Jenni Konner and Lena Dunham. (Getty)
We recently had a chance to talk to some of the cast of GIRLS, including Alex Karpovsky, Jake Lacy, Zosia Mamet and Jemima Kirke. We also spoke with the show's writer and executive producer, Jenni Konner, who talked about the show, and all of the internet comments it generates.
What should we be watching out for this season, to get ready for the final sixth one? I really love the arc we did with Elijah this year. He has a true romantic story and he is amazing in it and we get to see him be so vulnerable. Andrew Rannells is such an insanely talented actor—he’s won Tonys for his singing and performance and he’s gorgeous and hilarious, but it’s nice to know he can also make you cry.
Secondary characters like Elijah and Ray seem to have transformed into frontrunners over the seasons. Was that intentional? No, we just fell in love with them. Adam was just supposed to be in the pilot, and so was Shoshanna, and we just fell in love with them and made them series regulars. When we make the show, we really let it find itself, even though we kind of know where the end of the season is going. Desi was not supposed to be a huge character and then he and Marnie just made us laugh so hard and now they’re getting married.
How much do you and the writing team take from the actors to put into their characters? A lot. We truly let their work take the lead. We don’t always know what’s funny or what’s special about the character. We start with the bones of the character we’ve created. When Lena created Marnie we knew who she was, and the Allison came in and added so much Allison-y-ness. We really loved how that happened.
Do you read any of the criticism of the characters? I do. I read the thoughtful criticism. I don’t read the comments. I always say to Lena that her gravestone is going to say, “She read the comments." But I don’t read that kind of stuff. I do read Emily Nussbaum or Alan Sepinwall, critics we really admire. It informs us. We never do a 180 based on what someone’s done or said, but it all informs our psyches.
There’s been some recent criticism that the GIRLS characters haven’t grown over the past few years, which I don't necessarily agree with.
Yeah, I don’t either. I think they have grown, especially in the fifth season. I think we have them growing, and actually trying to grow in a real way. To me, the way they’ve grown in the past—not to defend it, but, it’s realistic to me. People don’t change that quickly, or that much. They try other things, but they don’t evolve, especially in those early 20’s . It takes a long time to change a character.
What did you envision for the characters in the first season, and how are you surprised by what they’ve turned into? I'm going to have to think about that for a second. I’ve never thought about it that way. I mean, in the first season, we wanted to tell honest stories about women. And we always saw, and we still do, that Marnie and Hannah are the primary romance of the show. They’re the primary relationship. I guess the surprising thing is how much time we’ve spent with the other characters. I think the true surprise of GIRLS is the boys of GIRLS.
Can you elaborate on that a little? The show is called GIRLS, there are four girls on the poster. Then we started working with these insanely talented men and realized, oh, you can go home with Ray, you can go home with Adam, and you should. They’re amazing. We probably didn’t see that coming and I feel really lucky for it.
Which characters do you think are struggling the most in navigating these post-grad 20-something years? Or are they equally struggling? I think they’re all equally struggling. The fifth season is a surprising time to see Jessa getting her shit together. You don’t see that coming. It’s funny that she’s in school to be a therapist, cause it’s sort of like, “Those who can’t do, teach.” It’s funny to see her going to meetings and acting like a responsible adult when she’s the one who has been the least reliable of anyone.
When you get a guest actor, like Zachary Quinto, for instance, do you write the characters for them? Often we do that. Like when Felicity Jones was on, we wrote it for her. We wrote Richard E. Grant's part for him. He’d been in my boyfriend’s movie and I met him and he said he was a huge fan of GIRLS. Often that happens, and then sometimes we’re completely surprised when, like, Zach Quinto says yes. We weren’t friends with him before, we just got lucky and he’s such a doll. A delight to work with. Everyone should get to work with him.
How did you come up with the idea that he should chew on a toothbrush? He did. That was all Zach. That was a heavy Quinto move. He was like, “I think [character Ace] should have a toothbrush,” and we were like, "Okay, you’re the boss here."
Have you seen the new Star Wars? I have seen Star Wars. I saw it with my nine-year-old, so I was sort of living through the devastation with him. We’re just so proud of Adam. And it’s exciting to me because for awhile it felt like he was our secret, like, we know the most talented actor in the world and you don’t. And now everyone does.
What major storyline arcs, or smaller plots, have been the most difficult to follow-through on? I don’t know if it was difficult, but I think we had more intentions with Ray’s character, of really exploring the local political scene. Then we fell in love with this idea that he would have this huge fight with his [coffee shop] neighbors across the street and be an emotional mess, and that became more appealing to us. It wasn’t that it was so hard, it was just that we lost interest a little bit. [The political stuff] is still alive and he’s still doing it, but I pictured many more board meetings.
Which season of GIRLS was the most difficult to work on? Two. Because we never expected to get the response we did for the first season, and the expectations were so insanely high. We were still trying to find the show, so it was a mix of a lot of things. I remember 2 being a real struggle. Again, the most fun struggle in the world, and it’s not a complaint. We were still having the best time. But that was a hard time. Figuring out, how much do we listen to the world, and how much do we not.
How does New York factor in as a sort of character on the show? New York is a really important part of it, because New York is a really tough place to make it. It’s a place where your rent will always exceed what you’re making. You can barely make it without help from your parents or without taking the shittiest apartment in the world. So the high cost of living in New York is sort of a character. If another show was a love letter to New York I’d say ours is like a hate email to New York. It’s really a struggle and we show it.
