Comedian Whitney Cummings spoke exclusively to PEOPLE at ELLE’s Celebration of Women in Hollywood on Tuesday (November 19) at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, California, where she shared the biggest lessons she has learned throughout her career.
“This business is mostly about rejection,” Cummings said, detailing the work she’s had to do to become ”extremely comfortable with rejection.”
The ‘Two Broke Girls’ creator explained that he learned that rejection can ultimately be a blessing because it means a better opportunity might come along.
Citing Sabrina Carpenter, 25, as an example, Cummings said Carpenter was once turned down for a role in ABC’s sitcom ‘The Conners,’ which she briefly produced. According to Cummings, Sabrina Carpenter would not be Sabrina Carpenter if she had not been rejected.
“Sabrina Carpenter auditioned … and it wasn’t the right fit. She got a rejection that day when we were casting the daughter,” she said of the role that ultimately went to ‘Shameless’ actress Emma Kenney. “And by the way, thank God we said no to her,” Cummings continued, “because she’d be stuck on a sitcom set and not being Sabrina Carpenter.”
Continuing to speak about rejection and relating it back to Carpenter, Cummings said, “I think that we’re still trained in our society to want to win and get a yes. Sometimes a yes is the worst thing you can get, because then you’re stuck on the wrong show for 7 years. You’re in the wrong thing.”
Carpenter got her start on the Disney Channel show ‘Girl Meets World’ and has since shot to fame as a singer with massive recent hits like Espresso, Please Please Please, and Taste.
