It’s been seven years since a Lena Dunham show has been on TV, a stretch of time that catches even the “Girls” creator herself off guard, as she ponders the break between her second HBO show, “Camping,” and her new Netflix series, “Too Much.”
But the reprieve in between projects was a necessity for Dunham, who notes she spent the entirety of her 20s crafting TV series, with “Girls” running on HBO from 2012-2017 and “Camping” coming shortly after in 2018. “I felt like I needed to take a little bit of time to reconnect to what I really love about what I do,” Dunham told TheWrap ahead of the debut of “Too Much,” a Netflix comedy loosely inspired by Dunham’s decision to move to the U.K. after a breakup.
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After “Camping,” Dunham took her hiatus from creating series to return to filmmaking — where her career first started with her indie debut “Tiny Furniture” — as she wrote and directed 2022’s “Sharp Stick,” produced and starred in “Treasure” and wrote and directed the Bella Ramsey-starring period piece “Catherine Called Birdy.” She also worked as a writer and EP on “Generation” and directed an episode of HBO’s “Industry.” All of which to say, Dunham may have been away from the “showrunner” beat for the last few years, but she’s been busy.
“I got to spend time working on other people’s shows — great shows like ‘Industry’ and ‘Generation’ — and to really pursue filling myself with art and film and music and literature,” Dunham said. “It just felt like the ideas started coming together, and my brain was firing again.”
And when inspiration struck, naturally, it came from Dunham’s own life. “I’m always inspired by life, and I was inspired by my own move to the U.K., and this show was a result of that journey,” she explained.
“Too Much” follows Jessica (Megan Stalter), a New Yorker who, after a devastating breakup, seeks a fresh start in London where she meets a musician named Felix (Will Sharpe), kickstarting a relationship neither one of them can resist despite their own individual struggles. Jessica’s move mirrors that of Dunham’s after her breakup with Jack Antonoff, and Dunham met her husband, British musician and “Too Much” co-creator Luis Felber, while living in London.
“All my work is personal,” Dunham said of infusing aspects of her life into the Netflix series. “I think I would be more scared tackling work that wasn’t personal to me.”
Dunham pointed to her experience directing an episode of “Industry” while admittedly not knowing “anything about the stock market,” saying “it was a joy to be thrown into that, but it was much scarier, because I was like, ‘I need to get right all the details of a world that’s not my own.’”
For “Too Much,” however, Dunham had herself and her husband, who serves as a writer and executive producer on the Netflix series, as a reference for their love story, noting Felber ensured “that all of the British-isms were on point, that the male character felt fully developed [and] that the world of his as an independent musician felt developed.”
“It was important to me that all of that felt like it was spot on and carefully considered,” she said.
Dunham decided not to star in “Too Much” to avoid the body shaming she endured while playing Hannah Horvath on “Girls,” she revealed in a 2024 interview with the New Yorker, but still appears on-screen as Jessica’s sister, who is in the midst of a separation from her husband, played by Andrew Rannells in a wink to “Girls” fans. (Rannells is just one of Dunham’s past collaborators appearing on the show, with “Camping” star and filmmaker Janicza Bravo and “Girls” alum Richard E. Grant also appearing).
Dunham found her Jessica in “Hacks” breakout Stalter and Felix in Sharpe (“The White Lotus” Season 2). Both Stalter and Sharpe are also writers, and Sharpe directed TV series like “Flowers” and “Landscapers,” which made for a fruitful collaboration with Dunham between the script and what made it to screen.
“You start from a grain of your own truth, and then when the actors come in, it becomes something different,” Dunham said. “I felt like every day was a team huddle, and our rehearsals … [weren’t] just read the script and go, it was really making sure that every line and every moment felt true.”
While Stalter is best known for her comedic roles, Dunham applauded the “Hacks” actress for shining in serious moments, and likewise said Sharpe, who she says might appear more serious and introspective at times, is “one of the funniest people that I’ve ever met.”
“They each brought out different fascinating sides of each other, and so I hope people enjoy their bond and their chemistry as much as I enjoyed watching it every day,” Dunham said.
“Too Much” is Dunham’s first streaming series, marking a stark contrast from the weekly release of “Girls” on HBO back in the 2010s, and the creator and filmmaker acknowledged that the way people consume TV has “really changed” since her breakout show, whose weekly release schedule kept the media’s recap culture fed.
Dunham compared making a streaming series to making an extended film, and said she relished embracing the distribution model when crafting “Too Much” as a complete experience.
“Each episode can flow into the next; not as much recapping needs to happen. You don’t necessarily need to worry like that,” Dunham said. “It allows for this flow, which is what I love about novels, what I love about films.”
“Too Much” premieres July 10 on Netflix.
The post Lena Dunham Unpacks Her TV Return ‘Too Much’ and Why It Was Time to Get Personal Again appeared first on TheWrap.
The post Lena Dunham Unpacks Her TV Return ‘Too Much’ and Why It Was Time to Get Personal Again appeared first on The Wrap.
