Lena Dunham has revealed body shaming while making Girls stopped her from starring in her new Netflix series Too Much.
The 38-year-old actor, who has written the upcoming series, told The New Yorker she was “just not up for having my body dissected again”, and added she would also not be performing in any of her other forthcoming projects.
Too Much is planned to be released in 2025, and follows an American woman in her 30s, who relocates to London and falls in love with a British musician.
The series mirrors Dunham’s life, as the New York native now lives in London with her husband, British Peruvian musician Luis Felber, after they married in 2021.
Initially, the actor said she planned to play the main role herself, but eventually decided to cast Megan Stalter in the role.
She said: “I used to think that winning meant you just keep doing it and you don’t care what anybody thinks.
“I forgot that winning is actually just protecting yourself and doing what you need to do to keep making work.
“What makes me feel powerful is making my work. It’s the only thing I want to do.”
Dunham said she was “inspired” by Stalter while working with her, describing the actor as “a little Meryl Streep”.
She added: “I was very inspired by her, she’s unbelievable. I think people are going to be so blown away.
“I also think that I was not willing to have another experience like what I’d experienced around Girls at this point in my life.
“Physically, I was just not up for having my body dissected again. It was a hard choice, not to cast Meg, because I knew I wanted Meg, but to admit that to myself.”
Dunham wrote and starred in the hit HBO series Girls, which ran for six seasons from 2012 and made stars out of the cast, including Dunham, Adam Driver and Allison Williams.
The show was controversial for its frank depiction of sex and Dunham frequently appeared nude or partially clothed in the show.
She said staying off social media had helped to improve her happiness.
The actor said: “These places don’t protect women and minorities, I just realised that there was no way that I was going to move toward the ways I wanted to feel in my personal life if I still had access to those things.”
She also confirmed to the US publication she would not be producing the Polly Pocket film, despite saying she had worked on the script for three years.
Dunham said of the movie: “I felt like, unless I can do it that way I’m not going to do it. I don’t think I have that in me.
“I feel like the next movie I make needs to feel like a movie that I absolutely have to make.
“No one but me could make it, and I did think other people could make Polly Pocket.”
