Mindy Kaling Used Her Kids’ School Drop-off To Cast Her New Netflix Show Running Point

Before Jay Ellis was officially cast as Coach Jay in Mindy Kaling’s new Netflix series Running Point, the actress had to pull some rather unusual strings.

Speaking to SheKnows at PaleyLive’s screening and panel for the new show at the Paley Museum in NYC on Feb. 26, Ellis revealed Kaling’s interesting persuasive tactics.

“Ike [Barinholtz] told me about the show that he and Mindy and [David Stassen] were doing the show about two years ago,” Ellis, who’s also starred in shows like Insecure and The Game, remembers. “And then the writer’s strike happened, and he told me they were naming the coach, Coach Jay, and I was like, ‘Oh, cool.’ I didn’t think of anything of it.”

As it turns out, the character was written by the three writers specifically for him. “We want you to play it like we want you to do it,” they told him. “We’re naming him after you.”

But without having any official scripts or contracts, Ellis still didn’t take the offer too seriously.

“Fast forward, Ike calls me and he says, ‘Hey, we’re gonna send the scripts over to you like we’re gearing up’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, cool. I’ll check it out,'” he says.

But Ellis’ lack of commitment didn’t exactly land with Kaling, who’s also created shows like The Mindy Project, Never Have I Ever and Sex Lives of College Girls. So, she took matters into her own hands.

“One morning at drop-off, I saw Mindy in the hallway, because our kids go to school together,” he says. “She cornered me in the hallway. She’s like, ‘Are you gonna do my show? Jay, are you gonna do my show?’ And I was like, ‘Yes, I’m gonna do your show. I’m gonna be your coach.'” One way or another, it worked, right?

As a reminder, Kaling is a mom to kids Katherine, 7, Spencer, 4, and Anne, 1. Ellis, on the other hand, shares kids Noa, 7 months, and Nora, 5, with wife Nina Senicar.

“She saw an opportune time and she took advantage of it,” Ellis adds of Kaling’s move. “That’s what geniuses do. I’m learning from her every day, to be honest.”

On the show, Ellis plays Coach Jay, the coach of the Los Angeles Waves and a potential love interest to the team’s new president, Kate Hudson’s character Isla.

To Ellis, pressure was on to have chemistry with Hudson. “I mean, obviously I know Kate, and I know her work, and I’ve seen a lot of Kate Hudson movies, and have been a fan forever,” he admits. “But I think for me, it was all about how do I get in there and find something new with Kate and something that she hasn’t done before, and something I haven’t done before, and how do we create something new with these characters?”

“To me, it was just about making our thing and letting it stand the test of time in its own way,” he adds. “In a funny, silly, very zen way.”

His new show Running Point is out now on Netflix. Time to judge Kaling’s decision for ourselves: was Ellis truly meant to play Coach Jay? We surely think so!

Before you go, click here to see the best Netflix shows you should be watching right now.