Lena Dunham Talks Fatphobia, Love And Her New London Rom-Com

For so long, Lena Dunham felt like the face of messy New York City twenty-somethings. Girls made her that person. If you watched TV in the 2010s, you probably saw Lena’s face almost as much as the skyline in the Girls intro. But her new project isn’t set in Brooklyn bars or cramped apartments. It’s all across the pond — and the real story behind it says a lot about who Lena is now.

Why Did Lena Take Her Story To London?

Lena’s new Netflix show Too Much follows Jessica, played by Megan Stalter. Jessica bails on New York after a breakup and lands in London, where she falls for Felix, a punk rocker played by Will Sharpe. It’s got echoes of Lena’s own life. She moved to London in 2021, swapped out city chaos for UK quirks, and picked up all the funny little culture shocks you’d expect.

The show is only “about 5% autobiographical,” Lena says. But the DNA is there — heartbreak, moving far away, figuring out who you are somewhere new. There’s a scene about Jaffa Cakes. There’s a line about everyone loving Paddington. That’s Lena’s humor shining through.

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Unlike Girls, though, Lena’s not starring this time. She says she never planned to play Jessica herself. The part was always for Megan Stalter. And there’s a big reason why.

Why Did She Step Back From Acting?

Lena’s had enough of being the face in front of the camera. When she made Girls, she was in her 20s and learned fast what it felt like to have her body turned into clickbait. People commented on every inch of her. They turned scenes into headlines. And sometimes that overshadowed the work.

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She told the BBC that the constant noise about her body pushed her to stay behind the scenes. The world, she says, might be more body positive in some ways — but it’s still fatphobic. And misogynistic. And ageist. And she knows all of that shapes how women feel about their bodies, famous or not.

Since having a hysterectomy at 31 because of endometriosis, Lena says her relationship with her body has changed for the better. She’s done trying to meet other people’s expectations. Now she has her own. That’s it.

So Too Much is still her voice. Still her messiness. Still her heart. But it’s Megan playing out the cringe moments on screen, not Lena.

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What Has Lena Learned Since Girls?

A lot has happened since she was the headline magnet behind Girls. She’s had controversies. She defended the wrong person at the wrong time. She made a joke she later regretted. She’s owned up to both. She says back then she thought the best thing to do was push through it all, never pause, never flinch.

Now at 39, she gets it. You can’t out-tough the internet. Or life. Or your mistakes. She wishes she’d given herself more space when she was younger. To mess up. To feel it. To be okay with being complicated.

Maybe that’s what Too Much really says too. It’s a rom-com on paper. But underneath the Jaffa Cakes and new crushes, it’s about what happens when you step back from the mess you made in your twenties and let yourself figure out what’s next — somewhere new, with new people, and new mistakes waiting around the corner.

Lena knows people are always going to have something to say. This time, she’s just not letting them watch her figure it out in real time. She’ll let her work — and Jessica — do that for her.