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‘Not Suitable for Work’: Ella Hunt & Will Angus on Ending the Season With That Kiss (VIDEO)
Mindy Kaling is a mastermind when it comes to TV romance, and the creator of Not Suitable for Work continues to spin her magic with Season 1’s juicy cliffhanger kiss.
Set against the nostalgic backdrop of New Year’s Eve, AJ (Ella Hunt) was waiting to meet up with Josh (Jack Martin), who was meant to share some Chinese takeout and watch Broadcast News with her after he got off work. The catch? Davis (Will Angus) made it to the door sooner, sealing all of their fates as he delivered AJ’s “tombstone,” or work accolade. (Warning: Spoilers for Not Suitable for Work Season 1 ahead.)
As viewers discovered in the final episodes, AJ’s boss, Bill (Jay Ellis), had lied about his holiday plans and had actually reunited with his former girlfriend, essentially breaking things off with AJ. When Davis learned this, he was furious, and after AJ decided to take a paid day off amidst the revelation, he defended her honor — swoon — by speaking up on her behalf and getting into a physical fight with Bill before he was fired.
Taking all of these actions into consideration, AJ finally began to reevaluate how she felt about Davis, asking him at the door of her apartment if he liked her. Considering his immediate infatuation with her at the start of the series, it was an easy yes for him to provide, leading her to initiate a kiss that Josh happened to walk in on as he arrived to join AJ.
Staying quiet, Josh backed away and took a moment to let the reality sink in, just as he and AJ had begun to reconnect after their rocky start as neighbors following their college-era hookup. While the kiss may have surprised viewers, Angus and Hunt weren’t shocked to read it in the script.
“Well, I don’t know about you, but I knew this was coming,” Hunt says, turning to Angus as they sit in the Swooon studio in New York City.
Photographer: Avery Thompson
“I felt it, the writing was on the wall,” Angus echoes. Despite their shared expectation of AJ and Davis sharing a kiss by the end of the season, Angus points out, “We’re reading the scripts as we’re going… It’s kind of fun because we’re figuring out the plot of the show, too. We don’t have an outline.”
Hunt adds, “They really wanted us to be surprised,” referring to series creator Mindy Kaling and showrunner Charlie Grandy.
As for what made AJ lean in for the kiss, Hunt shares, “I think it’s obviously an accumulation of lots of things, but I think the way that he defends her with Bill is pretty awesome and hot. And I think AJ has a real warmth that is sometimes packed under a toughness and a real laser-focusedness for what she does.”
Ultimately, Hunt says AJ is “moved by the way that Davis vouches for her and does want to look out for her.”
Full-Time Romance
As for where their romance could go in a potential second season, considering Davis and AJ’s very different approaches to romance, Angus says, “My assumption is, no, it won’t serve them well.”
Hunt chimes in, “I do wonder how compatible they are in the long term, but maybe it’s a yin and yang thing. I think there is such a charm to that… process of getting to know each other and becoming friends and colleagues, like building out that respect for their differences to a point where actually they are charmed by each other in a way that certainly AJ, I don’t think, expects when she first meets him.”
Photographer: Avery Thompson
When it comes to the pressure on Davis and Josh’s friendship, Angus notes, “I feel like it will be one of those things that kind of bubbles up throughout and he tries to suppress it… I don’t think it’ll be an explosion, but certainly it’s going to come to a head,” he continues, adding, “I mean, they set up that cliffhanger for a reason, you know?”
Hunt promises, “Mindy and Charlie know what they’re doing.” When it comes to the prospect of Season 2, there’s plenty of excitement from both Angus and Hunt.
“I think the thing I’m most excited for is to see what their first date looks like because there’s no way it goes well,” Angus teases, which Hunt agrees with. “There’s no way it goes well,” Hunt repeats. Meanwhile, she’d like to see “a workplace jealousy situation, maybe less romantically, but I think that a threat in the workplace would be fun for me to play. I love the scenes where AJ is really caffeinated and driven.”
While we keep our fingers crossed for AJ and Davis’s return alongside Josh, Abby (Avantika) and Kel (Nicholas Duvernay) in a second season of Not Suitable for Work, see what else Hunt and Angus are revealing in our full interview above.
Not Suitable for Work, Season 1, Streaming Now, Hulu
