Latest news with #TribecaFestival
Scoop
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Aotearoa To New York — New Zealand Film Premieres At Tribeca Festival
Aotearoa short film Womb is set to return home following its world premiere at New York's Tribeca Festival earlier this month. New Zealand audiences will get their first look at one of the year's most anticipated local short films at this year's Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festiva l with Womb having it's national premiere in competition as part of the festival's Ngā Whanaunga: Aotearoa New Zealand's Best short film programme. The powerful drama follows a young Māori girl in the care of a conservative Pākehā couple as she savours her mother's weekly visitations, as a custody battle driven by racial bias will ultimately decide their fate. Directed by Ira Hetaraka (Ngātiwai, Ngāpuhi), the film had its world premiere in competition at Tribeca Festival in New York City on June 8, with director Ira Hetaraka, producer Amanda Jane Robinson and editor Sophie Coombs in attendance. The film played three screenings as part of the Floating Roots short film programme focused on Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage, co-curated by Tribeca Festival shorts programmers Ben Thompson and Madison Egan as well as Seigo Tono, the executive director of Short Shorts in Japan. Womb was the only film at Tribeca Festival 2025 from Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Womb had its Australian premiere at Sydney Film Festival on June 10, in competition for the First Nations Award, the world's largest cash prize in global Indigenous filmmaking. Sydney Film Festival programmers called the film: 'A haunting, unforgettable reminder of the personal cost of systemic harm – masterfully crafted, Womb unearths longing, identity, and the unbreakable pull of familial connection.' Now, the film is set to return home. Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival Programmer Leo Koziol called the film an 'absurd and wildly original fable, starkly reminding us of the past dehumanisation of Indigenous whānau.' Director Ira Hetaraka commented: ' Womb was birthed from experiences that shaped my own childhood; it was a response to the heavy yet incredibly fulfilling years spent reconnecting with my family and culture that had preceded its making.' 'As I read articles of the thousands and thousands of Māori children that were robbed of their identity, whether it be through closed adoptions, state or faith-based care and abuse, or just plain old racism, it became evident to me not only the universal aspect to the story, but the importance of telling it. Womb became equally a story of the sacred love between a mother and daughter as it did a story of colonisation. After playing in New York City and Sydney, I am proud and excited to bring this film home to Aotearoa audiences.' Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival takes place across the motu from July 31 until September 10 2025. Womb was filmed on location in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. The film stars newcomer Pounamu Hetaraka alongside Te Arohanui Korewha (Ahikāroa), Bruce Hopkins (The Lord of the Rings, Housebound, Under the Mountain), Chelsie Preston-Crayford (A Remarkable Place To Die, Dark City: The Cleaner, Nude Tuesdays), Julie Wilson and Jaine Kirtley, with narration by Ngātai Hita (Big Girls Don't Cry).
New York Post
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Here's every star-studded cameo in ‘The Bear' Season 4
'The Bear' is back with more star power than ever. The hit Hulu series returned for Season 4 on Wednesday and cooked up a delicious menu of cameo appearances. The famous faces joining Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss Bachrach this season include a mix of returning favorites and exciting newcomers. 17 Jeremy Allen White in 'The Bear.' 17 Ayo Edebiri in 'The Bear.' The Emmy Award-wining series is about Carmen 'Carmy' Berzatto (White), a chef from the fine-dining world, who returns to Chicago to helm his brother Mikey's (Jon Bernthal) sandwich shop after Mikey dies by suicide. In Season 4, Carmy and his staff including Sydney (Edebiri), Cousin Richie (Moss-Bachrach), Marcus (Lionel Boyce) and Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) are in a race against time to save the restaurant. Here are all the notable guest stars in Season 4. Brie Larson 17 Brie Larson in 'The Bear.' Brie Larson joins the show as Francine 'Francie' Fak, the sister of the hilarious Fak brothers, including Neil (Matty Matheson). Francine has long-standing rivalry with Natalie (Abby Elliott) that comes to a head at Richie's ex-wife Tiff's (Gillian Jacobs) wedding to Frank (Josh Hartnett). Rob Reiner 17 Rob Reiner in 'The Bear.' Hollywood legend Rob Reiner is brought into the fold as Albert, a business mentor and friend to line cook Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson) who is now running the walk-up Beef window. Kate Berlant 17 Kate Berlant attends 'The Rehearsal' S2 premiere in April. Getty Images During one of Carmy's AA meetings, comedian and actress Kate Berlant plays a girl named Georgia who shares a tragic story about her brother's relapse. Danielle Deadwyler 17 Danielle Deadwyler in 'The Bear.' 'The Piano Lesson' star Danielle Deadwyler guest stars as Chantel, Sydney's cousin. Chantel is a hairdresser and has a 13-year-old daughter who bonds with Sydney. Jon Bernthal 17 Jon Bernthal in 'The Bear.' FX Of the returning cameos, Bernthal is back as Carmy's late brother. Mikey appears in a flashback scene that depicts a meaningful moment between the siblings as they're cooking together. Jamie Lee Curtis 17 Jamie Lee Curtis in 'The Bear.' Jamie Lee Curtis reprises her Emmy-winning role as Carmy's dysfunctional mother, Donna Berzatto. Now sober for a year, Donna finally wants to fix her broken relationship with her children. Molly Gordon 17 Molly Gordon attends the 'Oh, Hi!' premiere during the 2025 Tribeca Festival. Getty Images for Tribeca Festival Molly Gordon's Claire Dunlap appears throughout the season as she and Carmy work on their complicated relationship. She also forms a closer connection with Sydney. Will Poulter 17 Will Poulter in 'The Bear.' FX/HULU Introduced in Season 2, Will Poulter's pastry chef Luca becomes a staple at The Bear to help Marcus. Gillian Jacobs 17 Gillian Jacobs as Tiff in 'The Bear.' Jacobs reprises her role as Tiff, who ties the knot with Frank. And much to Tiff's surprise, the entire Berzatto — including Richie — come to the nuptials. Josh Hartnett 17 Josh Hartnett, Gillian Jacobs in 'The Bear.' Hartnett's Frank not only marries Tiff, but he also learns to bond with his new stepdaughter with Richie's help. Bob Odenkirk 17 Bob Odenkirk in 'The Bear.' Bob Odenkirk returns as Uncle Lee, Donna's on-and-off boyfriend. Lee goes to the wedding with the Berzattos and has a poignant moment with Carmy following their blowup from the infamous Season 2 'Fishes' episode. Sarah Paulson 17 Gillian Jacobs, Sarah Paulson in 'The Bear.' Sarah Paulson's Cousin Michelle is another wedding guest who, despite leaving early, shares a meaningful moment with Tiff. John Mulaney 17 John Mulaney in 'The Bear.' John Mulaney shows up again as Stevie, Michelle's nerdy boyfriend. He joins the Berzattos for the wedding. David Zayas 17 David Zayas at the 'Thunderbolts*' screening in New York on April 30. Getty Images for Disney David Zayas, Colón-Zayas' real-life spouse, reprises his role as Tina's husband, David. This season, he gets to test her cooking at home. Sarah Ramos 17 Sarah Ramos attends the Alice + Olivia By Stacey Bendet presentation during Fall 2013 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. WireImage Sarah Ramos returns as Jessica, one of the kitchen staff at Ever, who is hired at The Bear to help save the restaurant after it got a negative review.
Scoop
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Aotearoa To New York — New Zealand Film Premieres At Tribeca Festival
Aotearoa short film Womb is set to return home following its world premiere at New York's Tribeca Festival earlier this month. New Zealand audiences will get their first look at one of the year's most anticipated local short films at this year's Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festiva l with Womb having it's national premiere in competition as part of the festival's Ngā Whanaunga: Aotearoa New Zealand's Best short film programme. The powerful drama follows a young Māori girl in the care of a conservative Pākehā couple as she savours her mother's weekly visitations, as a custody battle driven by racial bias will ultimately decide their fate. Directed by Ira Hetaraka (Ngātiwai, Ngāpuhi), the film had its world premiere in competition at Tribeca Festival in New York City on June 8, with director Ira Hetaraka, producer Amanda Jane Robinson and editor Sophie Coombs in attendance. The film played three screenings as part of the Floating Roots short film programme focused on Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage, co-curated by Tribeca Festival shorts programmers Ben Thompson and Madison Egan as well as Seigo Tono, the executive director of Short Shorts in Japan. Womb was the only film at Tribeca Festival 2025 from Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Womb had its Australian premiere at Sydney Film Festival on June 10, in competition for the First Nations Award, the world's largest cash prize in global Indigenous filmmaking. Sydney Film Festival programmers called the film: 'A haunting, unforgettable reminder of the personal cost of systemic harm – masterfully crafted, Womb unearths longing, identity, and the unbreakable pull of familial connection.' Now, the film is set to return home. Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival Programmer Leo Koziol called the film an 'absurd and wildly original fable, starkly reminding us of the past dehumanisation of Indigenous whānau.' Director Ira Hetaraka commented: ' Womb was birthed from experiences that shaped my own childhood; it was a response to the heavy yet incredibly fulfilling years spent reconnecting with my family and culture that had preceded its making.' 'As I read articles of the thousands and thousands of Māori children that were robbed of their identity, whether it be through closed adoptions, state or faith-based care and abuse, or just plain old racism, it became evident to me not only the universal aspect to the story, but the importance of telling it. Womb became equally a story of the sacred love between a mother and daughter as it did a story of colonisation. After playing in New York City and Sydney, I am proud and excited to bring this film home to Aotearoa audiences.' Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival takes place across the motu from July 31 until September 10 2025. Womb was filmed on location in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. The film stars newcomer Pounamu Hetaraka alongside Te Arohanui Korewha (Ahikāroa), Bruce Hopkins (The Lord of the Rings, Housebound, Under the Mountain), Chelsie Preston-Crayford (A Remarkable Place To Die, Dark City: The Cleaner, Nude Tuesdays), Julie Wilson and Jaine Kirtley, with narration by Ngātai Hita (Big Girls Don't Cry).
New York Post
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Mariska Hargitay recalls the moment she found out Mickey Hargitay wasn't her biological father
This is her story. Mariska Hargitay is opening up about finding out Mickey Hargitay wasn't her biological father. The 'Law & Order: SVU' star, 61, was raised alongside her two siblings, Mickey Jr., 66, and Zoltán, 64, by the actor after her mom, Jayne Mansfield, died in a car crash in 1967 when she was only 3. 10 Mariska Hargitay on 'Call Her Daddy.' Call Her Daddy/Youtube Years later, the truth about her DNA came to light. 'I went up to my dad's house and I was hysterically crying and in a state and he was — how about this metaphor, my dad was physically building me a house. So, I drive up to the house that he is building me and confront him,' Mariska said during her Wednesday appearance on the 'Call Her Daddy' podcast. 'He was like, 'What are you talking about? Are you crazy? That's so not true.'' It was a complete shock for the NBC star, as she was more like her dad than anyone. 10 Mariska Hargitay and Alex Cooper on 'Call Her Daddy.' Call Her Daddy/Youtube 'The irony is that I'm more like my dad than anyone in our whole family. I am mini-Mickey, so it was just a very extraordinarily painful moment,' Mariska explained. 'I say that this is the moment that I became an adult and it's so visceral for me because I was in so much pain. I was so overwhelmed.' She could see how much pain Mickey, who passed in 2006, was in as well, so she let it go. 'It doesn't matter what I feel, I love him … and we're done here, we're done here,' Mariska recalled. 'I pretended that I believed him, and we never spoke of it again.' 10 Nelson Sardelli and Mariska Hargitay attend the 'My Mom Jayne' premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. FilmMagic The producer also detailed just how she found out her dad is comedian and singer Nelson Sardelli, 90. Mariska was at the house of a collector who owned some Jayne memorabilia and felt what she described as a 'jolt' when hearing Sardelli's name. 'I knew in one second,' she told host Alex Cooper. 'I don't know [how]. I think my whole life, all the millions of moments … little fragments of a memory of a moment of things I caught that went into my subconscious. Then I said, 'Who's Nelson?'' 10 Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay. Bettmann Archive 10 Jayne Mansfield holding six-weeks old Mariska Hargitay. Getty Images 'I saw the blood drain out of his face and he sort of panicked and turned white,' Mariska continued, 'and he said, 'Oh, it's probably not true, it's probably not true.' And that's when I knew.' Once she saw a photo of the entertainer, her fears were confirmed. 'I just really thought my life was over,' Mariska admitted. 'The one thing I did have, the one thing that I was rooted in, the one thing that was my constant, was no longer mine. My identity was just smashed.' 10 Jayne Mansfield holds her dog Galena while posing with Nelson Sardelli. ASSOCIATED PRESS 10 Jayne Mansfield, Mickey Hargitay and their two children. Bettmann Archive Last month, while speaking to Vanity Fair, Mariska shared the news about her dad publicly for the first time in anticipation of her HBO documentary, 'My Mom Jayne.' The doc explores the star finding out about her family's secret as Mariska sits down with her siblings, including Mickey's daughter, Tina, from his marriage to Mary Birge and Jayne's first daughter, Jayne Marie, whom she shared with Paul Mansfield. Jayne's son, Tony, who she had with her third husband, Matt Cimber, is also featured in the film. 10 Jayne Mansfield with her kids Miklos, Zoltan and Mariska in 1967. Vittoriano Rastelli via Getty Images While talking to the outlet, Mariska described meeting Sardelli for the first time in 1994 when he was in New Jersey for a gig. She said it was an emotional moment, with the Las Vegas performer telling his daughter, 'I've been waiting 30 years for this moment.' Jayne met Sardelli in the early '60s and filed for divorce from her husband Mickey in 1962 after five years of marriage. Their split was finalized in 1964, around the same time she discovered she was pregnant with Mariska, so they decided to give their relationship another chance and hold off on telling the public about their divorce until after she was born, per Woman's World. 10 Jayne Mansfield. Bettmann Archive Later that year, they finalized their divorce. Mariska told Vanity Fair that after meeting Sardelli, she struggled with 'knowing I'm living a lie my entire life.' As the years went on, the 'Law & Order' vet became close to her bio dad and his two daughters, who Mariska referred to as family friends for years. Her sisters also appear in 'My Mom Jayne.' 10 Jayne Mansfield in 1967. Vittoriano Rastelli via Getty Images Mariska held a private screening of the documentary for the four of them in Las Vegas. 'They just wept and wept and wept,' she recalled. 'These two women that I love so much — I made them secrets! It's so heartbreaking to me.' The movie has been an 'unburden all of us.' 'I grew up where I was supposed to, and I do know that everyone made the best choice for me,' Mariska stated. 'I'm Mickey Hargitay's daughter — that is not a lie.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Lena Dunham Describes Her Netflix Series ‘Too Much': 'When a Loud, Messy Jewess Descends on a City of Deeply Repressed People'
Audiences last week got a preview of what to expect from Lena Dunham's upcoming small-screen return with the teaser trailer for her Too Much rom-com series, which starts streaming on Netflix July 10. But guests at a recent Tribeca Festival panel with Dunham and moderator Michelle Buteau were treated to more of an advance look in the form of clips and a conversation about how the show came about and what to expect from the Megan Stalter and Will Sharpe-starrer. More from The Hollywood Reporter Kevin Williamson Talks 'The Waterfront' Finale and Insane Childhood That Informed Netflix Series 'Natchez' Review: Shrewd Doc Explores a Southern City's Struggle to Acknowledge History Allison Williams Has "Been Dreaming of" a 'M3GAN' Trilogy The series' official synopsis is: 'Jessica (Stalter) is a New York workaholic in her mid-thirties, reeling from a broken relationship that she thought would last forever and slowly isolating everyone she knows. When every block in New York tells a story of her own bad behavior, the only solution is to take a job in London, where she plans to live a life of solitude like a Bronte sister. But when she meets Felix (Sharpe) – a walking series of red flags – she finds that their unusual connection is impossible to ignore, even as it creates more problems than it solves. Now they have to ask themselves: do Americans and Brits actually speak the same language? From the creator of Girls and the producers of Love Actually, Too Much is an ex-pat rom-com for the disillusioned who wonder if true love is still possible, but sincerely hope that it is.' But at Tribeca, Dunham provided a more blunt take on what the show is about, which was part of her initial pitch: 'I have wanted to make a romantic comedy about what happens when a loud, messy, complicated Jewess descends on a city of deeply repressed people — what will occur.' Dunham created the series with her husband, Luis Felber, whom she met and married in the U.K., where she's been living for the past few years. While the show has been called 'semi-autobiographical,' Dunham said it was more of the 'germ' of the series that was based on her and Felber's romance. 'A girl moves to England. She meets a musician. They fall in love. That was the exoskeleton. But then he's such an amazing and creative thinker and loves stories, and so it really expanded far beyond what we had even dreamed it could be into a totally different world,' Dunham told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the Tribeca event. 'We feel really, really lucky that we got to do this together, and then of course the actors come in and the characters become different because the actors have taken over. So while the germ of it may be autobiographical, it's gone in directions I never could've dreamed.' Speaking further about how the series reframes the romantic comedy, Dunham explained on the panel, 'Often the thing standing in the way of the two leads is somebody who wishes them ill and wants them apart or a terrible misunderstanding at a post office … And I think so often when we meet someone [at like 35] your biggest challenge, and the biggest things in your way, is yourself and all the baggage. You feel like this kind of, like, I don't know, like Godzilla, who, at any moment might take a wrong step and just crush the whole city with your big, dumb foot. And I was like, how do you capture a relationship where the biggest challenge is that these two people have lived a lot of life before they met each other, and they don't know how to be with another person, and they don't even know how to be themselves?' On the panel, Dunham explained that she asked Felber to work on the show only four weeks into their relationship, which she said was 'way too soon, like inappropriately soon in the relationship — soon enough that I could have found out he had another family, and he could have been keeping it quiet that whole time.' But 'he was so funny, and his notes on things were so good and clear, and I just felt like, 'You have a skill that has not yet been tapped into.' I was like, 'Have you ever thought about working on a TV show?' And he's like, 'No, but like, I could probably do it,'' she added. Speaking to THR ahead of the Saturday event, Dunham indicated that working with Felber on the show has made them closer and able to better understand each other's approach to work. 'I love what I do, and it obviously takes up a huge amount of my life, and he loves what he does, and so the fact that we can do it together is just such a gift for us and I think allows us to be in sync in a totally different way,' she said. Though the series is one of Dunham's biggest small-screen creations since HBO's Girls, which ended in early 2017, the multihyphenate told the Tribeca Festival audience that she had been working on multiple projects and it just worked out that this became her comeback vehicle. 'Maybe people think it's I took a long, purposeful break, and then one day was like, 'I found the thing, guys, I'm ready to go.' But working in TV, as anyone here who works in TV knows, it's like, you have a lot of things you love that don't end up hatching,' she told Buteau. 'I never stopped trying to push things out. You never know which is the one that's going to make sense to someone, and that someone's going to say, 'We believe in you, go.'' She continued, 'So this was a project that I had been like incubating with my husband. … There were these other projects I was pushing and grinding on and and trying to will into existence, and then sometimes one comes up from the back and sneaks past all the others and becomes your primary focus. Now I'm like, if I had actually been able to make any of those other shows, you would have been like, 'Are you okay? This was what you chose?' This one feels like a really natural extension of the work I've done before. … It's exciting to make something that feels connected to my other work. I've had a lot of life between then and now, and it's changed my perspective in ways that I am excited to be able to share.' When THR asked how creating Too Much compared to her time working on Girls, Dunham cited her additional 10 years of experience. She explained that she was helped by 'knowing the kind of set I wanted to be on and the kind of dynamic I wanted to create and trusting myself more than I did — I had so much amazing support on Girls; I wouldn't change that experience for anything. But this was a really special one to be able to come in and trust my own instincts and create an environment that felt really safe.' Speaking about her approach as a showrunner on the panel, Dunham indicated she wants people to speak up but also trusts the 'really amazing people' she hires to 'do their jobs, because we probably both know what it's like to be micromanaged.' 'If there is something that is either putting anyone … at emotional risk,or it's causing an unsettled feeling, anywhere, I want to know about that,' she said. 'Because the no. 1 most important thing to me is to have a set where everyone, everyone feels like their job is respected, they're seen. I always say at the beginning of every shoot: 'Anyone in any department, if you see something, say something.' You may be the one person who points out that we're missing something super essential here. So we all need to be in community with each other, and I want to know those things. But if [you] had an issue [where] the camera truck is 45 minutes late but don't worry, I'm like, 'as long as no one's hurt.'' Dunham also explained how she amassed the superstar ensemble in Too Much including Naomi Watts, Rhea Perlman and Rita Wilson. 'I always try to write with somebody in mind. It just helps me when I'm writing, and usually it's somebody either that I admire or somebody that I already have a really great collaborative relationship with, and then you just kind of write them. And my goal is always: I love this person, so what is going to get them to come do a role, a couple episodes in a half-hour TV show like this? It isn't like, you know, Christopher Nolan is calling to invite you to do The Odyssey. This is very specific. And so my goal is always [to] write them a different kind of part than you've seen them do before, or write them something that's so in their wheelhouse that they're like, 'It's just going to be so fun to come in and crush it.' But no in between; no vanilla. I'd rather go bold and send them something where they're like, 'Why the fuck did you send me that?' than make them feel like they're getting handed the same part that they get to do every time.' For Watts, in particular, who Dunham said she'd been a fan of since Mulholland Drive and wanted her to play the type of comedic role she took on early in her career, 'I thought, let me write her something that's like, not an elegant lady role, that's like an elegant lady to the left role, like an elegant lady who's railing cocaine role. … I want to speak to the thing I think you don't get to do, which is be the funniest fucking person in the world, because you also happen to look like a beautiful British aristocrat, and so people don't always know to ask that of you. So with every part, I'm thinking how can I draw something out and make it interesting for you to show up for those days, and even I'm still shocked that all these schedules worked and all these people came together because everyone on the show is who I wrote the role for.' Dunham also offered lighter previews of other moments in the show, including a memorable, improvised line from Rhea Perlman and how Perlman's characters and another small personal moment inspired a comedic scene in the series. Perlman, Dunham revealed, was entirely responsible for the lewd riff between her and Stalter's characters at the end of the teaser. 'That was all her,' Dunham said on the panel after screening the teaser for the audience. 'And then afterwards, she was like, 'I hope I didn't go too dirty with it.' I was like, 'Have you ever heard of me?'' A longer version of that scene, which Dunham described as a 'pseudo Grey Gardens anxiety puddle,' was one of the clips shown to the Tribeca audience. After it aired, Dunham also revealed that her godson is also in the scene, as a teenager wondering why these older women aren't out on the town. 'He's just a little high school genius,' she said. 'I was like, 'Do you want to come be in a show?' And he was like, 'sure.' He was excited because if he came they had to, like, for academic reasons, let him take tours of all these, like, important British war museums, and that was of interest to him. So he signed on. He signed on for that reason.' And she revealed that Perlman's character was inspired by her Grandma Dorothy/Dottie, with the show even altering Perlman's hair and makeup to resemble a photo of Dunham's relative and make Perlman look like she's in her 90s. 'A lot of those lines are Grandma Dorothy's, like 'don't look at me; all my friends are dead' is a Grandma Dottie classic,' Dunham said. The other clips shown were also longer versions of moments from the trailer, including Felix and Jessica arguing about each others' red flags after Jessica's 'British Jones diaries' line and the pair touring Jess' idealized version of London, yellow house and all, as she channels Julia Roberts and he disillusions her about the people who live in that neighborhood. With respect to the latter scene, Dunham shared a larger theme behind the moment: 'This was the moment where she's like, trying to access the thing that she thinks is romantic and glamorous, and she finds out it's a little more complicated than that.' Dunham also offered some deeper insight into how London affects Sharpe's character. 'London is where Felix has come of age. It's where he feels seen,' she said. 'But he sort of hit the barrier where, like, his friends know him but do they really know him? The people around him love him, but there are parts of him that he's never been able to show.' And she shared that one joke, in which Jess, on ketamine, asks if she's the 'Meghan Markle of fat, white bitches,' which Dunham said was 'fully from my own Notes app.' Meanwhile the 'I'm Horny' dance track included in a wedding scene, which Felber wrote, Dunham said also came from a personal experience. 'We went to a wedding and, while it's not all brought from real life, there was this one cousin … who got up and was like, not only is it so and so's wedding. It is my opportunity to introduce my new EDM, soon to be hit EDM single and turned it on and didn't invite anyone else out onto the dance floor, just took it herself. And I just was like, I'm so glad you're here. So I had to honor her.' Turning serious to wrap up the panel, Dunham said she hoped the show would spread 'love and joy' amid a 'barrage of news that is dehumanizing and painful and terrifying.' 'Something that [Felber] and I talked about a lot is that we all know we're living in very painful times, and every single day we get up and we are experiencing a barrage of news that is dehumanizing and painful and terrifying. … Sometimes I mean in all of our jobs, whether you're an artist, no matter what you're doing, it can be hard, as you look at the news, to think like, what difference can I make in this world in which there is so much constant suffering, displacement, fear? It can feel and it can leave you feeling hollowed out and fatigued. And I know we all feel that. And so the thing I said was, like, we can just make something that we feel like spreads love and joy and hope, which was so not on my radar in my 20s. I was like I don't care if anyone feels any joy or hope, I just hope that they think it's crazy. And now I really wanted to make something that was unifying and loving and at the end of the day hopeful. … To show love, joy and happiness is really, I think, the best thing that we can do as artists in this moment.' Dunham, who was wearing a Planned Parenthood pin at the event, said she was also proud to be able to show and work with the organization, which she said she consulted with for a storyline on Too Much just as she and her team had done on Girls. 'As an artist, I'm proud … that we get to be part of showing people all over the world a healthy woman making a super self actualized choice to get reproductive care [from] a really true, loving abortion provider, because those people are heroes,' she said onstage. 'So to be able to represent that was really, really important to me.' Speaking to THR before the event, Dunham elaborated, 'It was also important to me to show our support for Planned Parenthood at this really pivotal moment, and while we know that television may not always change the dial on politics, what we can do is normalize very normal health procedures like abortion for our audience and especially let young people who may be watching and want to get care at Planned Parenthood know what a loving, safe place it is.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
