This article references rape and sexual assault.
A self-proclaimed “elected general in a feminist military”, Lena Dunham's onscreen and offscreen feminism and relationship to controversy have made headlines since Girls splashed onto our screens in 2012. Now, her new memoir Famesick is giving us an even deeper insight into her experiences of love, fame, addiction and abuse.
Lots of memoirs have reflected on the various costs of fame and success in the entertainment industry, but Lena's looks specifically at the cost her body paid. Like so many women, the extent to which she people-pleased the various members of her “team” reduced her to sickness.
Throughout, she refers to “being a soldier”, pushing through the pain she was experiencing – whether it was grief or physical pain from endometriosis – to deliver on the dream project of directing and starring in cult TV classic Girls from the age of 25. But, as she tells her friend and Girls producer Jenni Konner, “nobody protected me”. It's a theme that comes up so often when women truly speak out about their experiences in many industries, particularly in Hollywood.
From tales of keeping two hedgehogs as pets and tracking their health and mood obsessively to fainting at the Met Gala, Famesick is as heartbreaking as it is hilarious. Glamour has pulled together 7 key takeaways from Lena Dunham's new memoir.
Very early on in the book, Lena confirms her nepo baby status. Her mother's ability to “call in a favour from a friend” in both Los Angeles and New York is a perfect example of how creatives with connections get ahead. Lena is clear about this fact, but equally as direct about the ways in which the public suggested she didn't deserve her success because of this. She also details how her fame negatively affected her artist parents' careers and fractured family dynamics.
Her relationship with Girls co-star Adam Driver was even more complex. She describes some pretty disturbing scenes and the dynamic between herself and her on-screen love, Adam Driver, who plays Adam in Girls. Lena recalls the moment when the actor allegedly threw a chair at the wall when they were alone together, as well as punching a hole in his trailer wall. She describes him as “something feral” and “half-man, half-beast".
Lena also added that after this tumultuous time, she never heard from Adam again after Girls wrapped.
Glamour has reached out to Adam Driver for comment.
Her relationship with musician Jack Antonoff is woven throughout the memoir, as it breaks down over years of distance and difference. We'll leave you to read the details in the book (which left this writer in tears at the slow-mo breakdown of a relationship and how sharp these moments of neglect felt to experience through the page), but it draws direct parallels with Meg Stalter's Jessica's story in Too Much, who flashes back over the breakdown of a relationship and how it stripped away her self-worth.
In 2017, actor Aurora Perrineau accused Girls producer Murray Miller of raping her when she was 17 years old. Miller strenuously denied the allegation, and the police did not proceed with any investigation, citing the inconsistencies in the evidence. At the time, Dunham, alongside Girls producer Jenni Konner, defended Miller, publishing a statement that read: “Our insider knowledge of Murray’s situation makes us confident that, sadly, this accusation is one of the 3% of assault cases that are misreported each year.”
In 2018, Dunham apologised for this statement, writing for the Hollywood Reporter, “It’s painful to realize that, while I thought I was self-aware, I had actually internalized the dominant male agenda that asks us to defend it no matter what, protect it no matter what, baby it no matter what.”
In Famesick, Dunham describes the 2017 incident as “the one thing in my career, my life, about which I felt – feel, still – genuine shame.” Aurora's name is not mentioned, though. Lena does not describe the incident “out of respect for the people involved”. The statement was released around the time she had her hysterectomy. “I was so deep in my own distress that I had ceased to imagine or invest in anyone else's,” she writes, adding that empathy had “left” her.
It’s not news that big corporations and the entertainment industry have been known to exploit creative individuals. See the #MeToo movement. But it’s truly heartbreaking how Lena’s physical and mental illnesses are not prioritised by the creative team that is her “chosen family”. We see her miss family deaths and rush out of funerals while grieving, and deal with honestly callous-sounding doctors who completely misunderstand her endometriosis.
She later outlines how she ended up in rehab for addiction to medication she was prescribed for anxiety and PTSD, which she used to help her keep up with her crazy work schedule and expectations while making Girls.
In one instance, a doctor performs a physical exam of her body (one that she didn't want) while she is doubled over with pain from endometriosis that leads to ruptures and even more pain. Not long after surgery to rectify this, she is asked to return to work.
She writes: “Who had allowed this man to touch me and, in the process, rip my f**king insides to shreds? Who in corporate had approved this? And who the f**k had the gall to rush me back to work afterwards?”
It is maddening – and all too familiar – to read about her experiences of (male) doctors dismissing her. One medical procedure even saw her take a drug that emulated labour before she had a hysterectomy that she begged for, and the doctors eventually relented. Lena lays bare the pain she had to suffer – like so many women have – before a doctor took her suffering seriously.
She describes her casting process for Girls as rigorous, with her giving feedback and attention to every woman who walked through the door. This was because Lena herself knew that they “spent the majority of their time being assessed and summarily dismissed by balding men and women who were too tired to remember feminism”. For that reason, she was steadfast about casting real women, “with real faces”.
