More than a decade after her breakout HBO series took off, Lena Dunham has come a long way as a writer and producer.
The Golden Globe winner recently said she’s come to find diversity is “one of the most important things” in making television after she was criticized for the lack of diverse characters featured on Girls, which ran for six seasons from 2012 to 2017.
“I think one of the profound issues around Girls was that there was so little real estate for women in television [then] that if you had a show called Girls, which is such a monolithic name, it sounds like it’s describing all the girls in all the places,” she explained to The Independent. “And so if it’s not reflecting a multitude of experiences, I understand how that would be really disappointing to people.”
Also starring Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke and Zosia Mamet, the show was criticized for mostly starring white actors, many of whom have since been dubbed ‘nepo babies’. Back in 2012, Dunham reasoned she is “a half-Jew, half-WASP” and wanted to avoid “tokenism in casting.”
Dunham noted to The Independent that she “liked the conversation around Girls” as it was an important one to have, and she’s since put what she’s learned into practice, most recently on her Netflix series Too Much, premiering July 10 on the streamer.
“The thing I have really come to believe is that one of the most important things is not just diversity in front of the camera, but it’s diversity behind the camera. As a producer, one of my goals is to bring a lot of different voices into a position where they can tell their story,” added Dunham.
Too Much stars Meg Stalter as New Yorker Jessica, who moves to London after a disastrous breakup and sparks a romance with musician Felix (Will Sharpe). Co-created by Dunham and husband Luis Felber, the Girls alum plays Jessica’s older sister, who has retreated from public life after a messy divorce sent her moving back in with their mom.
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