- 7/8/2025
Actress, writer, and director Lena Dunham sits down and tries to guess lines from her TV shows, 'Girls' and 'Too Much.' She shares how she created the pilot for 'Girls,' talks receiving support from Taylor Swift, and what it was like working with Adam Driver.
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00:00Sorry, I was just listening to Taylor Swift.
00:04You're too much.
00:05And especially being a little bit of like a brassy American broad.
00:08It was nice to see you.
00:10Your dad is gay.
00:11Was that a good impression?
00:16Okay, amazing.
00:18All right.
00:20I don't want to freak you out,
00:23but I think that I may be the voice of my generation.
00:25Or at least a voice of a generation.
00:29This one's really hard to remember.
00:31I actually know.
00:33Hannah says this on the pilot of Girls.
00:36I have accepted the fact that people don't fully understand that it was a joke
00:40and that it will follow me around until the day that I leave this mortal plane.
00:46And I'm okay with that.
00:49I don't want to freak you out,
00:51but I think that I may be the voice of my generation.
00:56My favorite memory from filming the pilot.
01:02I'm remembering the first scene eating dinner with Peter Scolari.
01:09May he rest in peace.
01:10That amazing man.
01:11Becky Ann Baker, total icon who played my parents.
01:13And I had always worked on such small crews.
01:17And where I was seated with all my pasta,
01:21I looked around and it was just like,
01:23just this full crew in the quiet room.
01:26And I just thought this is an incredible moment.
01:30And I will, I just said to myself, remember this always.
01:33And I do.
01:38Don't make me feel stupid for loving things.
01:41I love, this is,
01:43this is a Meg Stalter original improvisation from Too Much.
01:48Don't make me feel stupid for loving things.
01:51From the minute I started working in the UK,
01:53I wanted to make something about an American in the UK.
01:56I feel like there is a unique kind of culture clash that happens
02:01when you speak the same language,
02:02but you also don't speak the same language.
02:05And especially being a little bit of like a brassy American broad,
02:09it's very easy to not get things quite right
02:12or to make social mistakes that you might not make at home.
02:15So I was thinking about the best way of doing that.
02:18And also my great love of a classic working title rom-com
02:22and thought, can we mash these two together
02:24and create a different kind of rom-com story?
02:27And the idea of Too Much,
02:30I actually have to give all the credit to my husband and co-creator,
02:34Luis Felber.
02:34We were talking about titles and he reminded me that
02:37when we first met, I would do something or say something.
02:40And he would say in his accent,
02:42I won't try and imitate, you're too much.
02:45And my response was always, I'm so sorry.
02:47I'll walk it back.
02:49Real apologies here.
02:50And then he had to explain to me that actually
02:53one of the mistranslations that we have
02:55between America and the UK
02:57is that they are Too Much means great, fabulous, adorable,
03:00or as he said, just enough and a little bit more.
03:05Alrighty.
03:06What do we have here?
03:10These things have an expiration date, okay?
03:13Six months or until someone stops having fun.
03:15Does Meg say this to Will in Too Much?
03:21Does this come from...
03:23Did Hannah say this?
03:26Okay, I have to confess.
03:28I have never re-watched Girls since we finished.
03:30So I'm not due for a re-watch because that would be wild
03:33if I re-watched alone.
03:34Oh, my God.
03:37Adam says it to Hannah.
03:40It must be Hannah.
03:42Okay, so it would be like this.
03:44These things have an expiration date, okay?
03:46Six months or until someone stops having fun.
03:48Was that a good impression?
03:52You're saying...
03:53These things have an expiration date, okay?
03:55Six months or until someone stops having fun.
03:57The first time I met Adam Driver,
03:59and the character was already named Adam,
04:01that was just a lucky coincidence,
04:04he walked into our amazing casting director,
04:07Jennifer Huston's office.
04:08It was our first day of casting.
04:10We had read barely anyone.
04:12And he walked in,
04:13and it's the same thing he does in every room,
04:16on every screen.
04:18The energy in the room just changed.
04:20He is so, like, committed.
04:23Like, I'm sitting there sort of tentatively saying my lines,
04:25and he is just...
04:27Like, from how intensely he's reading,
04:29the room turns into some guy's shitty apartment.
04:32The room turns into a bed.
04:35Like, he completely changes the space around him.
04:39And I remember in the audition,
04:39he, like, really cheekily kind of leaned over
04:42and bit my shoulder.
04:44And there's this moment where I can't contain
04:46what I'm feeling as a director,
04:47and I look at everyone else, and I'm like...
04:49So, that was my first time meeting Adam,
04:53who became Adam.
04:54And I can't believe I missed this line,
04:56but I tried to read it with real commitment.
04:59Okay, let's see.
05:03I actually...
05:03This one's really meaningful to me.
05:05Sorry, I was just listening to Taylor Swift.
05:09This is from Too Much.
05:11Sorry, it was just the scene of Taylor Swift.
05:14She's just an amazing person and a supportive friend,
05:17and letting us use her song in an important moment,
05:21Bigger Than The Whole Sky,
05:23was an absolute fantasy.
05:26I know that I am a Swifty.
05:28I know that I have my own bias,
05:30but I sort of feel that every movie or show
05:33should have a Taylor Swift song in it.
05:36Um, alrighty.
05:42Guys, we're so disconnected.
05:44I thought this would just be a nice opportunity
05:46for us to have fun together,
05:47and prove to everyone via Instagram
05:48that we could still have fun as a group.
05:51Marnie Michaels, Beach House.
05:53Guys, we're so disconnected now.
05:56I thought this would just be a nice opportunity
05:58for us to have fun together,
05:59and, you know, prove to everyone via Instagram
06:01that we could still have fun as a group.
06:03Well, this is a Hall of Famer girls episode
06:05for people who are on the girls set,
06:07because we were shooting at a house.
06:09It's actually our producing director,
06:11Jessie Parrots' home.
06:12So I actually wrote the girls' pilot in this house,
06:16and so it was a very important space,
06:18and it was a place that we would all go socially,
06:21and we felt like, gosh,
06:22there has to be an episode that takes place here.
06:25But the weeks that we chose in the summer,
06:28there was torrential downpour.
06:31So what was supposed to be, like,
06:33four to five days in Long Island
06:35seemed to drag on into 15 to 16 days in Long Island.
06:40And then when the sun finally did come out,
06:42it was probably 55 degrees with whipping winds,
06:46and that was the only time we could go
06:48into the ocean in our bikinis.
06:50So we were trying to act,
06:53frolic, and act like we were having fun
06:55while being just eviscerated.
06:57And I'm actually in a bikini that whole episode.
07:00And I remember Jessie very intelligently saying,
07:03don't try to act like you're, like,
07:05on the beach in Oahu.
07:07Act like it's really happening,
07:09which is everything.
07:10The whole trip is about Marnie's expectations
07:12being upended.
07:13She's prepared,
07:13and you can't prepare for everything.
07:15So Allison was out there in, like,
07:16a nude wetsuit from the waist down,
07:18screaming, come on in, guys.
07:20The water is beautiful.
07:21And it's so much funnier
07:23than if the water really was beautiful.
07:27I thought I wanted the compliments.
07:31I don't know if I want any more.
07:33It's like, I want the affirmation,
07:34but also I'm like, yeah, I know.
07:36I've always actually felt really hot,
07:38except for when I haven't.
07:41This is said by Jessica Salmon
07:45in the television show Too Much
07:46in episode three.
07:48I thought I wanted the compliments.
07:50I don't know if I want any more.
07:53It's like I want the affirmation,
07:55but also I'm like, yeah, I know.
07:59I've always actually felt really hot,
08:01except for when I haven't.
08:02This scene's really special to me
08:05because Meg, who's an incredible collaborator,
08:07we talked a lot about how we did not want the show
08:11to be about Jessica's body.
08:14Like her body's not the reason that she is single.
08:18It's also not the reason that someone wants to be with her.
08:21We worked really hard to really nail the idea
08:23that every woman, every person
08:25is self-conscious in this society
08:28about the way that they look.
08:31And how can we have that conversation
08:33without making it be about making it be sizist,
08:35without making it be ableist,
08:37making it just feel like a true expression?
08:39Because one of the messages of the show
08:42is whether it's Meg who's studying
08:44or Emily Ratajkowski who's studying
08:47or Janixa Bravo who's studying,
08:48every female character is asking themselves questions
08:52about their own desirability
08:54because patriarchy doesn't make it easy for anyone.
08:58These are kind of exciting.
09:00Okay.
09:01I just want somebody who hangs out all the time,
09:03thinks I'm the best person in the world
09:05and wants to have sex with only me.
09:06This is, this one I know,
09:10and it's Hannah in episode four of the TV show Girls
09:15when she has had really bad eyebrows
09:18drawn on by her work colleague
09:20and then goes to Adam's house to talk.
09:22And the reason I am so clear on this
09:24is because I took that monologue
09:27from an email that I wrote to an uncommitted,
09:33we could say, man, we can say, boy,
09:34I was 23 at the time.
09:36And I wrote this email that was basically like,
09:39and I know you're not my boyfriend.
09:40I don't care if you're my boyfriend.
09:42You don't have to say you're my boyfriend.
09:43It's just here are the things I would want you to do
09:45even if you weren't my boyfriend.
09:48And then I believe I said at the end,
09:49you don't have to answer this.
09:51And then he didn't.
09:52And then I called him and said,
09:54why didn't you answer it?
09:55And he said, because you told me not to answer it.
09:57And I feel so blessed that I am not,
10:02I don't have to say I don't behave that way anymore,
10:04but I'm not in a position to behave that way anymore.
10:09I just want someone who wants to hang out all the time
10:12and thinks I'm the best person in the world
10:13and wants to have sex with only me.
10:19It was nice to see you.
10:21Your dad is gay.
10:21Okay, that is Elijah, a.k.a. Andrew Rannells.
10:28Episode three of Girls.
10:34It was nice to see you.
10:35No.
10:35Your dad is gay.
10:37I saw Andrew in the opening night of the Book of Mormon.
10:41And I was like,
10:42that is the most incredible performer
10:44I have ever seen in my life.
10:46He came in to read for the role.
10:49And it had been written sort of like
10:52to be a little more kind of crunchy, granola.
10:57And he was just coming in for one episode.
10:59That was it.
11:00It was like, Hannah sees her ex-boyfriend.
11:02Turns out he's gay.
11:03That was the joke.
11:04And Andrew came in and we started improvising
11:08and we had this crazy chemistry.
11:11And then he came, did the scene.
11:13We just put up two cameras and improv'd for ages.
11:16And then we just thought that guy has to come back.
11:20And that's the character you know and love.
11:27I just don't understand why nobody tells you
11:29how bad it's going to be in the real world.
11:32I wanted to give you a dramatic reading,
11:33but I have no idea who said it.
11:37I think it's from girls, right?
11:39It's got to be from girls.
11:40Because I'm like,
11:40I don't think I've had a thought like that
11:42in a really long time.
11:43But I remember thinking it when I was younger.
11:45Who?
11:46Is it Marty?
11:53Is it...
11:54Jessa?
11:58Shoshana?
11:59I went all the way through.
12:00I don't understand why nobody tells you
12:02how bad it's going to be in the real world.
12:04Yeah, they do.
12:04Season four is the season where she's just having a hard time.
12:09She's gone from chipper and always ready for it
12:12to realizing just how hard it is in the real world.
12:15That was Shoshana's like road hard and put away wet season.
12:19Shoshana was having a hard time.
12:20What's the biggest lesson girls taught me as a person
12:23and as a creative?
12:25I think that it has been a really interesting thing
12:31to now, having finished the show.
12:35I think just realizing that when you make something,
12:38your job's just to put it into the world.
12:40And whatever the immediate response is,
12:42is not...
12:43It feels so big and all-consuming.
12:46Like this is for any artist.
12:48When you make something and there's silence,
12:49it's really painful.
12:51When you make something and people don't understand it,
12:53it's really painful.
12:53Sometimes you make something and everybody loves it
12:56and you think that's how people are going to feel forever.
13:00And understanding that like your full job as an artist
13:02is to make it, put it in the world,
13:04and the response to it will change and grow
13:07and shift over time.
13:09And that part isn't about you.
13:11And I think that's been the interesting thing
13:14just about seeing the show cycle through the world,
13:16seeing the kinds of people who talk to me about it,
13:18the kinds of people who respond to it,
13:20that it's like always having its own life out there.
13:23We'll see you next time.
13:24We'll see you next time.
13:25We'll see you next time.
13:25We'll see you next time.
13:26We'll see you next time.
13:26We'll see you next time.
13:27We'll see you next time.
13:27We'll see you next time.
13:28We'll see you next time.
13:28We'll see you next time.
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13:29We'll see you next time.
13:30We'll see you next time.
13:30We'll see you next time.
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13:34We'll see you next time.
13:35We'll see you next time.
13:36We'll see you next time.
13:37We'll see you next time.
13:38We'll see you next time.
13:39We'll see you next time.
13:40We'll see you next time.
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