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In Lena Dunham’s new memoir Famesick, the Girls creator detailed her time working with then-budding actor Adam Driver, referring to him as “half-man, half-beast.”
By Olivia Evans Apr 14, 2026 5:19 PM | Updated 2 hours ago
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Portraying a voice of a generation was not always easy for Lena Dunham.
In her new memoir Famesick, the 39-year-old recalled working alongside Adam Driver on Girls, alleging the then-budding star could sometimes act like “something feral” during their time on set.
While working with Adam on the HBO series—which also starred Zosia Mamet, Jemima Kirke and Allison Williams—Lena wrote that she considered him “half-man, half-beast” because of what she alleged was sometimes violent behavior, detailing one specific instance when they were practicing lines.
“Adam screamed, ‘F--KING SAY SOMETHING’ and hurled a chair at the wall next to me,’” Lena, who at the time was dealing with dissociation as part of her undiagnosed endometriosis, wrote in Famesick, per The Independent. “‘WAKE THE F--K UP,’ he told me. ‘I’M SICK OF WATCHING YOU JUST STARE.’”
The pair’s intimate scenes also stick out in her mind as they portrayed leads and love interests Hannah Horvath and Adam Sackler.
Lena alleged the “careful blocking” laid out for their sex scenes “went out the window” when it was time for her and Adam to start filming. She alleged that Adam, in character, would “hurl me this way and that” during intimate scenes.
“Part of me was afraid that when I turned around, I would find I was suddenly in a full-penetration 1970s porno,” Lena admitted. “But after a few mimed thrusts, I called cut.”
And while Lena added that the now-42-year-old told her he’d “always love her” when the series wrapped in 2017, she admitted she “never heard from him again.”
E! News reached out to Adam’s rep regarding Lena’s comments but has not yet heard back.
For his part, Adam has not publicly addressed the allegations made in Lena's book, although he told Larry King in 2017 that he loved working with her.
"I love it," he said in an interview at the time. "She's very specific in her writing and she's very open with creating a space for everyone to try anything they want to."
As he put it, "It really is the best kind of, great, working environment."
FilmMagic/FilmMagic
Despite her not entirely sunny memories from their time working together, Lena emphasized that her experience of Adam’s prior behavior doesn’t provide a full scope of his temperament.
“I think that that was all of our first job, so I wouldn’t say Girls would be a road map for how anyone behaved anywhere else,” Lena said during an April 11 appearance on The New York Times’ The Interview. “It was very like, ‘Seven strangers sent to live in a house in Seattle—what’s gonna happen?’”
In fact, she joked things could have been much worse, adding, “One thing that’s miraculous is no one dated and no one punched each other.”
What’s more, as a director and actress, Lena respected Adam’s craft.
“I love watching him,” she added. “I learned more from him than anyone I’ve ever stood across from on camera. I feel like in a way, that was the best I’ll ever be at acting and I don’t know if I could even pull that off again because so much of it came from what was being handed to me.”
When it came to what she remembered about Adam's on-set behavior, Lena admitted she would change how she personally responded to it.
“Were I to go back, I would so not take that behavior personally,” she said. “I would understand everyone is just doing what they need to do to make it happen.”
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