Lena Dunham has accused her Girls co-star Adam Driver of “feral” behaviour towards her in her new book.
Dunham created and starred in the comedy-drama show, which aired for six seasons on HBO from 2012 to 2017. Driver played Adam Sackler, a recovering alcoholic who is in a relationship with Dunham’s Hannah in the early seasons.
In her new memoir Famesick, Dunham has made a series of allegations about Driver’s behaviour on set, including claims that he threw a chair while they were practising lines together and punched a hole in the wall of his trailer.
She has described Driver as “something feral”, calling him “half-man, half-beast” during the making of the show, and detailed a scenario in which she was unable to get her words out during a rehearsal, which prompted him to throw a chair at the wall.
“When I opened my mouth, all that came out was a stammer – until finally, Adam screamed, ‘FUCKING SAY SOMETHING’ and hurled a chair at the wall next to me. ‘WAKE THE FUCK UP,’ he told me. ‘I’M SICK OF WATCHING YOU JUST STARE,’” she wrote.
She has also written about a time in which Driver punched a hole in his trailer after disliking a haircut, and another in which he screamed in her face, although she says she “didn’t tell anyone” at the time due to her experience with violent men in real life.
NME has contacted Adam Driver’s representatives for comment.
Dunham has also spoken to The Guardian about the allegations, saying: “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’. 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.”
In 2022, Dunham explained why she took a break from the industry after the final season of Girls, saying it was “necessary to survive”. She had faced criticism for defending executive producer Murray Miller over rape allegations by actor Aurora Perrineau, and she later retracted her statement and apologised.
Dunham more recently created the show Too Much for Netflix, but it was revealed in November that it had not been renewed for a second season. She has also written and directed the upcoming Netflix film Good Sex, starring Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo and Meg Ryan.
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