After weeks of controversy over the lack of racial diversity on the HBO series “Girls,” creator Lena Dunham is finally ready to join the conversation.
“I am a half-Jew, half-WASP, and I wrote two Jews and two WASPs,” Dunham said yesterday on NPR’s “Fresh Air.”
“Something I wanted to avoid was tokenism in casting.”
The 25-year-old writer and actress, who says she wrote most of the first season herself, spoke carefully about the media backlash.
“I really wrote the show from a gut-level place, and each character was a piece of me or based on someone close to me,” she said. “And only later did I realize that it was four white girls.”
Dunham said that while she was prepared for criticism, when the issue of race swept the media, she wanted to choose her words wisely before responding.
“I think the liberal-arts student in me really wants to engage in a dialogue about it, but as I learn about engaging with the media, I realize it’s not the same as sitting in a seminar talking things through at Oberlin,” she said.
“Every quote is sort of used and misused and placed and misplaced, and I really wanted to make sure I spoke sensitively to this issue.”
“Girls” has already been picked up for a second season, which Dunham says will feature more diversity.