WEBVTT - Lena Dunham 0:00:02.640 --> 0:00:05.800 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:14.080 Three years ago, twenty three year old Lena Dunham made 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:17.599 a low budget art house film called Tiny Furniture. She 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:21.040 filmed the movie in her parents house and basically played herself, 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:25.200 a recent college graduate moving back into her childhood bedroom 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:29.520 while making plans for her future. Dunham was proclaimed a fresh, 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:33.839 original voice, a director with a bright future. Writer director 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:36.600 Judd Apatow was one of those who took notice, and 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:40.680 today he and Dunham executive produced Girls, a show she 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:44.360 created for HBO that premiered its second season on January. 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:50.560 You're good and I am so good at you kidding. 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:53.360 I've never been as well in my life. No, I know, 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:55.120 I mean you seem good. As the wedding was so 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:57.280 quick and unexpected, I kind of know how to process it. 0:00:57.360 --> 0:00:59.200 Or if you like, yeah, well you tend to overthink 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:02.800 things and that's an issue for you. This is what 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:07.440 it's like when the hunt is over. I think Sandy 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:10.120 really likes me. I really like between. He's so nice 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:11.720 and funny when we have sex. There's no part of 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:14.000 me that once like pretend I don't exist, which is 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:17.720 a rarity. That's a awesome. He's kind of a Republican, 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:21.679 which feels weird. What's from the Republicans? It's just the 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:25.400 same as Democrat their older bags. Lena Dunham has achieved 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:29.200 an astonishing amount in just three years. Her portrayal of 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:32.679 Hannah Horvath and Girls recently won her a Golden Globe 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:36.280 Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. This past October, 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:39.199 she sold a book of essays and advice to Random House, 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:42.959 and her boyfriend is a rock star. Today, she hardly 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:47.040 resembles Aura, her character from Tiny Furniture. I thought I 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:49.480 wouldn't have much in common with Lena. She's half my 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:53.320 age and has been fiercely embraced by my daughter's generation. 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:56.840 But oh, how quickly we realized there was common ground 0:01:56.920 --> 0:02:00.000 between us. Literally, my show is moving into the third 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:05.280 Rock stages. Yes, we're taking Silver Cup and Michael, we 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:07.680 were in Silver Cup. Then we went to Steiner because 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:10.480 we couldn't get our stages back because some show that 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:12.839 has one word that's about murder took it. And then 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:15.680 we are coming back because you guys are leaving, so 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:17.760 we're going to be on your stages and in your 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:20.640 office is Oh my god, no, no, I thought, isn't 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:23.120 Michael Fox coming there too? He is. We're I think 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:25.359 we don't take as much stage space as you guys did, 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:27.560 so we're going to have because we have fewer sets. 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:31.040 So I think is gonna have We're gonna have a piece, 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:33.960 and he's gonna have a piece. Now, as I'm sitting 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:37.200 here meeting you for the first time and talking to 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:40.280 you for the first time, you are nothing like I 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:44.560 imagined you would pay really nothing. I'm a bit thrown 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:47.840 here because you play someone who is I guess in 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:49.880 your mind, and I want to talk about your vision 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:51.919 of what kind of character you wanted to create. Is 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.240 a little bit a beat behind everyone else, or I'll 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:57.679 let you articulate that what you think she is. But 0:02:57.680 --> 0:02:59.480 but what I want to say is you. When I 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:02.000 meet you, you seem like you could be like a 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:05.560 senator or the head of the corporation. I mean, you're 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:10.000 really very very You seem so together and smart, and 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:12.679 you look great, and you cut your hair and you 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:16.400 look gorgeous. That is firstly, very meaningful. I have to 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:18.919 not turn red and get excited because you said radio, 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:22.800 so don't care. I'll get good, perfect, and I'm wearing 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:25.040 my crew jacket and I really I should have dressed 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:27.160 up more for you. But that being said, you know, 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:30.600 it's funny. Firstly, the a beat behind idea really speaks 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:32.280 to me because I'm always sort of saying when people 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:34.280 ask about hand I'm always sort of saying, she's a 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:36.560 version of me, but she's a few years behind me, 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:39.960 and she's also sort of a few minutes behind everyone 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:42.080 around her. She really picked up on a concept that 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:44.200 I'm sort of always thinking about a little bit when 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:45.960 I play her and when I write her. But she's 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:48.520 who you used to be. You know, it's funny. I 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:51.920 think I used to I think I in order to 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:54.840 convince myself that I should play this character, or that 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:57.080 I should even write this character, I had to say, well, 0:03:57.120 --> 0:03:59.840 I'm just writing myself. It's that easy. I'm just writing myself. 0:03:59.880 --> 0:04:01.960 Because the idea of sort of creating an entire other 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:05.760 human can be so intimidating and in real life, in 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:10.120 real life, who are you? I think that Hannah is 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:15.480 someone who I'm very capable of being, who's wounded, ambitious 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:17.279 but doesn't know where to place it. Hannah sort of 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:20.600 the version of myself. If I had had less understanding 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:25.080 parents and sort of less drive to get things done, 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:27.200 and I think who I am as a person who 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:30.039 is always sort of if I had to describe the 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:32.160 war within myself that exists currently, it's sort of the 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:35.480 challenge of trying to reconcile the part of me that 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:37.760 that always thought I would be, like, you know, a 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:40.559 weird gender and women studies teacher who occasionally showed movies 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:43.120 at film festivals and hung out in my strange apartment 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:45.640 that was stacked high with books. Trying to reconcile that 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.120 with the part of me that has to like figure 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:52.080 out of Stone magazine exactly, was to shoot the rolling 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:53.600 cover of Rolling Stone magazine, was to figure out a 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:55.960 dress to where that for an event that everyone seems 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:58.239 to be worried about whether or not the dresses in stores, 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:00.159 because it has to be my own dress. And so 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:03.560 I'm dealing with all these sort of this strange ecosystem 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:05.440 and all these weird politics that I kind of never 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:08.800 imagined would happen to me in my lifetime. You never imagined, No, 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:11.919 you really never imagined it. I think I my dream 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:14.800 situation was that I would be someone who people thought, oh, 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:17.839 she's doing important work in her own little corner, like 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:22.040 a raws Chast cartoon character, exactly, like a ros Chast 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:25.919 cartoon character. Or like I think, because I went to 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:28.440 pretendious private school, the biggest dream you would have, you'd 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:30.560 be like, I'm going to be Joan Didion. That was 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:32.840 kind of where your brain was allowed to want to 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:35.280 maybe Nora from Maybe you'll make films, but you're not 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:37.320 going to be in film exactly. And I don't think 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:39.760 when I first started acting, I mean I never got 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:42.360 parts in high school. I never even I never was 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:44.160 able to. I think I had a twofold thing about it. 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:45.880 One is that I came from a family of artists, 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:47.240 and so the idea was sort of like you made 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:48.840 your work and then got out of the way of it. 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:52.320 Like part of what was I think I internalized the 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:54.719 idea that your work was supposed to speak for you. 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:56.520 You were not supposed to speak for your work, and 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:59.080 so I think I was self conscious about the idea 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:04.160 of being any self self promoting and although that's not 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:08.600 what acting is, it's it's become that. And then I 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:10.440 also think that I thought, well, there's people who are 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:12.760 professionals who can do this better than me. So I'm 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:14.960 just going to act until I have access to the 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:17.920 people who should be acting. And sometimes I still feel 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:19.760 that way. Sometimes I think, like, you know, I'll do 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:22.640 this a little longer and then Michelle Williams can play 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:26.640 me every day until I die. Something that's really nice 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:29.760 about making the show that isn't that is a comedy 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:32.520 that isn't stuck in any sort of I mean, thirty 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:34.400 Rock was able to bust out of a lot of 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:37.480 network sitcom tropes, but a lot of the time when 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:39.480 you're on a I think one of the biggest things 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:42.440 that networks prevent, besides curse words and showing your breasts 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:46.000 is development. I think that when you play, I think 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:50.320 so many sitcom characters end up playing the same version 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:56.560 of themselves in various scenarios. This is the thing as 0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:59.640 God is my judge. This is the thing that we 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:01.960 talk about in the meeting to prep this thing with you, 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:06.400 which was shows I've seen where the protagonist male or female, 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:08.880 they're going through the same set of problems in season 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:10.640 six that they were in season one. It's just different 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:15.080 lines in different coasters. And with you, I'm wondering, do 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:17.360 you have a Bible on the show. Do you have 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:19.280 an arc in your mind, not even on paper, not 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:21.560 even approved with your other because you do this with 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:23.480 Judd correct. I do it with Judd and a woman 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:27.280 named Jenny Connor, who's the other executive producer. And we 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:30.280 have a great little writer's room. But our writer's room 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:32.520 doesn't really work like. It's not like we write a 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:34.280 script and then all sit together punching it up. It's 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:36.200 much more we sit together at the beginning of the 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:38.920 season and really talk through. It's like a giant therapy 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:41.360 session where we work out the emotional arc and then 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:43.640 we go to it. And when you work out that 0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:45.560 emotional arc, do you think to yourself, are the things 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:48.880 that she's going through? Now? Your character and the other 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:51.040 characters where you're saying to yourself, and let's make sure 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:53.080 they're not going through this. There is a growth a 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:55.200 season from now or by the end of the season completely. 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:57.440 And that's why I feel like it's okay for me 0:07:57.480 --> 0:07:59.000 to cut my hair, or it's okay for me to 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:01.040 start spinning, or it's okay for me you know whatever 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:04.640 I whatever to change to change because I feel as 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:06.320 though so much of what this show is about is 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:09.160 about seeing these girls off into their adulthood. Like in 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:12.680 my Bible, the ideal finale to the show would be 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:15.680 a feeling like, you know, they don't have to have kids, 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:17.080 they don't have to have husbands, but you look at 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:18.520 them and you kind of go there on their way. 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:20.480 They're more okay than they were when they started, or 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:22.800 they're less okay, but we have an understanding what kind 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:25.760 of adult we think they're going to be. So described 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:28.920 to me how that works? Because because the theme here 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:33.640 is control, and you are, like other brilliant comedy writing 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:36.280 chicks I've known over the years, you have this is 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:39.040 your show, this is your thing. So how does it start? 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:43.640 How does Whose idea was girls? Was it yours? It 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:46.880 was mine? Because I basically I went in, I made 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:48.600 this movie Tiny Furniture, and I made it. You know, 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:50.440 my mom and sister starred. We shot it in my 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.560 mom's house, my mom and dad's house. We um It 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:56.480 was totally populated with friends, some of whom have made 0:08:56.480 --> 0:08:59.560 their way to Girls with Me. And what motivated don't 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:01.760 want to do Time Furniture. I had always wanted to 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:03.280 be a writer, and I used to think I wanted 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:04.880 to be a playwright. And then in college I sort 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.200 of had this revelation where I thought, like, plays, you rehearse, 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:10.480 and you rehearse, and then they happened twice, Like I 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.240 just felt so frustrated by the lack of permanence. Like 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:14.800 I'd always been sort of turned on by the fact 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:18.439 that when my parents as artists made work, like they 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:22.840 had these material items that would outlast them. And I 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:25.959 was frustrated that that wasn't a part of the theater experience. 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:28.720 So I started making short films, and I made my 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:31.559 first feature and went to south By Southwest Film Festival 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:34.079 with it, and then I just had and I've been 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:35.880 making web TV, and I just had this itch to 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:37.680 sort of tell the specific story, and I wrote the 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:39.319 script and the kind that's what I want to talk 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:42.679 about is is that itch meaning beyond the arc of 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:46.520 the shooting and the and and the career aspects of 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:49.280 it or the burgeoning career, What was it about what 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:50.640 was going on in your life that you want to 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:53.880 do that movie on a practical, real life level. I 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:57.480 wanted to talk about that moment between college and adulthood 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:00.320 that felt so floundering, and so every day I felt 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:03.600 like I was walking through the strangest, most surreal soup. 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:05.800 That would mean that on a deeper level, I kind 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:07.640 of wanted to talk about change, which is what I 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:09.600 always think is sort of the most interesting place to 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:13.840 find characters is in a time of intense change. And 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:17.240 so I sort of also wanted to capture this moment 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:19.120 where I was, I knew that I wouldn't live at 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:21.679 home forever, that my little sister wouldn't be sort of 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:25.160 seventeen and ambitious but also stuck in her bedroom forever, 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:28.319 that my mom was sort of looking in this beautiful 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:30.520 moment where she kind of was I mean, shilled murder 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:31.880 me for saying this, but she looked that kind of 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:35.520 beautiful way where it's like you're not quite old yet 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:37.320 and you just look kind of she just looked kind 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:40.920 of perfect to me, and I just like, a great, yeah, 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:44.840 And I just thought exactly, and I just thought, I 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:47.120 want to capture all of this. I want to capture 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:48.839 our cats, I want to capture our house. I want 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:51.040 to remember all of this. And so, so you really 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:55.360 love your mom. I'm obsessed with my mom. I love 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:57.400 my mom. And then but I'm saying, that's interesting that 0:10:57.520 --> 0:10:59.880 you have that feeling, and that's what makes you so 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:01.959 of a what's around you wouldn't want to capture that 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:05.719 because I find typically people who are not happy, they 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:08.480 gotta wait a while until they can negotiate the pain 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:10.679 to go back and talk about that. It's one of 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:12.960 the biggest things that inspires me to make work is 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:15.280 this feeling of looking around and going, even if you're 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:18.800 not perfect, you're also perfect right now, let's let's capture 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:20.920 this and then you know, I'd love the feeling. I 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:23.040 was just watching like Panic in Needle Park last week, 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:26.320 that movie which is you know, Kitty Win, Kitty Gosh, 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:29.640 she's so good. Where did Kitty Win go? Yeah, let 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:32.119 me get that violin out for Kitty Win. She's incredible. 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:34.080 But so I was watching that and I was just 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:36.719 thinking about how exciting it was to be able to 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:39.480 watch sort of like al Pacino at that first moment 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:41.200 when he was sort of like he still almost looked 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:43.319 a little adolescent and he was still and he was 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:47.000 learning his craft and just behaving on film. Yeah, And 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:49.600 I just love capturing that. And that's something that I've 0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:52.000 tried to do with girls too, is sort of grab 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:54.439 people and go, let's just let's just see you as 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:58.640 you are right now now. The Uh so the film 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:03.840 did well, So then how does girls happen? Girls happened? 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:05.400 Because so then I went to l A and kind 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:07.760 of did that. I went like, Okay, I guess what 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:09.520 you do next is get an agent, And I guess 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:11.280 what you do next is trying to figure out what 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:14.560 I mean. You're on the runway now, Yes, I was. 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:16.120 I was on the runway, and I was going around 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:17.800 l A doing the sort of what I call the 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:19.640 couch and water bottle tour of l A where you 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:22.560 meet everybody and have those kind of general meetings where 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:24.480 and I remember so funny because at first I didn't 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:26.880 understand that everybody says to you at the end of 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:28.360 the general meeting, oh, I'd love to find a way 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:30.120 to work with you. And so I would call my 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:32.600 agent afterwards and go, oh my god, it was amazing, 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:33.920 and he said he wants to find a way to 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.079 work with me, and many want would come clean his pool. Yeah. Basically, 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:39.920 I'd always been obsessed with TV. It always loved TV 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:41.720 and found it to be the most sort of comforting 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:43.840 medium and the one that what comforted you on TV, 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:47.880 what comforted me on TV was there was a range 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:51.080 of things that comforted me on TV. I love what 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:53.560 was the most, what was the weirdest. I mean, my 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:56.080 favorite show when I was little was Under the Umbrella Tree, 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:58.120 which is a Canadian show about a woman who lives 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:00.679 with three puppets, and it was on every morning at 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:04.400 seven am. There were three of them named Iggy, Gloria, 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:07.160 and Ja, and Iggy was an iguana, Glory as a groundhog, 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:08.719 and Jay is a blue jay and he lives out 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:11.040 back in a bird house. They like talked to you 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:14.240 about recycling or like help their old elderly neighbor who 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:17.000 fell down in the street. Like they're just like nice puppets, 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:20.200 but looking back, it feels like a child molester who's 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:23.360 on the lamb with her three. My guilty pleasure like 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:24.920 that was when I was in my twenties and I 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:26.960 go to my friend's house and we just had this 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:29.240 weird habit where like at four o'clock in the afternoon, 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:32.000 we make a drink and we'd roll the biggest joint 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:34.840 and we'd smoke pot and watch a show called Stairway 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:37.760 to Start Him that was on Public Access TV, and 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:40.720 Stairway to Start Him was this older man. It kind 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:43.040 of looked like Rod Steiger. He was like a burly looking, 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:45.600 tough looking older man and his wife and she kind 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:48.360 of looked like, uh, like Tammy Faye Baker. She was 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:52.120 like a big, big honeycombed shellack hair and she was 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:54.440 like this big, buzzy me older woman. And the guy 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:56.199 would come out and he had the funniest voice. He'd 0:13:56.200 --> 0:14:01.600 be like, welcome everyone to stay away, to stop and 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:03.760 use and they'd sing a song and opening so and 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:05.800 they would bring out acts that would perform. They were 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:10.320 all like local queens, Brooklyn talent people singing parakeets. It 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:12.400 was like it was bizarre that sounds like the best 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:14.680 thing in the world was the best show in the world, 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:17.800 especially if you've smoked an enormous amount of marijuana an 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:21.040 enormous joint. So you're on the sofa ward bottle tour 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:23.960 and what happens Silfa water bottle Tour and my agent, 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:26.160 who I feel like you're not supposed to say you 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:28.040 love your agent because it makes you sound really hollywood 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:29.920 and out of everyone, I love everyone, And also I 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:32.320 have the best agent. He's like really been at it 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:35.280 for a long time. He's like a cigar smoking. You know, 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:38.280 he's what I imagined in Nation. His name is Peter Bennedeck, 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:42.840 Peter Bennedictine now Peter Benedeck, and he smoked cigars. He's 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:46.600 old school, he's old exactly, and he belongs to a 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:48.960 cigar club. Which one does he belong to? I think 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:53.000 it says it has a Cuban flares. I think it is. 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:55.520 I'm on the board of Grand Event, are you, Peter? 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:57.560 And I probably have seen him a Grand evat. Wow. 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:00.520 He always probably hung out there and smokes ours with him. 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:02.520 When you were still a gleam in your parents you 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:04.800 weren't even around God. Damn with the way of this 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:07.760 business works. No, no, no, So so he's your agent 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:10.240 and you love him. I love him, And he said 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:12.080 to me. I was sort of saying to him, like 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:14.160 maybe I could get I just wanted to make move 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:16.120 out of my parents house, and I thought and make 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:17.880 more movies. And I was like, maybe I could should 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:19.880 write aspect how I met your mother, and I could 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:21.720 get staffed on the show. I mean, I didn't know 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:23.600 any I didn't know how any of this worked. And 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:25.320 he said that I should go for a meeting an 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:29.440 HBO and I did, and I said, well, here's what 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:30.960 I'd want to see, is like a show about all 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:33.840 my girlfriends, like sort of like Tiny Furniture, but there's 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:36.400 more of us and we don't live with our parents anymore, 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:38.600 but it's still about that. It's like it was pitched 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:42.080 so weekly, like a year after my movie, but there's 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:43.840 more of us and it's a TV show. So the 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:48.760 conversation wasn't coming out of and Tiny Furniture in the 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:51.560 indie and in the festival world had a very good buzz. 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:54.760 There was no conversation, but used going right into films 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:57.000 and making more films. Normally they're gonna want to steer 0:15:57.040 --> 0:15:59.200 some especially your age was very young. They're gonna go, 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:01.280 let's just keep making movies. Well, you know, there was 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:04.160 a conversation, but I think I picked up on the 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:06.360 fact very early going on the Couch and Water Bottle 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:08.120 tour that the kind of stories that I wanted to 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:12.120 tell we're not really being funded on a larger scale. 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:15.000 And film Tina says that sometimes the Tina I will 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:17.760 just finish work that that it's it's it seems like 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:20.320 it's more difficult to a to have the control you 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:22.720 wanted the film business and be to say what you 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:24.640 want to say it is. And the fact is I 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:26.280 could have kept saying what I wanted to say, you know, 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:30.600 making movies, but I wanted It's weird. The reason that 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:33.280 I like having some budget is not because you know, 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:35.920 I want to stage car crashes or I want to 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:39.280 have you know, ten makeup artists on set, although those 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:43.520 things would will would be lovely, but but it's more 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:45.840 because of the fact that I do so many jobs. 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:47.640 So it was so exciting to not have to worry 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:51.360 anymore about answering the doorbell, about returning the equipment, about 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:54.320 making sure that people had the pizza. Also, that's going 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:57.200 to happen in TV and what has money and HBO 0:16:57.280 --> 0:16:59.320 has HBO is time warnering, but they have money, but 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:01.600 they use it in this kind of amazing there. It's 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:03.800 this amazing model, which is that they don't have to 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:07.080 answer to advertisers in the same way, so HBO can 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:10.919 sort of fulfill its odd little interests. And that's what 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:14.480 I started out as and I what I didn't predict 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:17.399 was how much I would love the opportunity to develop 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:20.840 characters in this way and the kind of the fiber 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:23.320 of TV itself, and they believe in you. Based on 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:25.199 my experience, I've never worked for them, but I've have 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:28.640 many friends and colleagues over the years who have worked 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:30.760 for them, and I've I've almost worked for them here 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:33.040 and there. You know, HBO is one of those places 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:36.040 like that. I think the most successful studios and networks. 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:38.679 The way they operate, which is that they vetted maybe 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:40.879 to a fairly well but if once they believe in you, 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:42.840 they're all in. It's your wors. They give you the 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:48.240 money that they it's not too intrusive now. So the 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:51.640 template of four women, and obviously HBO is no stranger 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:53.919 to the template of four women talking about but obviously 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:56.399 those women were older. And you've been a fan of 0:17:56.400 --> 0:17:59.760 that show, Yes, I think that I can't find one 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:02.760 girl who isn't at least secretly a fan of sex 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:05.680 in the city who's my age. And I loved it. 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:07.840 And you know, I was very conscious when I was 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:10.760 first writing this show. I thought to myself, should I 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:13.240 put these girls in Boston? There was and I tried 0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:15.879 to make it three girls because and Shoshanna was initially 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:18.600 not one of the girls. Shoshanna was Jesse as Jasha 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:22.000 Mamitt's character was Jess as Jemima Kirk's character's cousin, and 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:24.160 she kind of came in and out as a kind 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:27.479 of she was the most as a recurring in and 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:36.840 out goofball who was sort of supposed to call to attention. Seriously, 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:39.520 she does. She plays it beautifully. And but the reason 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:42.160