Lena Dunham of Fatphobia, dating tips and her new London rum-com, too much

Lena Dunham is almost synonymous with New York. The American actress, writer and director rose with their awarded semi-autobiographical girls girls who followed four women with 20-something as they toured love, life and friendship in the big apple.

But her latest project – Rom -com Netflix, which has been based on her life in the last few years – has been placed on the other side of the Atlantic.

Too much follows Jessica (Megan Stalter), who moves from New York to London after parting with her boyfriend, and falls in love with punk musician Felix (Will Sharp).

Just as Dunham did when he moved to London in 2021, Jessica quickly learns the important things about the United Kingdom: everyone loves Paddington, the Jaffa Cake debate is very controversial (definitely cookies), and a “housing mansion” is not the scattered gardens of a debauchery.

Dunham tells the BBC that although there is too much “superficial similarities” with her life and is “about 5% autobiographical”, she has not seen that she has ever played the main character of the show the way she made in the girls.

“I didn’t think Jessica was me – she’s inspired by my life, but she’s her own character and was written with Megan in mind,” she says.

Megan Stalter says the girls “were for sex and too much for falling in love,” which is similar to how Dunham sees the show.

There was another reason for her to choose to withdraw from the spotlight. As she was shooting girls of her 20s, Dunham’s body was highly discussed last year, she told New York that “she’s not ready for my distracted body.”

She explains that the shame of the body is part of the reason for stepping back behind the camera. “The perception itself was compelling,” she says.

Dunham has spent the last few years, focusing on writing projects that do not center her as an actor.

She believes that society has achieved some steps to a more positive body, but says that the culture we live in is still “so deeply fatal, misogynistic, racist and hegenist, and this informed our dynamics with our body.”

The 39-year-old has voted for the challenges she has faced with her health, especially her endometriosis, which made her have a hysterectomy of 31 years.

Asked how her relationship with her body has changed since then, she says she has developed a new love about how she looks.

“I managed to have a connection with my body that exists beyond cultural pressure and I feel lucky for it.”

In addition to thinking about how he has changed herself, Dunham also says she has learned many of her 20 years.

Having been in the spotlight for more than a decade, the actress had her fair share of contradictions.

In 2017, she defended the girls’ writer Murray Miller when he was accused of sexual assault. Later Dunham apologized, Saying that it is “absolutely the wrong time” to share her perspective. Miller categorically denied the claims and no charge was filed.

She also apologized for the “unpleasant joke” she had made A podcast, which says she wanted to have endured when she was discussing abortion in the United States.

“I thought, then it was important to just continue and be difficult, no matter what happened,” she reasoned.

“I was so focused on the work and did not allow any of the noise, but I would like to allow myself to spend more time and space. We all have to admit our own complexities and sensitivity, but it is difficult to wrap our head around that when you are 20 years old.”

The new stars of the 10-episode series of Dunham Hacks Actor Megan Stalter and Will Sharpe, best known for playing Ethan Spieler in the White Lotus and movies like real pain.

The 38 -year -old Sharp says he is associated with the challenges that his character is facing, since “everyone carries a luggage from his previous relationship” and feels vulnerable when he enters a new one.

Stalter also refers to her character. The 34-year-old says she often “felt like too much” in her 20s, but over time he is proud of who she is.

Written with Dunham’s wife, musician Luis Felber, is too focusing on the evolution of a romantic relationship.

This is refreshing in its reality – from serious conversations between Jessica and Felix to the fact that Jessica’s media salary extends to a residential property in East London, not to Bridget Jones’ apartment on the market.

I ask Dunham if she has any dating tips for women of their 20s, given that she has gone through the trains to try to find a partner in life.

She says the concept of dating has changed over the years and back into the late Noughti, it is “considered an end resort or a strange thing to meet someone online.”

Looking back, Dunham wants that she would allow herself to understand what she really wants, not just to see the cultural expectations that are placed on her.

“If I was left to understand my own wish, my 20s would look really different romantic.”

Too much is released on Netflix on July 10th.