SALON

Tuesday, Jan 15, 2013 7:50 PM UTC

Lena Dunham and Judd Apatow on why “Girls” is like “This Is 40″

The HBO show's creator and executive producer had a Skype session

By

Topics: judd apatow, Lena Dunham, Girls, this is 40, Television, Celebrity, Writers, Writers and Writing, Sex,

Lena Dunham and Judd Apatow on why (Credit: Jordan Strauss/invision/ap)

In an intimate online conversation published in FastCompany, “Girls” creator Lena Dunham and the show’s executive producer, Judd Apatow, revealed details about their working relationship and what they learn from each other. Though littered with interesting asides (“Sometimes I’ll say something profound,” says Apatow of his direction on the show, “like, ‘Maybe we should show Peter Scolari’s penis’”) and observations (Apatow explains: “This type of show is an auteur’s vision. It isn’t collaborative in the same way as other shows. We are probably closer to ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ than we are to something like ‘Friends’“), it’s mostly a lovefest between the two comedy stars.

After agreeing that they work well together, Dunham asked if Apatow tries to get input from the cast members in his latest movie, “This Is 40,” a slice of life comedy starring his wife, Leslie Mann, their children and Paul Rudd. The process, he said, starts with “a very intimate conversation over several years about how we feel about our lives, pitching scenes for our characters. What we’re really doing is having a conversation with each other, one that’s easier to have than if we, say, were talking about the characters.”

Dunham sounded less comfortable with mining her personal life for material (!), even though she acknowledges that it’s how she’s always written:

“To my own detriment, everything that happens to me becomes fodder. Sometimes I wonder if I would be a bit happier if I were more in the moment, and less trying to translate the moment into a piece of writing or a piece of film. I have never known another way to express myself, whether it was writing weird confessional poetry in fourth grade or my first play, which was closely based on what I thought the relationship between my mom and her two sisters was. It’s just the way that I think.”

Apatow wouldn’t let Dunham get in the way of his praise for Dunham, saying, “Watching you create the first season of ‘Girls’ had a big impact on me. In some unconscious way, it got me in the right groove to do ‘This Is 40′. It’s weird, but I do feel like ‘Girls’ and ‘This Is 40′ are cousins.”

Dunham gushed back, “I do too. If we were to train this same kind of eye on the ’Girls’ characters in 15 years, we might experience something like ‘This Is 40.’ “

Prachi Gupta is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on pop culture. Follow her on Twitter at @prachigu or email her at pgupta@salon.com. More Prachi Gupta.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • This photo. President Barack Obama has a laugh during the unveiling of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Tx., Thursday. Former first lady Barbara Bush, who candidly admitted this week we've had enough Bushes in the White House, is unamused.
    Reuters/Jason Reed

  • Rescue workers converge Wednesday in Savar, Bangladesh, where the collapse of a garment building killed more than 300. Factory owners had ignored police orders to vacate the work site the day before.
    AP/A.M. Ahad

  • Police gather Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to honor campus officer Sean Collier, who was allegedly killed in a shootout with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects last week.
    AP/Elise Amendola

  • Police tape closes the site of a car bomb that targeted the French embassy in Libya Tuesday. The explosion wounded two French guards and caused extensive damage to Tripoli's upscale al-Andalus neighborhood.
    AP/Abdul Majeed Forjani

  • Protestors rage outside the residence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday following the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi. The girl was allegedly kidnapped and tortured before being abandoned in a locked room for two days.
    AP/Manish Swarup

  • Clarksville, Mo., residents sit in a life boat Monday after a Mississippi River flooding, the 13th worst on record.
    AP/Jeff Roberson

  • Workers pause Wednesday for a memorial service at the site of the West, Tx., fertilizer plant explosion, which killed 14 people and left a crater more than 90 feet wide.
    AP/The San Antonio Express-News, Tom Reel

  • Aerial footage of the devastation following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province last Saturday. At least 180 people were killed and as many as 11,000 injured in the quake.
    AP/Liu Yinghua

  • On Wednesday, Hazmat-suited federal authorities search a martial arts studio in Tupelo, Miss., once operated by Everett Dutschke, the newest lead in the increasingly twisty ricin case. Last week, President Barack Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker, R.-Miss., and a Mississippi judge were each sent letters laced with the deadly poison.
    AP/Rogelio V. Solis

  • The lighting of Freedom Hall at the George W. Bush Presidential Center Thursday is celebrated with (what else but) red, white and blue fireworks.
    AP/David J. Phillip

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 8 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Would we give up burgers to stop climate change? New study suggests if we reduce our intake of animal products by 25%, we can halt climate change
744 points745 points | 352 comments
vote
Facebook has been used to find ex-lovers, childhood BFFs or the one who got away. He used it to find the guy who, without his consent, made him his drug mule.
247 points248 points | 23 comments
vote
“This could be a career ender for Michele Bachmann”
147 points148 points | 65 comments
vote
Poll: 3 in 10 voters say “armed revolution might be necessary” - 29% say they believe they'll have to act "in order to protect our liberties" in the next few years
49 points50 points | 16 comments
vote
"New evidence reveals big banks still illegally foreclosing on thousands of homes – and weak settlement allows it."
28 points29 points | comment

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: "The Shelter Cycle": Raised in a cult

Recommendations