“You’re welcome, America,” says Emma Thompson in the final trailer for “Late Night.” The spot suggests that filmgoers have plenty to thank the Brit for, with critics and audiences heaping praise upon Thompson and her “Late Night” collaborators for making a film “better than ‘The Devil Wears Prada.'”
Inspired by Mindy Kaling’s experiences as a writer on “The Office,” “Late Night” sees Katherine (Thompson), a veteran late-night host, facing the prospect of her long-running show being cancelled. Under pressure to diversify her writers room and get with the times, she hires her first female writer, Molly (Kaling).
The new trailer sees Molly agreeing to help Katherine give her show a long overdue makeover so long as she stops throwing tantrums, humiliating people, and giving “withering looks.”
Nisha Ganatra (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Better Things”) directed “Late Night” and Kaling penned the script. The latter recently spoke out about the stigma of being a “diversity hire” on “The Office” and how her feelings have since changed.
“I thought I had the scarlet letter on me,” the “Mindy Project” alumna explained. “‘Diversity hire’ inherently meant, ‘less talented but fulfilling that quota.’” She later realized that the entertainment industry isn’t quite the meritocracy she once believed it to be. “If you don’t know the right people to get into the rooms, you will just never be seen,” she learned. “I love talking about it in [‘Late Night’] because it’s really real, and the stigma’s really real, and it truly is a helpful thing. It helped me personally.”
“Late Night” is currently playing in select theaters. It opens wide June 14.
