The actress/writer/producer opens up about her struggles with body shaming as she casts Megan Stalter to take the lead in her new project, ‘Too Much.’
Lena Dunham will not be acting in her semi-autobiographical comedy series Too Much to avoid getting body-shamed.
The Girls creator and star opened up about the upcoming project that has a 2025 release on Netflix and why, despite the lead character harnessing important aspects from her, she will not play the protagonist.
“I was not willing to have another experience like what I’d experienced around Girls at this point in my life.,” Dunham explained of her reluctance to cast herself to The New Yorker. “Physically, I was just not up for having my body dissected again.”
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The 38-year-old also reflected on her experience of being in the spotlight. She shared that contrary to her life experiences influencing some of her prominent works, she does not like attention to be on her. She noted “I don’t like having ‘Happy Birthday’ sung to me. I don’t particularly like compliments.”
Her latest project follows Jessica — who is loosely based on Dunham — a woman in her mid-30s who moves to the UK following a difficult breakup and meets the new apple of her eye, a musician described as “a walking series of red flags.”
“I used to think that winning meant you just keep doing it and you don’t care what anybody thinks,” Dunham said. “I forgot that winning is actually just protecting yourself and doing what you need to do to keep making work.”
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Instead of Dunham in the lead, American actress and comedian Megan Stalter of HBO’s Hacks is playing the role.
Dunham recalls once looking at Stalter in adoration saying, “You are my muse. You inspire me every single day to go home and tap out pages upon pages.”
While talking to The New Yorker, Dunham also noted that she is no longer involved in making the Polly Pocket movie saying “I felt like, unless I can do it that way [like the Barbie movie], I’m not going to do it.”
Dunham continued, “I don’t think I have that in me. 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.”
