Lena Dunham Says Girls Fans Are Harder on Its Cast Than on TV's Famous Antiheroes

Lena Dunham says viewers are angrier at the young women of Girls than they have ever been at TV's most famous bad men. She made the point while talking about the show's revival, a new run of a series brought back after it ended.

Dunham and co-star Allison Williams spoke together at New York City's Swarovski store on Thursday evening, according to Variety. Dunham said people were angrier at the cast for simply being girls who sometimes do sexual things on TV than they are at Walter White or Tony Soprano. Both men are central characters in the crime dramas Breaking Bad and The Sopranos.

Williams spoke about the press the show drew when it first arrived. She said the media site Gawker described the cast as their fathers' daughters rather than using their names. The show premiered in 2012, and that early coverage stayed with the actors.

Dunham also said Williams was the first person she called about joining the revival, before HBO, the network behind the show, and before anyone else. Dunham said the two of them are still not used to how people feel about Girls now. She called the reaction a daily surprise.

Dunham described a change in how audiences see the show's characters. She said people now understand and even like the idea of young women being naughty, complicated, weird and self-aware on screen. For a series that once drew sharp debate, that is a notable shift in her telling.

Neither Dunham nor Williams gave a premiere date or other details about the revival. The conversation was a look back at the show's arrival and at how its cast is seen today.