Lena Dunham described some of Adam Driver’s alleged violent behavior on the set of Girls in her new memoir, Famesick, but also praised him as an artist in an interview with The New York Times.
Speaking with The Guardian about her new book, Dunham reflected on her allegation that Driver was rude to her, threw a chair at a wall, punched a hole in his trailer wall, and screamed in her face during the production of Girls, which was ultimately his breakthrough role. “At the time, I didn’t have the skill to … it never entered my mind to say, ‘I am your boss, you can’t speak to me this way,’” she explained when pressed to talk further about his alleged behavior. “And, at that point in my 20s, I still thought that’s what great male geniuses do: eviscerate you. Which is weird, because I was raised by a male genius who would never do that.”
The topic of his alleged onset behavior also came up during her video interview with The New York Times, as seen above, and she appeared to somewhat excuse Driver and praised his acting talent.
“I think that was all of our first job. So, I wouldn't presume to know how anyone… I wouldn't say that Girls would be a road map for how anyone behaved anywhere else,” said Dunham, who created and starred in the show, at around the 31-minute mark. “It was very like ‘seven strangers sent to live in a house in Seattle. What's going to happen?’ One thing that's miraculous is, like, no one dated and no one punched each other. In a way, we did the best you possibly could.”
She said that she hoped that the book conveyed that she has a lot of appreciation for Driver, who portrayed the romantic interest of Dunham’s character on the show.
“Adam [Driver] is a meticulous artist, and where he has to go to get there is secondary to me to where he gets,” she continued. “I love watching him. I learned more from him than anyone I've ever stood across from on camera. I feel in a way, like, that was the best I'll ever be at acting. And I don't know if I could even pull that off again because so much of it came from what was being handed to me.”
Adam Driver has not responded to the allegations.
