Lena Dunham is taking a step away from several projects — including her upcoming Netflix series Too Much — to avoid unwanted commentary on her body.
“I was not willing to have another experience like what I’d experienced around Girls at this point in my life,” Dunham, 38, said in a profile with The New Yorker published on Tuesday, July 9. “Physically, I was just not up for having my body dissected again. It was a hard choice.”
Dunham, who co-created Too Much with her husband, Luis Felber, clarified that it wasn’t a difficult decision to cast Megan Stalter as the lead role since she knew she “wanted” her from the start. However, Dunham confessed that after facing public scrutiny over her appearance while starring on her hit show, Girls, which aired for six seasons on HBO, that she didn’t want to put herself front and center.
“I used to think that winning meant you just keep doing it and you don’t care what anybody thinks,” she admitted. “I forgot that winning is actually just protecting yourself and doing what you need to do to keep making work.”
While Dunham is staying on as the creator and executive producer, she added that she knew Stalter was perfect for the role and as she was “inspired” by her previous work.
“She’s unbelievable; I think people are going to be so blown away. We know how funny she is. But, then, when she enters a dramatic scene, you’re, like, ‘Oh, we got a little Meryl Streep on our hands!’” she gushed. “I was thinking a lot about, like, What is it that allows women to be complicated on TV and still be embraced and seen and understood? There’s an openness to Meg’s presence that I think goes a long way. She has whatever the opposite of resting bitch face is. She has resting angel face.”
In addition to stepping away from the TV screen, Dunham revealed she is also no longer involved in the Polly Pocket which is set to star Lily Collins.
“I’m not going to make the Polly Pocket movie. I wrote a script, and I was working on it for three years,” she said to the outlet. “But I remember someone once said to me about Nancy Meyers: the thing that’s the most amazing about her is that the movie she makes or the movie she would be making with or without a studio, with or without notes — that somehow her taste manages to intersect perfectly with what the world wants. What a f—king gift that is.”
Dunham shared that while Greta Gerwig had an “incredible” accomplishment with the Barbie movie, she didn’t see her involvement in Polly Pocket, which is also an iconic Mattel brand, having the same traction.
“I felt like, unless I can do it that way, I’m not going to do it. I don’t think I have that in me,” she confessed. “I feel like the next movie I make needs to feel like a movie that I absolutely have to make. No one but me could make it. And I did think other people could make Polly Pocket.”
A Polly Pocket movie was officially announced in July 2023 following the success of Barbie. Dunham, who had been attached to the project since 2021, was set to write and direct the film while Collins would star and produce the project.
