was a surgeon, my father an architect. they were in india, and then my father went to africa, and they met in africa and then came here, and there is no people in tv on either side of my family, no entertainers to speak of, and i was just really blessed to have parents who growing up loved jerry seinfeld, loved bill cosby, loved george carlin, comedy, and they did not understand it, and i really feel, and this is going to make me sound like a thousand years old, but this could only happen in america, and i am weirdly patriotic because my parents are immigrants, and i feel so unbelievably lucky, that a just came from grit, you know? hearing a 34-year-old woman

talking about their grit. >> determination. >> my mother, who is an ob/gyn, immigrated to this country. i talked about creating a show. it is back reeking of heart to create a show here, and i virtually never sought either of my parents growing up because of how hard they worked, but i sort of applied that to entertainment, and it worked out, which for me, it kind of makes me feel good about the country in a way, because i could not have done this in india, i think. >> what is the mindy project? >> what is silly about them and wonderful about them, but generally, i found recently in romantic comedies, the focus is on romance and not comedy at all. i think now it is just about romance, girls wearing fancy dresses and falling into cakes and things like that, and i came up from "the office", and i came up from a group of very hard comedy writers.

>> of which you were one. >> i believe i am. i believe in hard joke writing, and the people that i love right hearted jokes. in the trenches. you are in the trenches, and i think you have a show with a female lead, and people often say that i am very girly, i take such pride in writing jokes. it is a very old-fashioned thing. it is something that mel brooks did, sid caesar did, and that is how i was trained at "the office," and tina fey puts a huge value on the hard joke, and i wanted that to be in my show. >> what is a hard joke? >> i will tell you what it is not, if that is ok. there is a lot of shows that are with attitude, and it is irreverent attitude, which, by the way, is very interesting, and fashion and poses. a hard joke to me, first of all, makes you laugh out loud.

in a lot of comedies that i watched -- by the way, i am not saying necessarily that my show would make you laugh out loud. i think it is funny. a show that sounds like it is like a crafted joke, and it has that. yes. >> exactly. >> well-written. people know that it has been fine tuned. people like seinfeld have said that it is not easy. they finally stopped the "seinfeld" show because it was not easy, and when he went to nbc, they wanted to almost drop a truck of money on him. he was, "no, i was writing on christmas eve last year. i don't want to do that anymore." it is hard. >> it is hard, particularly for jerry, a master of jokes, because he is so good. another person fills his whole life, and it seems he is filling his life with jokes, whereas "seinfeld" is funny in a different way, when he does not let you in at all. they are so good, so i can't

imagine. >> where are you on that arc? >> the show, the character on the show, is very wild and parties, but i, myself, am very different from her. she had like nine boyfriends on the show, and i am thinking i only know nine men in my life. but that makes for a really fun character, so i like that about the character. that is really fun. but i am more retiring. >> does start of change that? >> i don't know that i have stardom, actually. you know, i am on the cover of this, but i think, in general. >> do you know how many people would kill to be on the cover of "elle" magazine? >> i love it, and i love how serious i look. they tell you not to smile, and

you look much more alluring. if you are me and your personality, you live your whole life being told that you are alluring, and that is why i like that cover, because while beautiful is not a representation of what my personality is like, which is, like -- >> here is what b.j. novak said.

do you know what he's -- you know him? >> yes. >> "she is a gangster." what do you think he meant? >> well, i think he meant, and i don't think he meant this in a bad way, there are some very masculine aspects of my personality, and gangster -- >> determined, driven, decisive. >> when i started doing the show, i think people were surprised at how decisive i was, and in entertainment, we do not see that, decisiveness without disclaimers, and being very curt. i feel like that might be a good option, although i see both sides of it, and i am not like that at all, which, in a man seems natural and inspires confidence, what in a woman, it can seem brusque, and i know that, and i sometimes wish i wasn't that way, but i can't help it. i am impatient, which i think is another gangster quality, but did you ever see the september issue? >> they asked her, what makes you a good leader, and it was almost like -- the timing was perfect. without hesitation. >> and people think she is cold, and that is because they are scared. >> i just interviewed larry page, and i think you'd say the same thing. they are not the enemy of good. now prepared to take a session even if it is not a perfect decision.

>> of course, i love it. but that is a very -- i want to memorize that. >> tell us about this? >> i love her, and i think she is an incredible character, because she is politically sort of all over the map. there are real streaks of libertarianism. like "30 rock." they were such gifts as actors, and my character does things like, i don't like this. she has that kind of energy, and she has the conviction because she knows they are correct.

>> could you make it more interesting? is it possible to make her more interesting because of the way she has the background she has and looks the way she does? >> my character probably could not exist. because if i was being played by, frankly, a thin, beautiful blonde woman, you might find it incredibly insufferable, but i have the trappings of a marginalized person, and when that person is decisively saying soda of conservative things and all over the map things, -- another thing about my character that i love, she is constantly insisting that she is young and hot to everyone, and she is always saying, "i am a smoking hot doctor. why can't i meet anybody?" so it is this confidence that is so delusional. >> it is not my fault.

it is some of the else's fault. >> she is very plucky comment people cannot get her down, which it think is amazing. >> here is a clip from "the mindy premier project" coming out april 1. here it is. >> ok, you two, get out of here and do something useful. see this? i want you to show me what you did to cliff last night. >> what? this is dumb. sure, ok. his arm was, i don't know, like here, and his hand was a bit cupped. >> your breasts. >> yes. >> and this hand here. >> that is the groin? >> i slept next to cliff. nothing major happened. >> what you mean nothing happened?

>> i massaged his jeans. he has my hand, and you have my heart. i am a great writer because of your letter. >> unless you sprained your hand last night, you know what i mean? >> that is her. >> that is her. >> tell me about your relationship with danny. >> danny is another doctor that works in the office at the beginning of the season with a very adversarial relationship but over the course of the years has become very friendly, and there has been sort of a sexual tension building underneath them, and his character, like my character, is incredibly strong and confident, very masculine. he is unbelievable. he is so good. i actually -- he had not done a lot of comedy when i first approached him for the role.

he was in damages, playing someone in iraq, but there was something about his intensity, and i come off -- i sound like a 15-year-old girl when i talk, but there was something about him that was so masculine and though tough that i've thought played very well with my energy, and it turned out to be correct, because i think we have good chemistry. >> all of the cameos. they come out of your mind? >> we love working on the show because it is a dating show, and so many of my friends who are writers and creators are men who could be people that i dated, so we have a lot of writerly actors on the show. one person came on and was pretty strange, and he is wonderful. seth rogen, clint, and we have a lot of writer, performers. >> does your success represent anything about diversity, and it

thing about the possibilities of expanding the world of women in comedy? >> i hope so. i hope so. even when i started on "the office," and that was nine years ago when i started on that show, there were not that many female comedy shows, and now several of my favorite shows, like "veep," "30 rock," not only are they led by women, they have created their own shows. in the years that i have been here, it has changed a lot. now, being a dark-skinned minority, and i hope there are more women who look like me who have their own shows -- kerry washington on "scandal," and a hit show with many, many people who watch that show. >> what do you think of lena? >> i love lena. >> you love her or the work? >> i think on purpose, the

character is hard to love. that is a very, very interesting and very selfish character. >> because she is an exhibitionist? >> the exhibitionist thing has never bothered me, although other people are interested by it. she is in many ways like my character. the character is supremely confident in a way where she does not necessarily have the goods to back it up, and i think that makes her controversial. lena, i believe, is a true artist. to do a show that she likes that happens to be really funny. and i think several parts of that show our brilliant. sometimes i think i am a little old for that show. lena is about nine years younger than me. >> you are not in the target audience? >> i think i am in the target audience, but nudity and axle situations like that, just the way that i am raised, i am very shy about it, because my parents did not distinguish artists that way.

>> she grew up in an environment that was much more accepting of -- >> yes, with artists as parents. yes. yes. i do not have that same experience, so i am not saying i am always comfortable watching it, but i love it, and i will say that the originality, there is nothing like it on television, and originality is truly i think the most important thing. it is why the people who love my show love it, because they are not finding that in any other show, and whatever you will say about her, no one is doing it, and only she can do it. >> did you realize that about yourself at an early age? i have defined what is unique and original about me and write to that? >> i don't know if i looked for it. there was someone on the show, and you are talking about the essence of funny, and he said, he did not qualify it by saying

that, but there are people who are funny, and i have felt in my life that when people are drawn to me and my opinions, it has always been the things that are less effortful, which i always thought was very lucky. you know, kind of a new money child of immigrants, and i am patriotic, and i have this strange mix of qualities, love comedy, loves glitz, all of those things, i am blessed with them. i am blessed with an original point of view for many americans, and if i stay true to it and what i really love, people respond to it. there are a lot of people like me. there are girls who like the show, but it is reaching them, and that is one of the nicest things about the show. it is for people who are not the child of indian immigrants. it is interesting. >> is this for you a logical

extension of "the office"? >> i run my writers around. my mentor, brilliant. the type of writers on my show, a couple of whom are from "the office." i run the room the same way, but it is such a different show. that was a mockumentary. and the regional office, it was beautiful and simple. and my show is not at all like that. what is beautiful is beautiful. it is a very more is more show. they have money. it is in new york city. but i run the room in the same way, so totally. i think there is a lot of similarity. >> and you learned what from carell? >> from carell, on "the office," i was number 14 on the call sheet, which means there were 13 actors that are seated me in a

importance. they were nice because they do not overtly say things like that, but that is very low on the totem pole, and steve, of course, is number one, and what is nice when you're number four team and on a show for nine years, you don't have that many lines, but you listen, and there were these lines that steve made so famous, and in the conference room, and some of the lines i wrote, i wrote 25 episodes of "the office," and i watched him, and it was like going to graduate school, and i don't care if you are the least funny person in the world. if you spend eight years with steve carell and watch, you become funny. i think that you pick up comedy cadences. i went into the show, i think i was a funny person -- >> at age 24. >> you are just like, how can you not be funny when steve carell is doing that for so

long? i was very lucky that way. >> in must have been funny because they hired you to come here. >> no one told me that i was not confident. i do not suffer from a lack of confidence, but one of the things that that was so great and being an indian woman on the show is that there are things that steve did that i believe i am straight up copying moves that he did, but you would not suspect it in me because i am a woman, and it does not translate as copying, and that is one of the great benefit. >> is that part of what you think the character is in the minty project, that it is this confidence? at the same time, you're looking for a relationship, and you're looking for love, and all of those things, but there is a confidence about minty, and that is what young women identify with. they can almost project. >> i think they really liked that about her. >> what i would like to be, they

say to themselves. >> i hope so. >> the attitude. >> she never gets upset, and many people tell her that she is overweight, that she is not acting professionally, and the things that typically make women in this country, at least women i know, feel less than or powerless, being told they are fat, being told they are ugly, and being told they are old tended not to affect her, and i love that i can play that character, you know? she is a little delusional, and she does a lot of terrible things, but that particular sensitivity doesn't affect her, and if women can look to that or me -- because i weirdly often read comments about me, and i said this is from my mother because both of my parents were hyper educated. people can tell you, you are fat, and people can tell you you're ugly, but if people tell you you are not smart, that cuts the deepest.

if you are not smart -- they put a premium on education, first of all, but that is truly a shameful thing, to be uneducated. >> so what do your parents think of all of this? >> my father delights in it. the show is racy, and there is sexy stuff in it, but he doesn't mind it. he thinks it is great. my mother would have loved it. she passed away two w years ago, but she would have loved it, and my mother did not, she was unimpressed by almost everything, and she loved "the office," but she would give me her honest opinion. >> was that good for you? >> very good. >> and you could accept it without -- >> my mom was very glamorous and very formidable, and when she said nothing to me, she would never tell me a compliment unless it was 100% true, and she was one of those people, and i

am sure you have been in your life, one of the people where you believe them inherently. it gets to a certain level if you wonder if people around you are telling you things you want to hear, and she was that person for me more than anyone, my brother, my father. she was that person. she would have loved it. she would have had her list of suggestions, but i think she would've really liked it. >> when you dream, what do you dream? when you think about what might be, what do you think? i mean, is it oprah like? >> wow. i want so much. that is the problem is that i have too many desires, and it is a good thing that i am hindu, because my desires of what my ambition encompasses many more lives than what i have right now.

i want to go much. and it is why i can't stick to a diet, to be honest, because i want to try that, and i want to try that, and it is the same thing with my career. i look at oprah, and that is pretty amazing. she has an empire, and then i look at woody allen and others who don't produce anyone else's work, and they just produce their own cannons, and then someone like j.j. abrams, and i want kids. the classic narcissist that i am great, there should be more of me. younger versions of me should be around. i don't know how i am going to do it all. another lifetime. but my eyes have always been bigger than my stomach, as i say. it is something older women say.

it is not a sexy thing that a young television actress should maybe say, but i do feel that way. the next thing is i would like to direct something that i wrote. that would be nice. >> thank you. >> of course, thank you for having me. >> a pleasure. ♪

>> live from pier 3 in san francisco, welcome to "bloomberg west," where we cover innovation, technology, and the future of business. i'm emily chang. first, to the headlines. the pier to pier landing site connects bar with landers on the internet, lending club says it has extended $5 billion in personal loans on the platform. a sales ban on certain samsung smartphones is rejected again. a ruling says it did not inflict substantial harm. and pat issu -