It may not be Murray Hill, but it does genuinely feel like it when I walk through the set of Not Suitable for Work, the new Hulu series from creator Mindy Kaling. Inspired by her time in NYC after graduating from Dartmouth, the series follows a bunch of 20-somethings in the same apartment building as they navigate their chaotic but fun lives.
The same can be said for the cast of the series who suddenly find themselves together in close quarters on the set of the new series. Ella Hunt, Avantika Vandanapu, Will Angus, Jack Martin, and Nicholas Duvernay have gotten the chance of a lifetime: getting to work with one of the biggest TV creators in the game in the greatest city in the world. For some, it’s a full-circle moment as their relationships with each other grow deeper while living the dream.
“Luckily, I have known Jack Martin, who plays Josh, for like four years,” Will revealed on the show’s set. “And we’re living together right now while shooting the show. So we’re roommates in real life and roommates on the show, which is kind of fun.”
Funny enough, Jack also had met Nicholas a few weeks prior to the series, becoming an interesting link between all the men on the show.
“We kind of had that early rapport that we were able to build, even if it was just a couple conversations before,” Nicholas said. “I met Will, Ella, and Avantika here on set, and it’s been seamless.”
For others, the show has brought them together with their new BFF. My interview with Ella and Avantika not only lasted over an hour but it felt like a Sunday brunch catch-up as they opened up about their friendship.
“Playing a kind of Broad City–style friendship dynamic with Avantika is something that I have just loved doing it. I would do it for years and years and years,” Ella shared.
And now you’re moving in, too. We dropped by the set of the series to see the actors in action as they wrapped up the show’s first season. So get ready to sign your brand-new lease in Murray Hill, because we’re taking you behind the scenes of Not Suitable for Work and you’re not going to want to move out once you see what they’ve got going on.
Setting
Much like NYC comedies like Sex and the City and Girls, the city has become its own character on the show. And no, they’re not just stuck in their neighborhood. In fact, the cast did a lot of shooting on location throughout the city, like a real office building in Hudson Yards and iconic places like the Cherry Lane Theater and Central Park.
“The words ‘Hudson Yards’ sends a shiver down my spine, but going and doing all of my workplace stuff there with Will—who is just phenomenal on the show and who I love—and going to various different restaurants during our lunch breaks in our costumes, I feel like I’ve been cosplaying as a finance bitch,” Ella added.
While it is certainly iconic to film in the real NYC—especially as more shows tend to go up north to Toronto and other spots to film outside shots—the cast acknowledges that the challenges of filming in a place like New York make all that more exciting.
“It’s actually the first time I’ve been able to work in New York and stay for an extended time. It really is a dream,” Nicholas added. “As an actor, just to kind of live out in these circumstances, be in the real world while doing this—because we do a lot of work on stages on other productions—especially a place like New York, where it’s so unpredictable…you could have people yell in the street or you’re pausing for a horn, and you’re like, ‘Guys, we’re trying to wrap this up.’ I love it.”
For Avantika, who attended Columbia University prior to joining the show, it’s another way for her to really be in tune with her character as they both navigate their home in different ways.
“New York is sort of a character in my life, so I think it’s really interesting that in this show, it plays a different character. It’s fun to explore New York through a different lens than the one that I know,” she said. “Murray Hill is not a place that I was ever integrated with, shockingly, considering I am a Brown woman. I think I should be integrated with Curry Hill, as it’s apparently colloquially known.”
Meanwhile, Will had a total opposite experience, revealing, “I’ve only been to New York one day in my life before this.” For him, it all still feels overwhelming, especially considering how much history and different secret parts of the city exist all around them.
“Every kind of pocket I go to feels like a different city,” he said. “I feel like I’d have to live here, like, 20 years to see the whole thing.”
Even for those who have been in the city for a while, there were some surprises.
“I thought clubs didn’t exist, and then I went to Bushwick—where I’m rarely found, but I went there really reluctantly to shoot a music video—and there was a 75-hour rave happening next door. Okay, I was like, Nightlife is still alive and well in Bushwick, I guess. The gentrifiers are turning that up, at least,” Avantika said. “Hopefully, we get more and more seasons and we can sort of also navigate the nightlife of New York through our characters.”
As the shoot went on, some places became more familiar than others as their workplace became home.
“We really wanted steak frites, so me and Will just walked to this place and ended up going back like probably eight times throughout the course of the shoot,” Jack mentioned. “They were remembering me when I came back by the end.”
Of course, when those worlds tend to melt together, you do find some interesting ways to escape the city for a bit. The cast ended up going to Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, for some cast bonding.
“We had, like, a little hour and a half road trip out to Jersey, and I love road trips.” Nicholas said. “You get to see who people are and where conversations go.”
Fashion
If there is one thing that we know about a Mindy Kaling series—other than the very obvious fact that it will be funny—it’s that the wardrobe will leave you wanting more. Mindy Lahiri in The Mindy Project carried a Birkin before we all finally caved and got our Firkins at Walmart. Running Point makes office-wear sexy. Sex Lives of College Girls not only gave us iconic group friendships but also inspired outfit ideas and themed nights for college parties.
In Not Suitable for Work, a lot of the fashion comes from Avantika’s character, Abby, who works as an assistant to a celebrity stylist, Vanessa Hsu, played by Constance Wu.
“It’s really fun to sort of get to know New York through Abby’s lens as she’s also really fashionable,” Avantika said, who notes that her own California style would never work in NYC.
“Abby is so coat and kitten heels and just so fun in, like, a very New York way that it’s nice to also navigate going through a subway system in that sort of outfit,” she continued.
Eric Daman, who previously worked on Gossip Girl and Sex and the City, already has fans out there running to figure out how they can dress up like their favorite characters.
“He’s like a legend; he’s an absolute New York costume legend. And so our costumes are phenomenal and really hit the nail on the head of the characters we’re playing,” Ella added.
Comedy
In one scene in the show’s upcoming sixth episode, Will and Jack’s characters get into a fight about what they want to watch on TV and their social lives. Suddenly, their landlord appears to call them out on their petty fight. It’s the kind of fight that you would hear about from friends who spend many hours together. It’s also not the kind of scene that you would imagine seeing a stunt person coming in for. As they go on to the fourth or so take, they bring in stunt coordinators to find a way to make it easier to take on such a physical scene.
“I do feel like this show feels like a show of things that have been lost a little bit, in a good way,” Jack said about the physical comedy. It’s just one of the new kinds of challenges for several of these actors who get to try out new things while getting to work with some of the biggest names in the genre like showrunner Charlie Grandy and guest stars like Ego Nwodim, Greg Germann, and Victor Garber.
“You kind of have to amp everything up and make it all kind of heightened, which has been an interesting exercise as an actor,” Nicholas explained. “It also kind of takes me out of my body, because it’s so easy to get in your head and be like, Oh, this feels stupid or That reaction feels too big for the moment. I think this comedy is done right.”
There’s also the scripted aspect of the whole thing, even bringing some new POVs to those who have been in the game for a while.
“I come from like a sketch comedy background, so working on a character over the course of X amount of episodes, and fine-tuning each take or shooting on the day has been…I’ve learned a lot about character work and leaning on the director to help me guide the character toward what the writers envision,” Will noted.
After breaking out in Dickinson and getting her first big dip into comedy via Saturday Night, Ella was ready for a completely different experience. She credits Lamorne Morris, another incredible actor who also has his feet in drama and comedy, with helping her really get into the right headspace for the genre.
“Having just worked on Saturday Night Live, I spent the whole job grappling with whether or not I should be doing comedy or enjoyed doing it,” Ella said. “I worked a lot on my mindset and accepting what I did every day and not coming home at the end of it and spiraling about, Could I have been better? Could I have been funnier? I’m finding it less and less scary as the season goes on. I have had a really joyful experience.”
Friendship
In the middle of it all is the messiness and joyfulness of being in your early 20s with your BFFs, something that Jack says “is a universal experience about just being at a certain age and this really captures that.”
“A lot of people get out of college, they get into the workforce and they’re ready to make their career their whole life. The show does a good job of kind of showing how it’s not necessarily gonna pan out exactly how you want, because your 20s are so messy and unpredictable,” Will adds. “You think you know what you’re doing, but you really have no idea.”
There’s also the unique factor that because all the characters are over the age of 18, the cast members are the similar ages as those they are portraying onscreen.
“Also being in my 20s, it’s like a gauntlet. I’m learning things about myself while learning about the character at the same time,” Nicholas admits.
It’s really hard, with an ensemble like this one, to not want to compare it to the beloved series Friends. At one point, even Avantika points out similarities between a close friend’s love for Friends—which the actor admits she hasn’t seen yet—and what she hopes fans learn from NSFW.
“My hope that people take away by the end of the season is they feel like they’re friends with us. There’s so much joy in living life with your friends and making memories with them,” she said. “I hope these characters give them more of an incentive to place an emphasis on quality time with them.”
And you see it even on the set. My interview with Avantika and Ella was a breath of fresh air as the two BFFs gushed over working together and the experiences that they have had. Part of it—for them both as actors, friends, and with their characters—is accepting the chaos that comes with this time of your life.
“Accepting that you’re not gonna know. Don’t bother trying to know what’s gonna happen. It’s gonna be okay and that lesson has been a really big part of my life,” Avantika admits. “I’m sure everyone’s takeaway from AJ and Abby—we can’t spoil a lot—is there’s just so much you can’t even say has worked out for the better, but it’s just worked out in an unexpected way and that’s okay.”
It’s also clear that they’ve taken these lessons to heart.
“I think that part of the beauty in friendships is that your friends witness you go from point A to B. Your friends are the ones that see you grow, and the growth that your friends see is much more intimate than the milestones that the world sees,” Ella said.
“Or the milestones you set for yourself,” Avantika adds.
“It’s so interesting to see that our friendships will be in tandem with these characters and their friendships,” Ella continued. “We love the characters we’ve established so much that it really feels like the possibilities with them are endless and that we will enjoy going to whichever corner of New York in their lives that Mindy and Co. decide to take them.”
Not Suitable for Work is currently streaming on Hulu.
