WEBVTT - From the Archives: Lena Dunham 0:00:01.600 --> 0:00:05.440 Hey, it's Alec Baldwin here before we launch our next 0:00:05.559 --> 0:00:09.680 season of Here's the Thing at iHeartRadio in January, I 0:00:09.720 --> 0:00:13.240 thought I'd play some of my favorite shows from the archives. 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.800 Three years ago, twenty three year old Lena Dunham made 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:21.319 a low budget art house film called Tiny Furniture. She 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:24.800 filmed the movie in her parents' house and basically played herself, 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:28.720 a recent college graduate moving back into her childhood bedroom 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:32.839 while making plans for her future. Dunham was proclaimed a 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:37.080 fresh original voice, a director with a bright future. Writer 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:40.080 director Judd Apatow was one of those who took notice, 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:44.200 and today he and Dunham executive produced Girls, a show 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:47.440 she created for HBO that premiered its second season on 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:49.280 January thirteenth. You're good. 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:53.920 I am so good at you kidding? I have never 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:55.440 been as well in my life. 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:57.280 No, I know. I mean you've seen good that. The 0:00:57.280 --> 0:00:59.200 wedding was so quick and unexpected. I kind of even 0:00:59.240 --> 0:00:59.960 know how to process it. 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:03.520 Yeah, well, you tend to overthink things, and that's an 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:06.320 issue for you. This is what it's like when the 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:10.760 hunt is over. I think Sandy really likes me. 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:11.959 I really like him too. 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:13.840 When you's so nice, and funny when you have sex. 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:15.400 There's no part of me that wants like pretend they 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:17.280 don't exist, which is a rarity. 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:22.039 That's awesome. He's kind of a Republican, which feels weird. 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:23.640 What's wrong of the Republican? 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:26.360 It's just the same as a Democrat. They're old bags. 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:30.480 Lena Dunham has achieved an astonishing amount in just three years. 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:34.520 Her portrayal of Hannah Horvath and Girls recently won her 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:37.600 a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:40.480 This past October, she sold a book of essays and 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:44.800 advice to Random House, and her boyfriend is a rock star. Today, 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:49.400 she hardly resembles Aura, her character from Tiny Furniture. I 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:51.760 thought I wouldn't have much in common with Lena. She's 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:54.880 half my age and has been fiercely embraced by my 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:58.600 daughter's generation. But oh, how quickly we realized there was 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:00.320 common ground between us us. 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:03.520 Literally, my show is moving into the thirty rock stages. 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:07.080 No, yes, we're taking you guys are moving to Silver Cup. Yes, 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:07.880 you and Michael Fop. 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:10.040 We were in Silver Cup. Then we went to Steiner 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:13.040 because we couldn't get our stages back because some show 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:15.280 that has one word that's about murder took it. And 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:18.200 then we are coming back because you guys are leaving, 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:20.240 so we're going to be on your stages and in 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:20.919 your offices. 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:23.960 No, no, I thought, isn't Michael Fox coming there too? 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:26.160 He is. We're I think we don't take as much 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:28.359 stage space as you guys did, so we're going to 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:31.880 have because we have fewer sets. So I think it 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:33.240 is gonna have We're gonna have a piece and he's 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:33.840 gonna have a piece. 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:34.600 Wow. 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:38.440 Now, as I'm sitting here meeting you for the first 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:41.280 time and talking to you for the first time, you 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:44.280 are nothing like I imagined you would be. Really nothing. 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:49.240 I'm a bit thrown here because you play someone who 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:50.880 is a guess in your mind that I want to 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:52.800 talk about. Your a vision of what kind of character 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:54.839 you wanted to create is a little bit a beat 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:57.520 behind everyone else. Or I'll let you articulate that what 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:00.560 you think she is though, But what I want to 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:03.400 say is you when I meet you, you seem like 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:06.440 you could be like a senator or the head of 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:10.200 the corporation. I mean, you're really very, very You seem 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:13.800 so together and smart, and you look great, and you 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:18.120 cut your hair, you look gorgeous. That is firstly, very meaningful. 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:19.920 And I have to not turn red and get excited 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:21.000 because you said that's radio. 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:22.280 So I don't care. I don't care. 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:25.639 I'll get good, perfect, and I'm wearing my crew jacket 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:27.680 and I really I should have dressed up more for you. 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:30.360 But that being said, you know, it's funny. Firstly, a 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:33.440 beat behind idea really speaks to me because I'm always 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:35.360 sort of saying when people ask about Hand, I'm always 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:37.480 sort of saying, she's a version of me, but she's 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:40.240 a few years behind me, and she's also sort of 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:43.000 a few minutes behind everyone around her. So you really 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:45.120 picked up on a concept that I'm sort of always 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:46.880 thinking about a little bit when I play her and 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:47.640 when I write her. 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:48.920 But she's who you used to be. 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:52.720 You know, it's funny. I think I used to I 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:55.880 think I in order to convince myself that I should 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:58.160 play this character, or that I should even write this character, 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:00.520 I had to say, well, I'm just writing my It's 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:02.600 that easy. I'm just writing myself. Because the idea of 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:04.880 sort of creating an entire other human can be so 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:06.160 intimidating and Who are you? 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:06.520 Though? 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:07.720 In real life? 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:08.880 In real life, who are you? 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:14.440 I think that Hannah is someone who I'm very capable 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:18.320 of being, who's wounded, ambitious but doesn't know where to 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:20.640 place it. Hannah sort of the version of myself if 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:25.640 I'd had less understanding parents and sort of less drive 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:28.680 to get things done. And I think who I am 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:31.240 as a person who was always sort of if I 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:33.760 had to describe the war within myself that exists currently. 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:36.560 It's sort of the challenge of trying to reconcile the 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:39.000 part of me that that always thought I would be, like, 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:41.560 you know, a weird gender and women studies teacher who 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:44.320 occasionally showed movies at film festivals and hung out in 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:47.000 my strange apartment that was stacked high with books. Trying 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:48.800 to reconcile that with the part of me that has 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:51.680 to like figure out a dress. 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:53.040 The cover of Rolling Stone magazine. 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:54.599 Exactly it was to shoot the Rolling cover of Rolling 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:56.240 Stone Magazine was to figure out a dress to wear 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:58.200 that for an event that and everyone seems to be 0:04:58.200 --> 0:04:59.880 worried about whether or not the dress is in st 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:02.240 because it has to be my own dress, and so 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:05.640 I'm dealing with all these sort of this strange echosystem 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:07.520 and all these weird politics that I kind of never 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:09.800 imagined would happen to me in my lifetime. 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:12.560 You never imagined, No, you really never imagined it. 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:15.360 I think I my dream situation was that I would 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:18.599 be someone who people thought, oh, she's doing important work 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:20.080 in her own little corner. 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:23.800 Like a ras Chaste cartoon character, exactly like a Ra's 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:27.920 Chast cartoon character, or like I think because I went 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:30.200 to pretentious private school, the biggest dream you would have 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:30.680 is you'd be. 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:32.920 Like I'm going to be Joan Diddyon. That was kind 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:35.760 of where your brain was allowed to wantry maybe Nora. 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:37.520 E from Maybe You'll make films, but you're not going 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:38.719 to be in films exactly. 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:41.200 And I don't think when I first started acting, I 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:43.080 mean I never got parts in high school. I never 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:45.359 even I never was able. I think I had a 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:47.080 twofold thing about it. One is that it came from 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:48.840 a family of artists, and so the idea was sort 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:50.320 of like you made your work and then got out 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:51.760 of the way of it. Like part of what was 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:55.240 I think I internalized the idea that your work was 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:57.680 supposed to speak for you. You were not supposed to 0:05:57.680 --> 0:05:59.880 speak for your work, and so I think I was 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:04.880 conscious about the idea of being anything so self promoting, 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:08.520 and although that's not what acting is, it is now 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:11.720 it's become that. And then I also think that I thought, well, 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:13.800 there's people who are professionals who can do this better 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:16.159 than me. So I'm just going to act until I 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:19.039 have access to the people who should be acting. And 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:21.040 sometimes I still feel that way. Sometimes I think, like, 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:23.200 you know, I'll do this a little longer and then 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:26.920 Michelle Williams can play me every day till I die. 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:30.400 Something that's really nice about making the show that isn't 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:33.520 that is a comedy that isn't stuck in any sort 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:36.080 of I mean, thirty Rock was able to bust out 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:38.760 of a lot of network sitcom tropes, but a lot 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:40.680 of the time when you're on a I think one 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:43.559 of the biggest things that networks prevent, besides curse words 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:47.360 and showing your breasts is development. I think that when 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:50.280 you play, I think so many sitcom characters end up 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:56.039 playing the same version of themselves in various scenarios. 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:59.840 This is the thing as God as my judge. This 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:03.000 is the thing that we talked about in the meeting 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:05.600 to prep this thing with you, which was shows I've 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:09.320 seen where the protagonists male or female, they're going through 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:11.440 the same set of problems in season six that they 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:14.040 were in season one. It's just different lines in different coasts. Yes, 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:17.640 And with you, I'm wondering, do you have a Bible 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:19.560 on the show? Do you have an arc in your mind? 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:21.920 Not even on paper, not even approved with your other 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:23.960 Could you do this with jud correct. 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:25.320 I do it with Judd and a woman named Jenny 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:27.360 Connor who's the other executive producer. 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:30.840 And we have a great little writer's room. 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:33.000 But our writer's room doesn't really work like It's not 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:34.840 like we write a script and then all sit together 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:36.920 punching it up. It's much more we sit together at 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:39.280 the beginning of the season and really talk through It's 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:41.320 like a giant therapy session where we work out the 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:43.320 emotional arc and then we go to it. 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:45.760 And when you work out that emotional arc, do you 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:48.000 think to yourself are the things that she's going through? 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:51.320 Now your character and the other characters where you're saying 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:53.360 to yourself, let's make sure they're not going through this, 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:55.280 that there is growth a season from now or by 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:56.520 the end of the season completely. 0:07:56.520 --> 0:07:58.720 And that's why I feel like it's okay for me 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:00.320 to cut my hair, or it's okay for me to 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:02.360 start spinning, or it's okay for me you know whatever 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:05.960 I whatever to change to change, because I feel as 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:07.640 though so much of what this show is about is 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:10.480 about seeing these girls off into their adulthood. Like in 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:14.000 my Bible, the ideal finale to the show would be 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:17.000 a feeling like, you know, they don't have to have kids, 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:18.360 they don't have to have husbands, but you look at 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:19.800 them and you kind of go, they're on their way. 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:21.720 They're more okay than they were when they started, or 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:23.840 they're less okay, but we have an understanding of what 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:25.400 kind of adult we think they're going to be. 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:30.040 So describe to me how that works. Because the theme 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:34.640 here is control. And you are, like other brilliant comedy 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:37.440 writing chicks I've known over the years. You have this 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:39.720 is your show, this is your thing. So how does 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:44.400 it start? How does whose idea was? Girls? Was it yours? 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.920 It was mine? Because I basically I went in, I 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:49.920 made this movie tiny Furniture, and I made it. You know, 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:51.720 my mom and sister starred. We shot it in my 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:55.520 mom's house, my mom and dad's house. It was totally 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:58.120 populated with friends, some of whom have made their way 0:08:58.160 --> 0:08:59.600 to Girls with me. 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:01.960 And what motivated you don't want to do tiny furniture. 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:03.760 I had always wanted to be a writer, and I 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:05.280 used to think I wanted to be a playwright, and 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:07.680 then in college I sort of had this revelation where 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:10.120 I thought, like, plays, you rehearse, and you rehearse, and 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:13.440 then they happened twice. Like I just felt so frustrated 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:15.240 by the lack of permanence. Like I'd always been sort 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:16.800 of turned on by the fact that when my parents 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:21.840 as artists, made work, like they had these material items 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:25.240 that would outlast them. And I was frustrated that that 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:28.120 wasn't a part of the theater experience. So I started 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:30.840 making short films and I made my first feature and 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:33.160 went to south By Southwest Film Festival with it, and 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.080 then I just had and I'd been making web TV, 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:37.679 and I just had this itch to sort of tell 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:39.800 the specific story, and I wrote the script and the kind. 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:41.960 Well, that's what I want to talk about, is is 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:45.480 that itch meaning beyond the arc of the shooting and 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:49.040 the and the career aspects of it or the burgeoning career. 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:51.319 What was it about what was going on in your 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:52.920 life that you want to do that movie? 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:55.640 On a practical, real life level, I wanted to talk 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:59.400 about that moment between college and adulthood that felt so 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:01.840 flounder and so every day I felt like I was 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:06.040 walking through the strangest, most surreal soup. That would mean 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:07.480 that on a deeper level, I kind of wanted to 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:09.520 talk about change, which is what I always think is 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:11.960 sort of the most interesting place to find characters is 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:16.880 in a time of intense change. And so I sort 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:19.040 of also wanted to capture this moment where I was 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:21.080 I knew that I wouldn't live at home forever, that 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:24.400 my little sister wouldn't be sort of seventeen and ambitious 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:27.439 but also stuck in her bedroom forever, that my mom 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:30.200 was sort of looking in this beautiful moment where she 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:32.400 kind of was I mean, she'd murder me for saying this, 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:34.120 but she looked that kind of beautiful way where it's 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:37.400 like you're not quite old yet and you just look 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:39.240 kind of She just looked kind of perfect to me, 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:39.560 and I just. 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:40.480 Look a great car. 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:44.959 Yeah, And I just thought I could say that exactly, 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:47.280 and I just thought, I want to capture all of this. 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:49.520 I want to capture our cats, I want to capture 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:51.800 our house, I want to remember all of this. And so, 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:54.520 so you really love your mom. I'm obsessed with my mom. Okay, 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:57.160 I love my mom. 0:10:57.520 --> 0:10:59.720 But I'm saying, that's interesting that you have that feeling 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:02.640 and that's what makes you survey what's around. You wouldn't 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:05.200 want to capture that because I find typically people who 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:08.480 are not happy they got to wait a while until 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:10.719 they can negotiate the pain to go back and talk 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:11.160 about that. 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:13.640 It's one of the biggest things that inspires me to 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:15.680 make work is this feeling of looking around and going, 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:18.360 even if you're not perfect, you're all so perfect right now, 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:22.120 let's capture this and then, you know, I'd love the feeling. 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:24.280 I was just watching like Panic and Needle Park last week, 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:27.600 that movie which is you know it, Kitty Win, Kitty Gosh, 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:30.160 She's so good. Where did Kitty Win go? 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:32.320 Yeah? Let me get that vile out for Kitty Win. 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:33.439 She's incredible. 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:35.400 But so I was watching that and I was just 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:38.040 thinking about how exciting it was to be able to 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:40.760 watch sort of like al Pacino at that first moment 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:42.480 when he was sort of like he still almost looked 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:44.599 a little adolescent, and he was still and he was 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:48.280 learning his craft and just behaving on film. Yeah, and 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:50.880 I just love capturing that. And that's something that I've 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:53.280 tried to do with girls too, is sort of grab 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:55.719 people and go, let's just let's just see you as 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:56.520 you are right now. 0:11:57.120 --> 0:11:57.360 Now. 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:02.760 So the film did well, So then how does girls Happen? 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:06.480 Girls happened? Because so then I went to LA and 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:08.880 kind of did that. I went like, Okay, I guess 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:10.560 what you do next is get an agent. And I 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:12.480 guess what you do next is try to figure out 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:13.120 what you're doing next. 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:15.439 You, I mean, you're on the runway. 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:16.800 Now, Yes, I was. I was on the runway, and 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:18.720 I was going around LA doing the sort of what 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:20.559 I call the couch and water bottle tour of LA, 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:23.280 where you meet everybody and have those kind of general 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:25.040 meetings where and I remember it was so funny because 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:27.719 at first I didn't understand that everybody says to you 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:29.160 at the end of the general meeting, oh, I'd love 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:30.480 to find a way to work with you. And so 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:33.240 I would call my agent afterwards and go, oh my god, 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:34.880 it was amazing, and he said he wants to find 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:35.320 a way. 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:36.640 To work with me, and he meant he what should 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:37.400 come clean his pool? 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:40.720 Yeah, basically, I'd always been obsessed with TV. I'd always 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:42.400 loved TV and found it to be the most sort 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:43.559 of comforting medium and. 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:45.160 The one that what comforted you on TV? 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:49.280 What comforted me on TV was there's a range of 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:51.840 things that comforted me on TV. I loved having weird 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:53.960 what was the most what was the weirdest? I mean, 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:56.640 my favorite show when I was little was Under the 0:12:56.720 --> 0:12:59.000 Umbrella Tree, which is a Canadian show about a woman 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:01.560 who lives with three puppet and it was on every 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:03.800 morning at seven am. God there were three of them 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:07.439 named Iggy, Gloria, and Jay, and Iggy was an iguana. 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:09.440 Gloria is a groundhog and Jay is a blue jay 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:11.920 and he lives out back in a birdhouse. They like 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:14.560 talk to you about recycling, or like help their old 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:17.080 elderly neighbor who fell down in the street. Like they're 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:20.160 just like nice puppets, But looking back, it feels like 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:24.240 a child molester who's on the lamb with her three. 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:25.360 My my guilty pleasure. Like that was when I was 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:27.280 in my twenties and I go to my friend's house 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:29.520 and we just had this weird habit where like at 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:31.480 four o'clock in the afternoon, we'd like make a drink 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:34.640 and we'd roll the biggest joint and we'd smoke pot 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:37.000 and watch a show called Stairway to Stardom that was 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:40.240 on Public Access TV. And Stairway to Startom was this 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:43.240 older man and kind of looked like Rod Steiger. He 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:45.839 was like a burly looking, tough looking older man. And 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:48.800 his wife and she kind of looked like like Tammy 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:51.600 Faye Baker. She was like a big, big honey combed 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:54.319 shellacte hair and she was like this big bosom me 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:56.400 older woman. And the guy would come out and he 0:13:56.440 --> 0:13:59.280 had the funniest voice. He'd be like, welcome everyone to 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:04.840 sell and use, and they'd sing a song and opening 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:06.760 so and they would bring out acts that would perform. 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:11.480 They were all like local queens Brooklyn talent parakeets. 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:13.440 It was like it was bizarre that sounds like the 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:15.440 best thing in the world. It was the best show 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:17.239 in the world, especially if you've smoked. 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:20.400 An enormous amount of marijuana an enormous joint, so you're 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:22.400 on the Sofa water Bottle Tour and what happens on 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:23.520 the sofa water bottle. 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:26.200 Tour and my agent, who I feel like you're not 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:27.800 supposed to say you love your agent because it makes 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:30.280 you sound really Hollywood and everyone. I love everyone, And 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:32.720 also I have the best agent. He's like really been 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:34.440 at it for a long time. He's like a cigar 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:39.040 smoking you know, he's what I imagined. His name's Peter Benedeck. 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:42.760 Peter Benedict did know Peter Benedeck, And he smoked cigars. 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.480 He's old school, he's old kind of a hectemic gothapy exactly. 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:48.560 And he belongs to a cigar club. Which one does 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:50.720 he belong to? I think it says it has a 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:53.680 Cuban flair. I think it is. 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:55.680 I'm on the board of Grand ev are you. I 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:57.440 know Peter and I probably have seen him a Granda 0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:00.280 that Wow. He always plays on the out there and 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:02.000 smoked the goods with him when you were still a 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:04.600 gleam in your parents. Aye, you weren't even around God. 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:07.400 Damn with the way this business works. No, no, no, 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:09.080 So he's your agent and you love him. 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:11.880 I love him, And he said to me, I was 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:13.480 sort of saying to him like, maybe I could get 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:15.840 I just wanted to move out of my parents' house, 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:17.600 and I thought and make more movies. And I was like, 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:19.720 maybe I could should write a spec how I met 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:21.600 your mother, and I could get staffed on a show. 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:23.400 I mean, I didn't know any I didn't know how 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:25.400 any of this worked. And he said that I should 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:28.400 go for a meeting at HBO, and I did, and 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:30.920 I said, well, here's what I'd want to see, is 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:33.280 like a show about all my girlfriends, like sort of 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:35.720 like Tiny Furniture, but there's more of us, and we 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:37.840 don't live with our parents anymore, but it's still about that. 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:41.640 It's like it was pitched so weekly, like a year 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:43.680 after my movie, but there's more of us and it's 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:44.280 a TV show. 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:49.080 So the conversation wasn't coming out of and Tiny Furniture 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:51.440 in the indie and in the festival world had a 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:54.560 very good buzz. There was no conversation, but you just 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:57.000 going right into films and making more films. Normally they're 0:15:57.000 --> 0:15:58.800 going to want to steer some especially your age was 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:01.120 very young. They're going to go just keep making movies. 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:03.960 Well, you know, there was a conversation, but I think 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:06.080 I picked up on the fact very early going on 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:07.720 the Couch and Water Bottle tour that the kind of 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:10.920 stories that I wanted to tell we're not really being 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:16.800 funded on a larger scale and film. 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:16.960 We're taking a break stay with us. 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:30.360 I picked up on the fact very early going on 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:32.000 the Couch and Water Bottle tour that the kind of 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:35.160 stories that I wanted to tell we're not really being 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:37.080 funded on a larger scale. 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:40.280 And film Tina says that sometimes the Tina I would 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:44.040 just finished working. Yeah, it seems like it's more difficult 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:45.880 to ay to have the control you want in the 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:48.520 film business and be to say what you want to say. 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:50.480 It is, And the fact is I could have kept 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:52.160 saying what I wanted to say, you know, making twenty 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:55.480 five thousand dollars movies, but I wanted It's weird. The 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:58.320 reason that I like having some budget is not because 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:01.200 you know, I want to stagecarshes or I want to 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:04.520 have you know, ten makeup artists on set, although those 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:08.840 things would will would be lovely, But but it's more 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:11.119 because of the fact that I do so many jobs, 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:14.119