Everyone can stop arguing about Girls now. Lena Dunham, who created, acted in, wrote, and directed the show, has finally confirmed what some of us have known for over ten years now: Hannah Horvath is no Joan Didion. In a conversation with Rachel Syme for The New Yorker, Dunham indulged us in her own thoughts on the character who earnestly believed she could be a voice of a generation.
“She’s a bad writer,” Dunham said of Hannah, whom she played on the HBO show for six seasons. This information was apparent to anyone who watched Hannah’s arc at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, but it’s nice to have it confirmed by Dunham. “She’s not dumb, but she’s dumb,” Dunham continued. “You know? She’s a blogger.” (Rude.) “She’s just exactly mediocre. She’s mediocre at sex. She’s mediocre at friendships.”
One of the more nonsensical arguments made by Girls haters was that Hannah was just Dunham writing about herself. Dunham, who is currently working on a semi-autobiographical show starring Meg Stalter, presented a strong counterargument: “Do you think Hannah could have made a show?” Obviously, the answer is “no.” Hannah couldn’t even put together an appropriate outfit for working at Café Grumpy.
“The funniest characters in the world see themselves in totally different ways from how the world sees them,” Dunham explained. “So I was, like, Wouldn’t it be fun to make a show about four girls who think they’re the best at everything?” Well, to be fair, Marnie actually was the best at turning a Kanye West song into a haunting lullaby.
