01-07-2025
Lena Dunham underwent 'painful metamorphosis' after end of Girls
Lena Dunham underwent a "painful metamorphosis" after her TV show Girls ended in 2017.
The 39-year-old was catapulted to fame in her mid-20s when she created and starred in the popular TV show, and during its run, she had to withstand backlash over the show's content, face scrutiny over her appearance and deal with the fallout of controversial comments.
After Girls came to an end in 2017 after six seasons, Dunham was exhausted and stepped back from public life, going to rehab over an addiction to prescription anxiety medication and relocating to London.
Reflecting on that time, she told The Sunday Times, "I felt like all the maturing and changing that had been kept at bay by the experience of being in that cocoon of the show was suddenly happening at a speed that was overwhelming. It was a painful metamorphosis... I definitely took an intentional break (from public life)."
While Girls depicted four twentysomethings growing up in New York, the writer/director admitted that she wasn't able to mature herself while the show was on the air.
"Being on the Girls set all the time was like living in a fake New York," she explained. "I spent my whole twenties pretending to go out in the city and pretending to live, so I didn't actually know how to do it at all. When the show ended I didn't know what direction to move in. I wasn't young enough to be out and feeling fun and free. I felt fatigued, yet didn't know how to mature (in New York). I didn't know how to grow up there."
After moving to London, the Catherine Called Birdy director met musician Luis Felber and they got married in 2021.
Their love story inspired Dunham's new TV show, Too Much, which will debut on Netflix on 10 July.
