Award-winning actress Mindy Kaling said she had "pure love" for science fiction as a young girl and identified with "A Wrinkle in Time" before she was ever cast as one of the upcoming film's stars.
The new mother sat down with "Good Morning America" and revealed that while she never thought science fiction could speak to a girl like her, this story did.
"I was just, like, a little shy, chubby, book-reading kid, and watching and reading sci-fi. I had such a great imagination, but largely science fiction books ignore you if you are, you know, an Indian girl," Kaling said. "You're never the star of those books and you just love them anyway.
"And so it's such a pure love because you know it will never reflect you, and I just thought what was so great about this book is it starred a young girl who wasn't popular, who wasn't pretty," she added. "She was just smart, and that's why I identified with her."
Kaling, who plays Mrs. Who in the sci-fi fantasy film turned movie alongside Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon, said, "The adaptation is very different than the book, but the spirit is kept alive."
"It's an incredible journey of a girl who has low self-esteem, and her father leaving her and she has to save her family and she goes on a science fiction adventure," Kaling said.
Reese Witherspoon talks importance of female representation, dishes on new projects with A-list celebs 'A Wrinkle in Time' director advises young girls to let their light shine no matter the circumstancesThe actress said her experience "was so fun" working with such powerful leading ladies.
"I think Oprah was used to having it be very quiet and Reese and I would just be chatting her up at the earliest times when you just want to be alone by yourself," she said of being in makeup at 4 a.m.
"And we were like, 'Nope, not at all. You're going to be talking to us,'" she added, laughing.
Kaling, who has had a successful career creating, writing, producing and starring in multiple TV shows and movies, said that if she could offer one piece of advice for women growing in their careers it would be to smile and nod in the face of adversity.
"I think that I was underestimated a lot in my career coming up," she said. "And I would just nod and smile sweetly to anyone who wanted to discourage me, and quietly work and ignore them.
"For me, it was to look at adversity and not to, like, get in big fights, but just to nod and smile sweetly, and do the work quietly," she added.
"A Wrinkle in Time" opens in theaters nationwide March 9.
Disney is the parent company of ABC News.
