Ever since the explosion of HBO’s Girls last year, producer/writer/star Lena Dunham has been gifted the epithet “voice of a generation.” Her drama about four 24ish girls living in New York as been credited with giving an honest portrayal of Generation Y’s unique twentysomthing experience–one full of prolonged adolescent behavior, relationship anxiety, and grave professional and financial futures. The show has been praised as an accurate mouthpiece, similar to the way Friends spoke for Generation X–but with way more grit.
As Lena has been hailed for providing this key generational voice, some fans would be surprised by her depiction in this month’s issue of Rolling Stone. Lena’s quirky red carpet looks, statements on healthy body image, and relationship with a member of fun. seem to indicate a correlation between twentysomething art and twentysomething life. Yet, Rolling Stone writer Brian Hiatt actually profiles Dunham as quite different from her Girls character to the point of contradiction. Here are some interesting soundbites from the interview.
She Doesn’t Feel Connected to the Twentysomething Voice
“It’s funny to me that I’m writing a show that people consider to be the voice of twentysomething people. Because I don’t feel that connected to it all the time.”
She Doesn’t Sleep Late
“I’ll sleep late, and say, ‘This is disgusting, I’m an adult woman.’ Then I realize a lot of 26-year-olds go out and get hung over.”
She Doesn’t Enjoy the Red Carpet Scene
“I feel like I do push that angle…It’s like, if you have to take all of these things off, just don’t wear them!”
One Way She Does Feel Connected to Twentysomethings
“Some of my anxieties might be solved by a better awareness of what’s actually befalling this planet and what makes everything run and what’s come before us. But it overwhelms me too much. It makes me want to take a nap. And in that respect, I really relate to people in my generation.”
You can pick up Lena’s Rolling Stone cover today, and Season 2 of Girls continues this Sunday on HBO.
