Media-beloved Lena Dunham is finally giving acting a rest.
After six years, the controversial queen of militant feminism is wrapping up HBO’s sex-obsessed Girls, and we say, good riddance! In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter’s Lacey Rose, the cast, producers and HBO execs got down and dirty about the show.
Dunham didn’t hold back as she reflected on the casting process. “I called Allison [Brian William’s daughter] before we cast her, and I asked her how she felt about nudity.” When Williams expressed concerns, Dunham wasn’t sure she was right for Girls. “I was like, ‘We have to get back to you. I'm gonna be naked, people are gonna be naked — that's a big part of what this show is.’”
And boy was Dunham right. The showrunners wanted to start a cultural conversation, and they certainly did—by baring all. Producer Judd Apatow believed that complete lack of sexual inhibition made the show “interesting and new and fun.” But some of the content even pushed the boundaries of HBO, a network notorious for its lack of restraint.
When HBO’s president of programming balked at a sex scene between a gay man and a straight woman, Dunham invoked a monolithic millennial culture. "This is what young people do,” she told him, “sexuality is fluid, you gotta trust us."
HBO’s CEO, Richard Plepler, seemed unaware as to how edgy Girls truly was. “I'm sure there are people who watched this show who didn't see a reflection of them or their lifestyle,” he conceded, “but there were millions and millions of people who did.”
For all its attempts to reach young women by reflecting their lifestyles, the cast certainly lacked diversity. And they were patently aware of this fact.
Reflecting on the criticism she received, Dunham remembered making a “really, really dumb joke” to her boyfriend Jack Antonoff. "No one would be calling me a racist if they knew how badly I wanted to f— Drake," she said, to which he responded: "Don't say that in public; that's not going to help you." In her own words, Dunham “just didn't get it.”
Unfortunately, the actress and writer has yet to “get it.” During a December episode of her podcast, she got intense media backlash after noting that she wished she had gotten an abortion. Like her show, supposedly this comment was reflective of her desire to identify with the “struggle of women.” According to Dunham, that struggle is real. “I blame misogyny for everything,” she admitted to Rose.
Never forget that Barack and Michelle Obama actually let their 17-year-old daughter intern on the set of this show.
