“Girls” premiered its sixth and final season on Sunday, and Hannah Horvath (Lena Dunham) is just as disheveled as ever. She nabs a freelance assignment writing about a Hamptons surf camp based on her “look” — i.e. one that will contrast starkly with the skinny, yoga pants-wearing housewives hitting the waves. Once at said camp, she suffers an awkward nude moment when she mistakenly strips off an ill-fitting wet suit in the beach parking lot.
But according to a recent Vulture roundtable with the “Girls” writers, Hannah was originally a bit more put-together.
Executive producer Judd Apatow said that when he watched the first cuts of the HBO series’ second episode, titled “Vagina Panic,” he disapproved of Hannah’s appearance in a scene where she’s talking with her friends Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) and Jessa (Jemima Kirke) on a playground bench in Soho.
Jenni Konner, also an executive producer, says Apatow called her and said, “‘We’ve got a problem. Lena looks too attractive.’ He’s like, ‘Her outfit is too cute, her hair and makeup looks too good. We are making an underdog here. It is not going to work.’”
In truth, Dunham had been wearing Spanx shapewear and some hair extensions, two enhancements that disappeared when the characters moved from the park bench to the next scene in a nearby clinic, where Jessa goes to have an abortion. (It wasn’t something the at-home viewer would notice, but you can see the before/after photos on Vulture).
Konner said, “And that’s when we added the rule: no extra hair, ever, and no Spanx.”
Another rule? “Unless there’s a huge problem, we don’t tailor Hannah’s clothes,” Dunham said.
“Girls” Season 6 continues Sundays at 10 p.m. on HBO
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
