After years of enduring hateful messages online while playing “girls,” Lena Dunham wasn’t as surprised as others by Maga’s rise.
Speaking on this week’s “Girls Refatch” podcast, Dunham explained that based on various comments she received on social media in the early 2010s, she was prepared and ready for the most hateful aspects of the Maga movement. What surprised her was how many other people were shocked by it.
“There were so many people who, when the voices of like the alt-right or maga or conservative voices, proud boys, whatever started rising and people were like they were so shocked by the way people are talking,” Dunham said. “I was like, no. Those voices existed in the comments section. I was experiencing those voices in 2012.”
She continued: “There were so many angry seemingly men and some women dissecting the show in these like incredibly conservative terms. Like yes, there were people in Brooklyn who found us irritating … I always had a lot more respect for that. But there was also a large contingent of conservative people looking at it almost like evidence of a certain kind of moral decrepitude and also making big judgments about our physical bodies, our sexuality. It was really interesting to realize kind of what a surprise that was to some people.”
Dunham has a new show out now on Netflix called “Too Much.” She may not star as the lead this time around—that honor goes to “Hacks” star Megan Stalter—but the story is more personal to her.
“All my work is personal,” Dunham told TheWrap of infusing aspects of her life into the Netflix series. “I think I would be more scared of work that wasn’t personal to me.”
Watch the full clip of Dunham on the “Girls Refatch” podcast in the video above.
