Original-Cin Q&A: First-time actor, Mississauga's Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, talks about starring in new Mindy Kaling series
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan is your average Canadian teenage girl who lives with her family in Mississauga, Ontario.
However, her life is rapidly becoming very un-average. Maitreyi (pronounced My-trey-ee) is the star of Never Have I Ever, the new Netflix series by Mindy Kaling (The Office, The Mindy Project).
The series follows the life of Devi, an Indian-American who strives to be popular at school. The character is loosely based on Kaling and her co-writer, Lang Fisher.
Maitreyi who is 18, Tamil-Canadian, and has recently graduated from Meadowvale Secondary School, won the role over 15,000 girls who auditioned via video.
She leap-frogged from never having acted before to her big Hollywood debut, and is still pinching herself in disbelief.
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (left) plays Devi, on a quest for popularity, in Mindy Kaling’s Never Have I Ever
Our Bonnie Laufer spoke with Maitreyi about this huge opportunity and why she feels she was chosen for the coveted role.
Never Have I Ever begins streaming on Netflix on April 27th.
ORIGINAL-CIN: How are you doing and how are you coping with isolation?
MAITREYI RAMAKRISHNAN: “I'm doing good, and I'm chilling. I'm blessed to be with my family, right, so I have no complaints. I'm safe. I'm healthy. I can't ask for more than that, right?”
OC: You certainly cannot! As a fellow Canadian who literally lives 15 minutes from you by the highway, let me express how proud we all are of you for landing this role! How are you feeling about this?
RAMAKRISHNAN: “I feel super excited for everybody to see it. I can’t believe that it’s finally here, because it's been talked about for so long now. It’s been almost a year from when this all started, between my first audition tape and shooting the series. I have to say that I'm so confident in the show. I'm just like, ‘Yeah, it's good. It's going to come out and it's going to be great.’”
OC: Well it is pretty great and the advanced reviews have been really positive. You auditioned for this kind of on a whim. And you didn't know this at the time but 15,000 young girls tried out for the role of Devi. Why do you think Mindy Kaling chose you?
RAMAKRISHNAN: “Well, I asked her that! I mean come on, I had to know!! Here I was this young girl from Mississauga with no prior acting experience.
“But she told me that I brought myself into the character without completely changing who Devi is - her essence and her story. I brought my own experiences to help create that authenticity to the character that you will see onscreen. In that way, it makes it so fleshed out and I tried to give her a raw performance.”
OC: There's no way that you can't relate to a lot of what's going on with her, but I suspect she is pretty different from how you grew up. You're from Canada and she's from the States. And, although similar, you and Davi come from different cultures. So what did you bring to your performance that came from a personal level?
RAMAKRISHNAN: “Like you said, there are the differences between being American and Canadian and she's Indian-American. I am Tamil Canadian. But in general, it's that first generation experience that all first gen’s will be able to relate to from all cultures and backgrounds.
“It’s also that in-between, the feeling of figuring out where you sit within your culture, and that idea of figuring out your own identity that I definitely related to Devi the most.”
OC: She has such a great spirit about her and so much confidence. She totally says what she wants and is not scared of what others might think. I love that about her.
RAMAKRISHNAN: “I love that about her too, because she doesn't dumb herself down. It's not a story of a girl who has to dumb herself down for a guy or anyone for that matter. She's smart. She knows she's smart and she loves being number one. That's awesome.”
OC: She is also unapologetically a nerd with confidence which makes her so endearing.
RAMAKRISHNAN: “I really related to her on that level. I did well in school and always did my homework. One of my heroes growing up was Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. She was so smart, but had that nerd-like quality to her, and I just felt so connected to her.
“YES, Devi is a nerd, but she’s not shy or awkward. She’s super-intelligent, very confident and she knows what she wants. And she has friends and lots of them.”
OC: There are so many little quirks and nuances in this show. I don't want to give away too much, but there’s her rivalry with the guy in her class she’s grown up with. They are constantly competing with one another, trying to top each other. It just looks like you had way too much fun working on this show.
RAMAKRISHNAN: (Laughs) “Way too much fun! The cast is amazing and that guy who I am ‘competing’ with on the series is now one of my best friends. We honestly go at each other like that regularly.
“The entire cast is just amazing together and we're all like a little family. And that's thanks to Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher who created that environment and let that happen.”
OC: Of course, we all know Mindy from her shows, The Office and The Mindy Project and it comes across that she is a down-to-earth human being. Did you find that about her and was it easy to communicate with her and express your thoughts on how you wanted to play Devi?
RAMAKRISHNAN: “A hundred per cent, because you know here I am with no experience and Mindy Kaling is my first boss ever in my life.
OC: Not too shabby at all!
RAMAKRISHNAN: “Thank you. Thank you. (laughs) It still blows me away. I was the only one without experience on the production. But I never ever once felt like I couldn't ask any questions or I couldn't bring forth my own ideas or even question her ideas, and that's amazing.
“I'm really honored and blessed and to be able to say that and I'm so thankful to her for creating that environment where I felt like I could explore and learn even though I was the lead of the show.”
OC: How are your friends feeling about all this? Are they treating you any differently?
RAMAKRISHNAN: “No, they're still roasting me. They still make fun of me just as much as they did before. But that being said, they're so proud of me and I couldn't ask for better friends.
“Our friendship is so much more than any movie or TV show, and I'm thankful for that because they still come to me with their regular everyday life problems or whenever they need to rant or complain about something. So nothing's really changed!”
OC: You went to Hollywood to shoot this, which had to be an eye-opening experience. What was that like for you?
RAMAKRISHNAN: “I was born in Mississauga, I have gone to school in Mississauga, I've lived in the same neighborhood, so going out there was crazy!
“Plus it was even crazier to think that I went there with a job, not for a vacation, because I had never been to L.A before. So the first time I ever went to Los Angeles was to work!
“How insane is that? So, when I got there one of the first things I did was I looked at the Hollywood sign. I remember that moment so clearly and I was like, ‘Did I make it? What am I doing here? Is this all really happening to me?’ It all felt like a huge dream!”
OC: What are you hoping that people, especially young adults take from watching Never Have I Ever?
RAMAKRISHNAN: “Honestly, I really hope that, whether you're South Asian and you can relate to Davi’s experience with her mom. Or maybe you're not South Asian, and you're from a different religion or a different background or ethnicity and you still can relate to that first gen experience.
“Or perhaps it's not about race at all, and you can just relate to feeling misunderstood and different than other people. You can still have friends and still enjoy life. If you're feeling out of place or you have a family situation that nobody knows about and you can relate to one of the characters on the show we hope you can get some comfort from that.
“I love all the characters in the show and I think our cast does a fantastic job of connecting with what is going on in the world. You'll find something for you in it. There's something really for everybody.”