Rhea Perlman Praises Her Character’s Storyline In ‘The Mindy Project’

The Mindy Project returns tonight for the second episode of its third season and this time Danny's mom is in town. Rhea Perlman, who will be playing Danny Castellano's (Chris Messina) mother Annette Castellano, will have a fun and interesting story arc this season and she is very excited about it.

Rhea makes her debut on The Mindy Project during tonight's episode and she isn't going to be playing nice. In fact, Rhea's character will be multidimensional, which is what drew her to the role.

"Their character development, it's not straightforward," says Rhea at TV Line. "You don't know which direction it's going to go in. It's very appealing. I'm going to do a few episodes this year, and already, I'm finding out stuff about this character that I would never have dreamed of."

"It's not just some mom who's sitting there, cooking dinner," she adds. "I think Mindy's got kind of a genius thing going on. [Laughs] She really is so smart."

The first episode Rhea appears in, called "Annette Castellano Is My Nemesis," has Annette interacting with Mindy (Mindy Kaling), which will be funny and uncomfortable for both Mindy and Danny. Besides a battle of the women in Danny's life, Annette and Mindy will have some serious fun together, including a scene where the two fall on the floor together.

"I had no idea!" laughs Rhea. "They had only sent me a mock-up of [one scene]. I had no idea where it was going to go ... I laughed so hard. [Kaling and I] both laughed so hard every time," the Cheers actress reveals to the publication.

The Emmy-award-winning actress will return for more episodes later in the season and they're sure to be good. According to the actress, the writing is great and her character has a lot of secrets that we will slowly discover. "This is funny stuff," she admits to TV Line.

Tune in tonight to see how Danny and Mindy deal with Annette coming to visit. 

Photo: The Mindy Project's Facebook