Mindy Kaling Reveals Her One-Night-Stand Problem

"There's this expectation that I'm going to have like 11 martinis and like pass out and like spend the night really soon," she tells Ellen DeGeneres

By Zach Johnson Mar 11, 2015 12:05 PMTags

Mindy Kaling is not Dr. Mindy Lahiri.

Though the actress shares a name with the character she plays on Fox's The Mindy Project, she's far less promiscuous than her TV alter ego. Kaling said she is "single" on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Wednesday, and the actress also explained how playing a sexually active gynecologist has affected her real love life.

"I am dating, but one of the challenges I have noticed is that I'm not very much like my character, who is very wild," Kaling told Ellen DeGeneres. "I think that when I go on dates there's this expectation that I'm going to have like 11 martinis and like pass out and like spend the night really soon. And I think people get a little disappointed because my true self is like...I could never do that, like have a one-night stand."

Why not? "Because I have my medications that I have to take at night!" Kaling, 35, said with a laugh. "I have to be at my house and do my flossing. I have all that stuff. And you didn't want to know that, but..."

"No, I do," DeGeneres assured her.

"And I want to know about the medications, too," she joked. "What are you taking at night?"

Kaling jokingly replied, "Nothing narcotic...yet."

The actress has no intention of changing her behavior, either. "I'm now like the version of my mom where I really like my little pills in my little pillbox," she explained. "I once had to go on a trip and I had to bring all my medications and I put them in...You know, they're for the elderly, and when I came back from the trip I was like, 'Oh, I kind of like this.' So I have my little like Monday through Sunday [pillbox.]

Once again, Kaling joked, "These are the kind of sexy stories that guys really like to hear."

Kaling also revealed that she sleeps with a body pillow but uses a "firm" pillow for reading. "But then I throw it out for my medium, soft pillow," she shared. "Like Goldie Locks! Everything has to be just right."

"Well, then that'd be hard to sleep at somebody's house," DeGeneres said.

DeGeneres then gave Kaling a gift. "I heard about your pillbox situation. I want you to be able to date and I want you to be able to go places. So I got you a very, very [fancy] one," she said, presenting her with a bedazzled pillbox. "They'll think it's a purse. It goes with what you're wearing, or anything really."

"That's sexy!" Kaling said. "Ellen, this is amazing. Thank you so much!"

For more on The Mindy Project's pregnancy story line, watch the video above now!