Lena Dunham and the girls of "Girls"
(CBS News) Lena Dunham's hit TV series "Girls" is the most talked-about television these days . . . and she talked about it all with our Tracy Smith:
If you want to feel better about yourself, consider Hannah Horvath, the central character in HBO's comedy-drama series, "Girls." Hannah is an aspiring writer on her own in New York City. She's too self-absorbed to be worldly, too awkward to be popular, too, well, dumpy to skate by on looks alone.
For the show's creator Lena Dunham, the dumpy part is purely intentional. She says Hannah's clothes are specifically tailored to be LESS flattering. "Yeah. We will do a thing sometimes where we'll, like, all fit clothes with Spanx so that they're kinda, like, fit right. And then I'll remove the Spanx so they're kinda like rumpled up."
"So you want her to look a little awkward?" asked Smith.
"Yeah. I think it's important. I think it's a big part of who she is."
Pity poor Hannah. But if you want to feel BAD about yourself, look at Lena Dunham. At 26, she's the head writer, executive producer and as of last month the Golden Globe-winning star of what might be the most talked-about TV show in recent memory.
If "Seinfeld" gave us a show about nothing, "Girls" is a show about everything. Hannah and her pals (played by Allison Williams, Zosia Mamet and Jemima Kirke) are twenty-somethings trying to make it in New York City.
The characters live, love, and love far too graphically for us to show here.
Kirke says that, while the show can sometimes be vulgar, "Probably it does have to be. The obvious example would be a sex scene. I mean, if we're really going to show what a sex scene looks like between two people who only sort of know what they're doing, it's going to be not that sexy."
"That's what makes our show so unique," added Williams. "And then also a little bit alienating, 'cause people aren't expecting that. And it's definitely a challenge. It's saying, 'Okay, we're putting this out here for you. We want you to know these characters this well. Can you play ball?'"
Twenty-something angst is a fertile topic for Dunham, a New York native who says she's been writing plays since she was seven. She got noticed in a big way with 2010's "Tiny Furniture," her film about a recent college grad stumbling into adult life. The HBO "Girls" deal followed soon after.
Now, "Girls" is a phenomenon, and bashing the show has become a sport in itself. A frequent dig is that the cast got their jobs because of their famous parents.
WEB EXTRA VIDEO: Click on the video player below to hear Lena Dunham tell Tracy Smith that appearing naked on her hit HBO show is meant to be poetic, not political.
Jemima Kirke's dad is Bad Company drummer Simon Kirke; Zosia Mamet's dad is prize-winning playwright David Mamet; Allison Williams' father is NBC anchor Brian Williams.
Dunham -- herself the daughter of noted artist Carroll Dunham and photographer Laurie Simmons -- says it's the mother of all misperceptions.
"The whole, you know, kids-of-famous-people dialogue is so kind of, like, overdone and outplayed to me," Dunham said. "That is one that I really can attribute to jealously, 'cause why else would anyone say that? Why else would you be so horrified by the children of creative people continuing on to do creative endeavors, unless you felt like there was something you were owed that you weren't getting that they were getting?
"And also, my parents are famous in the tiniest corner of the world, which is the art world," she added. "I dare any of your viewers to, you know, describe any of my parents' artistic works, or even name their names."
"So it didn't exactly help you with your entree into the film business?" asked Smith.
"No. As much as I would like to say having an abstract painter for a father and a mom who, you know, takes photos of small dollhouse interiors, it was not the thing that brought me to the attention of HBO."
Now it's her show getting her attention -- and a raft of awards, including a pair of Golden Globes.
"Do you guys feel like you have to warn your family that certain scenes are coming, those uncomfortable ones?" asked Smith.
"I've found a heads-up is a nice gesture," laughed Williams.
Mamet added, "I think none of our families are particularly squeamish humans. And sometimes it's more awkward to call and be like, 'Hey, just so you know, I'm gonna be naked on next Sunday.'"
If the sex scenes are graphic, so too, in a way, are the interactions with parents. It's tough to say which are harder to watch.
MOM: "You graduated from college two years ago, we've been supporting you for two years. That's enough."
WAITER: "Anything else?"
MOM: "She's fine." (to HANNAH) "No more money."
HANNAH: "Starting when?"
MOM: "Now."Lena Dunham's heard this speech before, and like her character Hannah, she's shown signs of obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD.
"Is this something for that went away when you were younger? Or did it reappear like it does with Hannah?" asked Smith.
"It's sort of like OCD kind of, you know, wears a groove in your brain," Dunham said. "And so when you're anxious or when you're stressed you sort of return to those old thought patterns. So although it doesn't cripple my life and make it impossible for me to be functional, I definitely still in times of stress return to certain ways of thinking. And I think it'll always be sort of a struggle for me."
It may come as a surprise then that directing her show, which she does frequently, actually makes Dunham less nervous.
"So this is your comfort zone?" said Smith.
"Completely," said Dunham. "There's places in the real world where I feel comfortable, my bed and my parents' house, you know, with my therapist, I don't know. But I would say that I have more anxiety attended to the facets of everyday life than I do to this job, which I feel so lucky to have and which gives me so much pleasure all day long."
With a pilot for another HBO show in the works, and a reported $3.7 million book deal, it's hard to say where Dunham will turn next.
Smith said, "I'm curious: You're 26, and I'm wondering when you enter a room of people who are older and perhaps not as successful as you are, whether you feel envy from them?"
"It's sort of a hard question to answer without sounding like a total jerk."
"I set you up for that one," Smith laughed.
"You set me up to sound like a jerk! But I still like you," Dunham laughed. "But, you know, I do think it's complicated when you're young, and you're female and you're in a position of power, because there's a lot of people who somehow question your right to be there.
"And I've just sort of had to accept that that is still the world we're living in. And has hard as our moms worked, that's not gone. And so I just try to surround myself with people who I learn from and who are kind to me. And I try to be kind to them back. And then we just do our thing."
And their "thing" has been picked up for a third season . . . a show about everything, just not for everyone.
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