The memoir of one of the most influential and controversial comedic writers of the past decade, Lena Dunham, has finally been released today (April 14) after a week of revealing interviews about her meteoric rise to fame.
Dunham wrote and starred in HBO's cult series Girls, which ran for six seasons from 2012 to 2017, following the messy and cash-strapped lives of four young millennial women in a cultural era that is now widely regarded as toxic.
Few people know this better than Dunham, as she explains in the new book, Famesick, whose physical appearance and 'worth' as a writer became a frequent topic of conversation on social media and internet forums during their earliest and most vicious of eras.
In Dunham's memoir, which also details how producer and ex-boyfriend Jack Antonoff apparently turned up late when she went through major surgery, she opens up about her experience with Girls co-star and on-screen love interest Adam Driver.
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In a revealing interview with the Guardian before her book's publication, Dunham said that she and her three female co-stars on Girls, Zosia Mamet, Jemima Kirke, and Allison Williams, had been like 'lambs to the slaughter' upon the series' release.
Writing the show at 23 and then creating and starring in it at 24, Dunham had to learn a great deal about the media industry straight away and had a number of people, for better or worse, who would try and steer her in one direction or another.
This allegedly happened on set with one of her co-stars, Adam Driver, who played the on-and-off love interest of Dunham's character Hannah Horvath. In Famesick, the writer, actor, and director alleged that he would descend into outbursts over 'issues' he had with the show.
According to Dunham, this apparently included punching the wall of his trailer because he didn't like his character's haircut. In another alleged incident, Dunham claims that Driver got up and 'screamed' in her face.
She wrote in her book: "When I opened my mouth, all that came out was a stammer – until finally, Adam screamed, ‘F***ING SAY SOMETHING’ and hurled a chair at the wall next to me. ‘WAKE THE F*** UP,’ he told me. ‘I’M SICK OF WATCHING YOU JUST STARE.’"
"At the time, I didn’t have the skill to … it never entered my mind to say, ‘I am your boss, you can’t speak to me this way,’" Dunham reflected in her interview with the Guardian.
Dunham also shared, reflecting on how her critically-acclaimed artist father had never behaved like this, why she put up with the behavior.
She said: "And, at that point in my 20s, I still thought that’s what great male geniuses do: eviscerate you. Which is weird, because I was raised by a male genius who would never do that."
Dunham went on to add: "I have lots of amazing men in my life. Judd [Apatow] is a great hero of mine; Tim Bevan at Working Title is a huge part of my life and so is cinematographer Sam Levy. I just worked with Mark Ruffalo, the most thoughtful, sensitive, politically engaged, beautiful person.
"There’s plenty of them walking around. But there were years when I thought: Can’t I just make things that only have women in them?"
UNILAD has contacted representatives of Adam Driver for comment.
Topics: Film and TV, Sex and Relationships, HBO
William Morgan