Lena Dunham knows \u201cGirls\u201d has its flaws. <\/p>\n
The actress and producer, 39, addressed the lack of diversity on her hit HBO series <\/a>in a new interview with The Independent<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think one of the profound issues around\u00a0\u2018Girls\u2019 was that there was so little real estate for women in television [then] that if you had a show called\u00a0\u2018Girls,\u2019 which is such a monolithic name, it sounds like it\u2019s describing all the girls in all the places,\u201d Dunham explained. <\/p>\n Lena Dunham in \u201cGirls.\u201d AP<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so if it\u2019s not reflecting a multitude of experiences, I understand how that would be really disappointing to people,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n Dunham was the mastermind behind \u201cGirls,\u201d which followed a group of four young women (played by Dunham, Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke and Zosia Mamet) who live in New York.<\/p>\n The series, which starred mostly white actors, ran from 2012 to 2017.<\/p>\n Jemima Kirke, Zosia Mamet, Allison Williams, Lena Dunham in \u201cGirls.\u201d<\/p>\n Dunham told The Independent that she \u201cliked the conversation around\u00a0\u2018Girls’\u201d because it was important to have, and now she\u2019s used those lessons on her new Netflix series, \u201cToo Much,\u201d that has a more diverse cast.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thing I have really come to believe is that one of the most important things is not just diversity in front of the camera, but it\u2019s diversity behind the camera,\u201d Dunham said.<\/p>\n Lena Dunham attends \u201cStorytellers: Lena Dunham with Michelle Buteau\u201d at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. Getty Images for Tribeca Festival<\/p>\n \u201cAs a producer, one of my goals is to bring a lot of different voices into a position where they can tell their story,\u201d she shared.<\/p>\n Dunham previously defended \u201cGirls\u201d from its critics the year it came out. <\/p>\n Lena Dunham in \u201cGirls.\u201d HBO<\/p>\n \u201cI am a half-Jew, half-WASP, and I wrote two Jews and two WASPs,\u201d she told\u00a0NPR\u2019s\u00a0\u201cFresh Air\u201d<\/a>\u00a0in 2012. \u201cSomething I wanted to avoid was tokenism in casting.\u201d<\/p>\n She continued: \u201cIf I had one of the four girls \u2014 if, for example, she was African American, I feel like, not that the experience of an African American girl and a white girl are drastically different, but there has to be specificity to that experience [that] I wasn\u2019t able to speak to.\u201d<\/p>\n Allison Williams, Lena Dunham in \u201cGirls.\u201d<\/p>\n