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Mindy Kaling Admits It Was ‘Challenging’ to Play B.J. Novak’s ‘Office’ Love Interest After Split

Awkward! Mindy Kaling admitted in a new interview that playing B.J. Novak‘s love interest on The Office wasn’t always easy after they called it quits on their real-life relationship. (Watch the exes in a flirty scene from the beloved comedy in the clip above!)

During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live, host Andy Cohen asked the Mindy Project actress, 37, which of her costars was the best kisser.

Mindy Kaling and Andy Cohen
Mindy Kaling with Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live.

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Seth Rogen is a great kisser. Which, like, who knew? He’s such a guy’s guy, he smokes a lot of weed,” Kaling explained Sunday, October 2. “Who knew that he’d be such a great kisser? I thought he was good.”

Immediately after, Cohen, 48, asked Kaling if it was difficult to play “warring love interests” with Novak, 37, after their split.

Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak
Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak attend the FYC panel for “The Mindy Project” in 2016.

“I knew you were gonna bring up B.J.!” she quipped. “I can’t speak [for] him, [but] I think for me it was challenging to be in your mid-twenties — I’m such a sentimental person and I take things very hard — but that’s the nice thing about being in long friendships. That was, like, 12 years ago when that happened, so you get over things like that, but it totally was very challenging.”

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The comedienne insisted that there wasn’t any personal drama on set, however, explaining that the only fights she had with her on-again, off-again ex were “creative” and “in the writer’s room.”

Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak
Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak on The Office.

In 2014, Kaling opened up about her friendship with Novak, who is currently cowriting a book (worth a reported $7.5 million) with her.

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“He’s a good friend of mine, yeah. He’s my best friend. He broke up with me,” she said on The Howard Stern Show in September 2014, adding that she would’ve married her ex if he’d asked. “At the time? Yeah. I was 24. For the record, if anyone asked me to marry them, I would have said yes.”

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