Lena Dunham Reacts to the New Girls Resurgence Over a Decade Since Its Release

There are new girls watching Girls, and Lena Dunham is in awe. 

More than a decade after the often-divisive HBO series debuted, its creator and star reflected on its recent renaissance and the surprising new viewers it's attracted.

"I am so touched and honored that young people this cool and on their s--t are responding to the show," Lena told E! News in an exclusive interview. "I never made the show imagining that it would be seen at all, much less seen in 10 years. I'm just so grateful that it still resonates with people."

"I'm in total awe of Generation Z," the 38-year-old—who is now starring alongside Stephen Fry in the film Treasure—continued. "They're cooler, they're smarter, they're more on top of it. I feel like in every way that older people rolled their eyes at millennials, I have the opposite experience."

Like other shows, Girls, which ended in 2017 after six seasons, has found a new following on TikTok, with accounts posting clips and episodes in parts during the Covid-19 pandemic that garnered millions of views.

And viewers couldn't help but gush over the series' aesthetics and relate to the quirky group of twentysomethings—including cast members Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke, Adam Driver and Zosia Mamet—trying to figure out their lives in New York City. 

For Lena, the surge of new viewers also served as a confidence boost as she dipped her toes back into show running with her upcoming Netflix series Too Much.

"I just finished shooting a new show, which is the first show that I fully ran, wrote and directed since Girls," she explained. "It was a really amazing experience to remember how much I love making television."

"I'm not the most online person," she admitted. "But knowing that the cool, radical young people of TikTok were responding to Girls definitely gave me a spring in my step as I approached this new project."

Like many of her works, Lena revealed that she often finds inspiration for her characters in her own life. While Girls was inspired by her relationship with her real-life friends, she pulled inspiration for her dynamic with Stephen in Treasure from a deeper place—her own family.

"I really related to Ruth in that I have always been someone who just deeply wants to know the truth," she reflected. "I constantly felt like there was a secret that everybody was withholding from me. Sometimes that was literal, sometimes that was more abstract."

The film, directed by Julia Von Heinz, follows the story of journalist Ruth and Holocaust survivor Edek (Stephen). The father-daughter duo takes a road trip to Poland, where Edek is forced to face his trauma head-on while Ruth attempts to learn more about her family's past.

"The character of Edek, who hides behind this facade of loving food, loving life and loving women, reminded me hugely of my grandfather, Sam, who passed away when I was in my teens," she added. "His entire life was about assimilation in the United States. It wasn't about looking back—It was about looking forward."

And for Stephen, who spoke to his own grandfather's influence on his portrayal, explained that forging a special bond with Lena during filming helped bring the movie's crucial father-daughter dynamic to life.

"We felt so natural with each other," he told E!, "and Julia said that as soon as she saw us together, she thought, ‘There's a father and daughter—there's a family.' So it was really nice to have that confidence."

Treasure releases in theaters nationwide June 14.

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