[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers through the Season 2 finale of Never Have I Ever, “...been a perfect girl.”]
Co-created by Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher, the Netflix original coming of age comedy series Never Have I Ever follows Indian American teenager Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), as she continues to deal with all of the drama at home and in high school. Juggling new romantic relationships with new friends and still trying to channel her rage in a healthier way, Devi definitely makes mistakes but she also learns from them while, at the same time, pushing those around her to want more for themselves.
During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Fisher, who serves as showrunner, talked about how this series originally came about, finding their perfect Devi, figuring out whether they were Team Paxton (Darren Barnet) or Team Ben (Jaren Lewison), getting the big moment at the dance right, the challenges of directing during COVID, and how Season 3 is open for anything.
Collider: When you originally came up with this series and had the seed of it, what was the original goal, and do you feel like it’s met that goal for you, now that you’ve done two seasons?
FISHER: Initially, what happened was that Netflix contacted Mindy [Kaling] because they enjoyed her stories of childhood that are in her essays and wanted to have an autobiographical show about her life growing up. She felt like she would rather do something that’s current. There are so many fun, weird things about teenagers now, with social media and whatnot, so she wanted to do a current show about a teen Indian American. And then, she roped me in because I’m a big fan of YA shows. So, when we sat down to talk about what the show should be, we really wanted it to reflect who we were as teens. We weren’t particularly cool, but we also weren’t shy or quiet. A lot of teen shows that you see today, the girl is a wildflower and invisible. We were nerds, but we had big personalities, so we wanted a show that reflected that and reflected how we were, as teens.
And then, we also added this element of grief for this girl because we thought it would give the show a little more depth to have her have a deep wound. We weren’t really sure how the show was gonna come out. We also decided we wanted to cast an unknown as our lead. It felt a little bit like a crapshoot, but I think we’re both really happy that our lead actress is phenomenal. We were both surprised about how this character has resonated with people of all ages. It’s actually exceeded our expectations, in many ways.
Before casting the role of Devi, since it is such an important part of the show, did you have a moment of terror, or were you sure that you’d eventually find her? What was that like?
FISHER: It was wild. First of all, we got 15,000 submissions, so that already bowled us over. And then, watching through those submissions and seeing all of the people that auditioned was very inspiring and moving. We were looking for something so specific. Basically, we were looking for an Indian American teen girl like Jonah Hill, when he was in 40-Year-Old Virgin. He had a couple of lines, but he was so funny already. He was such a funny, young teen actor and we were looking for someone who had raw, amazing comedic timing, and maybe was green on the acting front, but was naturally funny.
So, when we saw Maitreyi’s audition, she was this scrappy teenager with a raspy voice. There’s something about her that we couldn’t even pinpoint, that was just naturally funny. And so, when we brought her in to do a screen test, she came in the room and she was just a goofball in such a perfect way that we imagined this character being. She was awkward and funny in a way that reminded us of ourselves, as teenagers. We were definitely scared because we were choosing someone with no prior acting experience, except for high school plays, and we were putting our entire show on her, but she just rose to the occasion. She worked so hard and was great. But certainly, there were moments where I was like, “What are we doing? This could go very badly. What if she just crumbles under the pressure?”
When you decided to have Devi date both Paxton and Ben and not be able to choose between them, did you know what the ultimate outcome would be, at that point, or did you go back and forth yourself on that?
FISHER: Our writers’ room is very split between Team Ben and Team Paxton. For wish-fulfillment reasons, we were like, “Let’s just have her date both.” My favorite thing about Devi is that she is immature. She doesn’t make good decisions because she’s a teen. Sometimes in shows, we write teenagers to be much more mature and have really fully developed brains and make wise decisions, and I like that she is a little selfish and doesn’t make great decisions all the time. We did not know where we were gonna go with the rest of the season, when we decided to do that, so the answer is no. We had a few different versions. Ultimately, I still don’t know who we want her to end up with, if either of them. Maybe there’s a third option that shows up. It’s fun to see the fans interact with that. I do feel like I get swayed sometimes, when I read comments. I’m like, “This is a good point about her relationship with Ben,” or “I see the chemistry there with Paxton.” I do like seeing the debate.
I love that you have the big dance moment, which a lot of teen and YA stories have. What made you decide to do that? How much time did you spend creating the perfect dance and the perfect moment between Devi and Paxton?
FISHER: I am such a lover of John Hughes movies and we’ve done some house parties, and we just felt like we wanted an iconic teen dance. The funny part of it was that we decided to do this dance in the middle of COVID and it was a whole mess, trying to make 50 people look like 300 people. I actually directed that episode. I heard that Sam Smith song on a playlist and I was like, “This song is so good, it would make such a good moment, in the same way that the Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark song does at the end of Pretty in Pink, or the one at the end of Sixteen Candles. Sometimes you hear a song and you’re like, “This is gonna make a real moment.” And so, when I heard that, I crafted that whole moment. I choreographed it to that song, to give it maximum impact. We wanted to have a really romantic moment. Nothing’s more romantic than a man showing up, that you didn’t expect was gonna show up. The boy of your dreams appearing is the best thing that’s ever happened.
Until he hits you with his car.
FISHER: Until he runs over you. But that’s a full-circle moment. She got him hit by a car, and then he hits her with a car. Teens, don’t try this at home. This is not how it should happen. Nobody should hit anybody with their car.
It’s hard enough to make a TV show under normal circumstances, and then you add COVID on top of it and you’re also directing. What was that whole experience like?
FISHER: I will say, we have such a tremendous cast and crew, and everyone had the best attitudes. It could have been a miserable experience, but everyone worked so hard and really enjoyed coming to work. There are a lot of annoying things, like only a certain number of people can be in a room for a particular amount of time, so sometimes everyone would have to leave so the set decorators could go in and set up the shot and put all of the props in. And then, they would have to leave, and the cast and film crew could come in. But everyone knew that we were under these pressures and that there were weird circumstances, so everyone gave 110% to try to make it work. It’s hard to direct when you have a face shield and a mask on and you’re trying to express yourself. But everybody really rose to the occasion.
How much have you thought about what Season 3 could look like? Do you have a good sense of where things would go next?
FISHER: I’ve come up with some things that I’d like to see, but the minute we start our writers’ room, my ideas always fly out the window and we think of something better. It could really be anything, at this point. We just want to keep going forward and seeing Devi’s growth. She’s still super ambitious and still really interested in college, but still has this horny side where she wants to have great romance. Just imagining her and Paxton as an official couple is exciting.
Never Have I Ever is available to stream at Netflix.