WEBVTT - Lena Dunham and Carol Burnett - Summer Staff Picks 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:05.520 This is Alec Baldwin, and you were listening to Here's 0:00:05.559 --> 0:00:10.479 the Thing from iHeart Radio. It's officially summer, and that 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:13.080 means it's time for our tradition at Here's the Thing, 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:17.280 where our staff shares their favorite episodes in our Summer 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:22.120 Staff series. First up is executive producer Kathy Russo. Kathy's 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:24.560 been and Here's the Thing from the very beginning, so 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:27.520 when she's selecting a much loved episode, you know it 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:29.880 has to be good. Kathy, take it. 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:34.240 Away, Thanks Alec. My Summer Staff Pick is a show 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:37.800 that features two women that, in my opinion, changed the 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:42.280 face of TV. One a generation above me Carol Brunette 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:46.400 and one is a generation below me, Lena Dunham. These 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:50.680 are two smart women driven by their artistic dreams. They 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.720 could write, direct, and perform like no other in their generation. 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:58.880 They made me laugh and cry. They were funny without 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:03.080 being mean. First Lena Dunham. I met her at a 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:06.880 screening of her first movie, Tiny Furniture, and immediately became 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:10.240 a huge fan. When Girls came out in twenty twelve, 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:13.080 a show about four young women living in New York City, 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:16.360 I couldn't get enough and watched every episode at least 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:20.240 three times. Girls was spot on, so smart and so 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:22.240 brave and spoke to me in a way no other 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:25.720 show had before. Lena took chances, and I loved her 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:28.080 playing Hannah on the show. She had a way of 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:32.280 capturing moments I could relate to. Probably the best acting 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:34.800 I've ever seen on TV was one of the last 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:39.080 episodes of Girls in twenty seventeen. Hannah is single and 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:42.479 very pregnant. She spends a day with an old boyfriend 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:46.119 played by Adam Driver. Adam's not the father, but they 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:49.000 spend a blissful day in the city and consider getting 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:53.000 back together and raising this child. They end the day 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:56.520 sitting across from each other in a diner and come 0:01:56.600 --> 0:02:02.360 to the silent, tears strained realization that their tumultuous relationship 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:06.760 will never work out. No words, just the expressions on 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:11.400 their faces says it all, and it's heartbreaking. Now listen 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:14.400 to Alex's interview with Lena. Just as Girls was making 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:17.320 it big, Lena. 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.560 Dunham has achieved an astonishing amount in just three years. 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:24.640 Her portrayal of Hannah Horovath and Girls recently won her 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:27.640 a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a comedy series. 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:30.560 This past October, she sold a book of essays and 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:34.840 advice to Random House, and her boyfriend is a rock star. Today, 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:39.480 she hardly resembles Aura, her character from Tiny Furniture. I 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:41.839 thought I wouldn't have much in common with Lena. She's 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:44.960 half my age and has been fiercely embraced by my 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:48.680 daughter's generation. But oh, how quickly we realized there was 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:50.359 common ground between us. 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:53.600 Literally, my show's moving into the thirty rock stages. 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:57.160 No, yes, we're taking there, moving to Silver Cup. Yes, 0:02:57.200 --> 0:02:58.080 you and Michael harm. 0:02:57.960 --> 0:02:59.840 We were in Silver Cup. Then we went to Stey 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:03.120 because we couldn't get our stages back because some show 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:05.360 that has one word that's about murder took it. And 0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:08.280 then we are coming back because you guys are leaving, 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:10.320 so we're going to be on your stages and in 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:11.000 your offices. 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:11.680 Wow. 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:15.400 Now, as I'm sitting here meeting you for the first 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:18.240 time and talking to you for the first time, you 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:22.840 are nothing like I imagined you would be. Really nothing. I'm 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:26.360 a bit thrown here because you play someone who is 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:27.960 I guess in your mind that I want to talk 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:30.080 about your vision of what kind of character you wanted 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:32.760 to create is a little bit a beat behind everyone else, 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:36.080 or I'll let you articulate that what you think she is, I'll. 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:39.160 Put though the beat behind idea really speaks to me 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:41.160 because I'm always sort of saying when people ask about 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:43.160 Han and I'm always sort of saying, she's a version 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:45.160 of me, but she's a few years behind me, and 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:48.920 she's also sort of a few minutes behind everyone around her. 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:50.720 So you really picked up on a concept that I'm 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:52.760 sort of always thinking about a little bit when I 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:54.000 play her and when I write her. 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:55.280 But she's who you used to be. 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:56.320 You know. 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.640 It's funny. I think I used to I think I 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:03.000 in order to convince myself that I should play this character, 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:04.800 or that I should even write this character, I had 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:07.360 to say, well, I'm just writing myself. It's that easy. 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:09.240 I'm just writing myself, because the idea of sort of 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:11.880 creating an entire other human can be so intimidating. 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:12.880 And who are you though? 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:14.080 In real life? 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:15.240 In real life? Who are you? 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:20.800 I think that Hannah is someone who I'm very capable 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:24.680 of being, who's wounded, ambitious but doesn't know where to 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:27.040 place it. Hannah sort of the version of myself. If 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:32.000 i'd had less understanding parents and sort of less drive 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:35.040 to get things done, And I think who I am 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:37.599 as a person who was always sort of if I 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:40.120 had to describe the war within myself that exists currently, 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:42.920 it's sort of the challenge of trying to reconcile the 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:45.359 part of me that that always thought I would be, like, 0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:47.920 you know, a weird gender and women studies teacher who 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:50.680 occasionally showed movies at film festivals and hung out in 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.360 my strange apartment that was stacked high with books. Trying 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:55.160 to reconcile that with the part of me that has 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:57.080 to like figure out. 0:04:57.240 --> 0:04:59.880 A tress the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:01.599 Exactly, Shoot, the rolling cover of Rolling Stow magazine was 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:03.120 to figure out a dress to wear that for an 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:05.200 event that and everyone seems to be worried about whether 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:07.240 or not the dress is in stores because it has 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:09.160 to be my own dress. And so I'm dealing with 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.360 all these sort of this strange echosystem and all these 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:14.960 weird politics that I kind of never imagined would happen 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:16.160 to me in my lifetime. 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:18.920 You never imagined, No, you really never imagined it. 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:21.839 I think my dream situation was that I would be 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:25.080 someone who people thought, Oh, she's doing important work in 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:26.400 her own little corner. 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:28.680 Like a Ra's Chaste cartoon character. 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:33.240 Exactly, like a ras Chast cartoon character, or like I 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:35.960 think because I went to pretentious private school, the biggest 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:37.320 dream you would have is you'd be like I'm going 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:40.320 to be Joan Diddyon. That was kind of where your 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:42.120 brain was allowed to wantry maybe Nora. 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:43.880 E from maybe you'll make films, but you're not going 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:45.080 to be in films exactly. 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:47.560 And I don't think when I first started acting, I 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:49.440 mean I never got parts in high school. I never 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:51.680 even I never was able. I think I had a 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:53.440 twofold thing about it. One is that it came from 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:55.200 a family of artists, and so the idea was sort 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:56.680 of like you made your work and then got out 0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:58.120 of the way of it. Like part of what was 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:01.600 I think I internalized the idea that your work was 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:04.040 supposed to speak for you. You were not supposed to 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:06.279 speak for your work, And so I think I was 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:11.240 self conscious about the idea of being any sel self promoting. 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:14.599 And although that's not what acting is, it's it is 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:17.640 now it's become that. And then I also think that 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:19.680 I thought, well, there's people who are professionals who can 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:21.560 do this better than me. So I'm just going to 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:24.120 act until I have access to the people who should 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:26.919 be acting. And sometimes I still feel that way. Sometimes 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:28.680 I think, like, you know, I'll do this a little 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:31.839 longer and then Michelle Williams can play me every day 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:35.919 till I die. Something that's really nice about making the 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:39.320 show that isn't that is a comedy that isn't stuck 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:41.680 in any sort of I mean, thirty Rock was able 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:44.239 to bust out of a lot of network sitcom tropes, 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:46.400 but a lot of the time when you're on a 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:48.839 I think one of the biggest things that networks prevent, 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:52.680 besides curse words and showing your breasts is development. I 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:55.320 think that when you play, I think so many sitcom 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:59.400 characters end up playing the same version of themselves in 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:00.320 various area. 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:05.640 This is the thing that we talked about in the 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:08.320 meeting to prep this thing with you, which was shows 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:12.120 I've seen where the protagonists male or female, they're going 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:14.280 through the same set of problems in season six that 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:16.040 they were in season one. It's just different lines in 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:19.520 different coastars. Yeah, and with you, I'm wondering, do you 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:21.800 have a bible on the show. Do you have an 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:23.840 arc in your mind, not even on paper, not even 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:26.600 approved with your other Could you do this with jud correct? 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:28.640 I do it with Judd and a woman named Jenny Connor, 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:32.559 who's the other executive producer. And we have a great 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:35.280 little writer's room. But our writer's room doesn't really work 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:37.280 like It's not like we write a script and then 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:39.360 all sit together punching it up. It's much more we 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:41.320 sit together at the beginning of the season and really 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:43.840 talk through. It's like a giant therapy session where we 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:46.320 work out the emotional arc and then we go to it. 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:48.720 And when you work out that emotional arc, do you 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:51.320 think to yourself, are the things that she's going through now? 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:54.720 Your character and the other characters where you're saying to yourself, 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:56.680 let's make sure they're not going through this, that there 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:58.480 is growth a season from now or by the end 0:07:58.520 --> 0:07:59.480 of the season completely. 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:01.720 And that's why I feel like it's okay for me 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:03.920 to cut my hair, It's okay for me to start spinning, 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:06.160 or it's okay for me, you know, whatever I whatever 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:09.400 to change to change, because I feel as though so 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:11.280 much of what this show is about is about seeing 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:14.239 these girls off into their adulthood. Like in my Bible, 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:17.560 the ideal finale to the show would be a feeling like, 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:20.320 you know, they don't have to have kids, they don't 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:21.520 have to have husbands, but you look at them and 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:23.240 you kind of go, they're on their way. They're more 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:25.480 okay than they were when they started, or they're less okay, 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:27.520 but we have an understanding of what kind of adult 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:28.400 we think they're gonna be. 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:32.480 So describe to me, how does it start? How does 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:36.000 whose idea was girls? Was it yours? 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:39.680 It was mine because I basically I went in, I 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:41.640 made this movie Tiny Furniture, and I made it. You know, 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:43.480 my mom and sister starred. We shot it in my 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.760 mom's house, my mom and dad's house. We it was 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:49.640 totally populated with friends, some of whom have made their 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:51.320 way to Girls with me. 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:53.560 And what motivated you don't want to do Tiny Furniture. 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:55.520 I had always wanted to be a writer, and I 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:57.040 used to think I wanted to be a playwright, and 0:08:57.040 --> 0:08:59.440 then in college I sort of had this revelation where 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:01.920 I thought, like plays you rehearse, and you rehearse, and 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:05.160 then they happened twice like I just felt so frustrated 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:07.000 by the lack of permanence, Like I'd always been sort 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:08.520 of turned on by the fact that when my parents 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:13.600 as artists made work, like they had these material items 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.960 that would outlast them. And I was frustrated that that 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:19.880 wasn't a part of the theater experience. So I started 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:22.560 making short films, and I made my first feature and 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:24.920 went to south By Southwest Film Festival with it, and 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:27.800 then I just had and I'd been making web TV, 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:29.440 and I just had this itch to sort of tell 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:31.240 the specific story, and I wrote the script and the 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:31.880 kind well, that's. 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:34.200 What I want to talk about, is is that itch 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:38.480 meaning beyond the arc of the shooting and the and 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.520 the career aspects of it or the burgeoning career, what 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:43.280 was it about what was going on in your life 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:44.559 that you want to do that movie? 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:47.400 On a practical, real life level, I wanted to talk 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:51.160 about that moment between college and adulthood that felt so 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:53.600 floundering and so every day I felt like I was 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:57.760 walking through the strangest, most surreal soup. That would mean 0:09:57.800 --> 0:09:59.240 that on a deeper level, I kind of wanted to 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:01.280 talk about chain, which is what I always think is 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:03.720 sort of the most interesting place to find characters is 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:08.640 in a time of intense change. And so I sort 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:10.800 of also wanted to capture this moment where I was. 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:12.800 I knew that I wouldn't live at home forever, that 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:16.119 my little sister wouldn't be sort of seventeen and ambitious 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:19.240 but also stuck in her bedroom forever, that my mom 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:21.960 was sort of looking in this beautiful moment where she 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:24.160 kind of was I mean, she'd murder me for saying this, 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:25.880 but she looked that kind of beautiful way where it's 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:29.120 like you're not quite old yet and you just look 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:31.000 kind of she just looked kind of perfect to me, 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:31.280 and I just. 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:32.199 Look a great car. 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:35.640 Yeah, And I just thought, my mother's what I could 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:38.560 say exactly, And I just thought, I want to capture 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:40.719 all of this. I want to capture our cats, I 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:42.520 want to capture our house. I want to remember all 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:42.800 of this. 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:44.760 And so, so you really love your mom. 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:48.920 I'm obsessed with my mom. Okay, I love my mom. 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:51.480 But I'm saying, that's interesting that you have that feeling 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:54.360 and that's what makes you survey what's around. You wouldn't 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:56.960 want to capture that because I find typically people who 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:00.280 are not happy they got to wait a while until 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:02.480 they can negotiate the pain to go back and talk 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:02.839 about that. 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:05.400 It's one of the biggest things that inspires me to 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:07.440 make work is this feeling of looking around and going, 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:10.079 even if you're not perfect, you're all so perfect right now, 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:13.520 let's let's capture this and then, you know, I'd love 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:15.319 the feeling. I was just watching like Panic and Needle 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:17.720 Park last week, that movie which is you know it, 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:21.520 Kitty Win, Kitty Gosh, she's so good. Where did Kitty 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:21.920 Win go? 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:24.360 Yeah, let me get that vile out for Kitty Win. 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:25.160 She's incredible. 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:27.120 But so I was watching that and I was just 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:29.800 thinking about how exciting it was to be able to 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:32.520 watch sort of like al Pacino at that first moment 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:34.240 when he was sort of like he still almost looked 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:36.360 a little adolescent and he was still and he was 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:38.160 learning his craft. 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:39.360 And just behaving on film. 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:42.360 Yeah, and I just love capturing that. And that's something 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:44.240 that I've tried to do with girls too, is sort 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:47.200 of grab people and go, let's just let's just see 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:48.280 you as you are right now. 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:53.520 Now. The so the film did well, So then how 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:54.480 does girls Happen? 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:58.199 Girls happened? Because so then I went to LA and 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:00.640 kind of did that. I went like, Okay, I guess 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:02.320 what you do next is get an agent, and I 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:04.320 guess what you do next is try to figure. 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:07.480 Out what I mean. You're on the runway now, Yes. 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:07.600 I was. 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:09.160 I was on the runway, and I was going around 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:11.120 LA doing the sort of what I call the couch 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:13.959 and water bottle tour of LA where you meet everybody 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:15.839 and have those kind of general meetings where and I 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:17.520 remember it was so funny because at first I didn't 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:19.880 understand that everybody says to you at the end of 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:21.439 the general meeting, oh, I'd love to find a way 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:23.160 to work with you. And so I would call my 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:25.679 agent after ones and go, oh my god, it was amazing, 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:27.079 and he said he wants to find a way to. 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:28.480 Work with me, and he meant he what should come 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:29.120 clean his pool? 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:32.640 Yeah, basically, so you're on the sofa water bottle tour 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:34.760 and what happens on self a water bottle tour and 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:37.480 my agent, who I feel like, you're not supposed to 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:39.000 say you love your agent because it makes you sound 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:39.600 really Hollywood. 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:40.320 And I have everyone. 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:42.680 I love everyone, and also I have the best agent. 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:44.480 He's like, really been at it for a long time. 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:47.880 He's like a cigar smoking you know, He's what I imagined 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:51.560 in age. His name's Peter Benedek, and he said to me. 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:53.319 I was sort of saying to him, like maybe I 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:56.080 could get I just wanted to move out of my parents' house, 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:57.880 and I thought and make more movies. And I was like, 0:12:57.920 --> 0:12:59.880 maybe I could should write a spec how I met 0:12:59.920 --> 0:13:01.840 your mother, and I could get staffed on a show. 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:03.679 I mean, I didn't know any I didn't know how 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:05.679 any of this worked. And he said that I should 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:08.680 go for a meeting at HBO, and I did, and 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:11.200 I said, well, here's what I'd want to see, is 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:13.520 like a show about all my girlfriends, like sort of 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:16.000 like Tiny Furniture, but there's more of us, and we 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:18.120 don't live with our parents anymore, but it's still about that. 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:21.880 It's like it was pitched so weekly, like a year 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:23.959 after my movie, but there's more of us and it's 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:24.560 a TV show. 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:29.320 So the conversation wasn't coming out of and Tiny Furniture 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:31.720 in the indie and in the festival world had a 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:34.840 very good buzz. There was no conversation, but you just 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:37.280 going right into films and making more films. Normally they're 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:39.560 gonna want to steer some especially your age was very young, 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:41.360 They're gonna go, let's just keep making movies. 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:44.200 Well, you know, there was a conversation, but I think 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:46.360 I picked up on the fact very early, going on 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:48.000 the Couch and Water Bottle tour, that the kind of 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:51.199 stories that I wanted to tell were not really being 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:53.080 funded on a larger scale. 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:56.040 And film Tina says that sometimes the Tina I just 0:13:56.040 --> 0:14:00.160 finish working. Yeah, it seems like it's more difficult to 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:01.720 a to have the control you want in the film 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.200 business and be to say what you want to say. 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:06.120 It is, And the fact is I could have kept 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:07.800 saying what I wanted to say, you know, making twenty 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:11.160 five thousand dollars movies, but I wanted It's weird. The 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:14.000 reason that I like having some budget is not because 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.560 you know, I want to stage car crashes or I 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:19.360 want to have you know, ten makeup artists on set, 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:23.960 although those things would will would be lovely, But but 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:26.080 it's more because of the fact that I do so 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:28.560 many jobs, so so exciting to not have to worry 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:32.360 anymore about answering the doorbell, about returning the equipment, about 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:35.280 making sure that people had the pizza. Also, that's going 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:37.640 to happen in TV. And what I has money and 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:40.280 has HBO is Time Warner. But they have money, but 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:42.600 they use it in this kind of amazing it's this 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:45.080 amazing model, which is that they don't have to answer 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:48.280 to advertisers in the same way, so HBO can sort 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:52.000 of fulfill its odd little interests. And that's what I 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:55.600 started out as, and I what I didn't predict was 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:58.800 how much I would love the opportunity to develop characters 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:01.920 in this way and the kind of the fiber of 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:02.720 TV itself. 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:06.320 I mean, for me, one thing that I noticed when 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:09.200 I went to college an interesting number of people they 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:11.280 really knew what they wanted to be. They weren't quite 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:13.320 sure how to get there. They had a dream. I 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:15.160 want to become a lawyer. I want to become a doctor. 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:16.560 I want to go into politics. I want to go 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:19.600 into and now people today, it seems like younger people, 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:21.760 they really they think they have more time to figure 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:24.200 it out. They're turning twenty five and they really don't 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:25.840 have that picture and focus. Do you agree? 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:27.520 I do agree, And I think a big part of 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:30.640 it is being I think the word the Internet has 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:34.280 cracked things open in a way that's both beautiful and 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:36.720 that it helps you find. There's so many things that 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:38.560 I never would have even known about, things that have 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:40.920 been huge for me that have existed because of the Internet. 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:44.160 And I think that I've been able to partially, you know, 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:46.040 connect with people who would be fans of the show 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:48.200 because of the Internet. I think, you know, it's always 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:51.480 exciting when like there's this website called rookiemag dot com 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:53.760 that's run by this girl, Tavi Jevinson, and it's a 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:56.360 like a smart teen magazine that exists only on the Internet. 0:15:56.400 --> 0:15:58.560 And I just think if when I was a teenager 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:01.640 there had been that place and that message board, I 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:04.080 would have felt like the world was my oyster like 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:07.880 just meeting other weirdo girls who had the same who like, 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:09.960 you know whatever. At the time, I just wanted to 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:13.560 talk to someone about Connor Oberst or something on the Internet, 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.200 and that would have been possible. But I think now 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:18.920 the fact that like the Internet has created so many 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:21.200 strange specialized jobs and so many things where it's like, 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:25.640 you know, I'm a brand consultant, slash blog enhancer or whatever. 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:30.360 People are like suddenly the world feels wide open, but 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:32.640 there are less jobs available, and so it's a really 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:35.760 confusing moment to make any decisive choice about what you 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:36.200 want to do. 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:38.600 It's interesting you say that the Internet is responsible for that, 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:40.680 and then idea of having too many choices than you 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:42.560 need you wind up bout. 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:45.080 That could also be a metaphor for like men in 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:47.160 their twenties dating. I feel like men in their twenties, 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:49.480 like I once had dated a guy who told me 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:51.600 that he didn't feel like he could be serious about 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:54.160 anyone in New York because it would be like eating 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:56.880 at the same restaurant every night in New York. Right, 0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:59.960 there's so many amazing choices. It's New York. 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:01.880 I hope he choked some whate a restaurant. He goes, 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:03.880 I shouldn't say that. That's me. That's wrong. 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:05.840 I feel like that. So it's helpful to have it 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:07.040 backed up by Alec Baldwin. 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:14.639 This is Alec Baldwin, and you're listening to here's the 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:29.119 thing more in a minute. Lena Dunham didn't have to 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:32.520