Issues around the campfire
Lena Dunham’s Girls was a hit for HBO. Michele Manelis asks her if the new show will be as popular.
What is the origin story of Camping?
I liked the British television show it’s based on, by Julia Davis. Secondly, my favourite episodes of TV shows are the ones where they’re out of their usual environment. For example, there’s an episode of My So Called Life in which Juliana Hatfield plays an angel and for one episode they move into the world of the supernatural. Or the episode of Enlightened where Luke Wilson and Laura Dern go on a canoe trip and you see what their relationship could have been and wasn’t. The episodes, which we refer to as “bottle episodes”, that we loved doing on Girls, were where you take characters out of their environment to learn more about them. I love that.
What are your memories of camping?
I do not have a particularly successful relationship with the elements. My parents sent me to camp the summer I turned 12. My best friend and I went and it was a bike trip where we camped at a different campsite every night. I cried and called my parents from every payphone across New England. I was miserable.
When was the Camping concept born?
It was just as we were about to premiere the final season of Girls. At that point I was having some serious health problems [endometriosis] and I was spending a lot of time in bed. I spend a lot of time in bed now, just in a more pleasurable way. But back then friends were sending me things to watch, things to read. [Novelist] Zadie Smith sent it to me.
How do you watch TV? Are you streaming everything, or do you have a TV?
I have a TV but I don’t use it that often. I love to watch old documentaries and classic films, and I am catching up on the last season of Insecure, which is incredible. A really close friend lives in my little guest house and we do a lot of VOD. I like to watch something that completely removes me from my environment.
Do you see yourself starring in a series in the future?
I would love to act in a series. I love acting. It’s something I am really passionate about, but everything comes out of the writing, so if the writing necessitates me directing, I will direct, if the writing necessitates me acting, I will act.
In Girls the cast were at the beginning of their careers, but here you have some well-established names. Is there a difference?
The difference between people who no one has seen, versus people who have careers, is that people don’t know what to expect from that first cast. But the fun of having actors like this is that you get to subvert expectations. So what is so fun is that David Tennant is famous for brooding and intense characters, and he’s played evil, he’s played a pushy detective, and so to have him be this subservient husband is really a different energy. Jennifer Garner is known for being likeable and a sweetheart and so to have her play this character, who is so controlling and dark and negative, also is a super different energy.
Girls was such a benchmark in television and changed many perspectives. What would you like girls to be remembered for?
I hope it allows other people to tell their stories. It was so specific for me and the fact that I got to have my voice and my vision projected for so many people. I hope it makes it easier for somebody who is interesting and complicated and helps someone who comes into the network and pitches their material.
I want people to have the opportunity to tell their stories in a unique and specific way. And to have the money to do it, because there’s so much money floating around Hollywood. I think what we have learned is that when we give opportunity to people who have a unique story and perspective, rather than just a sequel or a franchise, people respond to it.