A conversation with Girls
Stars of the show chat about their characters and what’s coming up in new season
NEW YORK — Sunday night, the girls of Girls return for a fourth season of wayward living in and out of New York.
Premièring on HBO Canada, the new season of this hit comedy finds Jessa (Jemima Kirke) more adrift than ever; Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) going after her first grownup job; Marnie (Allison Williams) in yet another ill-advised relationship; and Hannah (Lena Dunham, who is also the series’ creator and a writer, producer and director) setting off for the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
This week, the four Girls stars got together and chatted about 20-something obstacles, make-believe hanky-panky and other issues during a conversation stoked by news that Girls has been picked up for a fifth season.
“I’m excited,” Dunham began, looking every bit excited, “because when you hear a show went for five seasons, it sounds like they really did it! No matter how many more we do after that, if there were five seasons you think, ‘Wow, that show did okay.’”
DIGGING DEEPER:
Zosia Mamet: Creatively, it’s even more rewarding now than when we first started. We’ve all gotten so close, so we can delve so much deeper. These characters all have a throughline, but every year we’re like, ‘Who are they gonna be this year? What are they gonna do?’ So it’s always exciting and challenging.
LD: It’s fun to tell the girls at the beginning of the season, ‘Here’s the basic gist.’ And they’re like, ‘WTF!’ And then we get to talk about it. Everyone’s job is to progress these characters. Our costume designer is a huge part of that. This year, Marnie is dressing for what she thinks her relationship with Desi is like: very Brooklyn. But she’s so Type A she tries to do a perfect version of Brooklyn and it ends up looking cheesy. Shoshanna’s going out on all these job interviews, so she has what she thinks is a professional wardrobe. But it’s her version of it: a weird Chanel bouclé suit and a too-big barrette. Jessa used to dress eccentrically, like Helena Bonham Carter, but ...
Jemima Kirke: Now she’s toning it down, dressing less to impress.
LD: Because she’s in a more vulnerable place. So we get her in T-shirts and sundresses. And Hannah is trying to get together her academic gear.
Allison Williams (laughing): What you wear to class in the second episode — I cheered out loud!
LD: Hannah is trying so hard, and it’s so horrible! But there’s no feeling I know better than thinking you’ve aced it, laying out your outfit, then waking up 20 minutes later than you should and having to rush out.
AW: Ready or not!
LD: I’ve never showed up to a photo shoot with underpants once. That’s just a fact. I run out of the house in my yoga pants and a sweat shirt and no underwear, because that was what I was sleeping in.
LEAP OF FAITH:
LD: I’m excited because Jemima has a scene at the beginning of Episode 9 that I think is the sexiest sex scene that we’ve ever had.
JK: So gross!
LD: You didn’t think it’s sexy?
JK: It’s cringey.
LD: The thing I admire so much about (her co-stars) is, everyone rolls with it: ‘Okay, I’m gonna take a leap of faith.’ There are definitely shows where the actors go, ‘I’m not gonna do that.’ I’m not saying our guys aren’t allowed to say that, but we’ve never heard that from them, because they have so much daring as performers and excitement about just going for it.
ZM: I’ve just never felt the need to say no to you. I know you would never write a scene, sexual or not, for us to play that wasn’t essential to the story being moved forward.
LD: I hope it helps that I’m naked more than anybody.
BACKSTORY:
AW: You get a snapshot of everything you need to know about Marnie for the entire season from that 12 seconds (more like 20 seconds, in the première): You see that she’s more comfortable than I’ve been with anyone ever, that most people have been with anyone ever, doing something with this guy we don’t think she should be with. He says, ‘I love that,’ And Marnie says, ‘I love you, too.’ That’s all you need!
LD: I showed the scene to my Dad. He was like, ‘Please, just explain the mechanics (of that simulation) to me.’
AW (explaining): There are these things that stick to your skin called nude coverings. We all wear them in any sex scene that we do. But I went above and beyond. I really fashioned something, including a thong and menstrual pads. I’d been talking to Wardrobe for days. You can’t see any of it, but it totally did the trick.
LD: Allison never resisted.
AW: I was gung-ho.