Lena Dunham said her father told her he did not want to be seen voting with her during the 2012 presidential election, a moment she said illustrated the personal impact of online backlash. She made the remark on “The Interview” podcast.
“I don’t know if I wanna go vote with Lena Dunham,” she recalled her father saying, adding that he feared voting with her would “signal something.” She told the podcast her father is her “best friend in the world,” and his reluctance was when she understood “something was going on here.”
Dunham said she had been campaigning for President Barack Obama in 2012. The comment came amid criticism of her HBO series “Girls,” which Dunham wrote and starred in. Viewers at the time criticized the show for a perceived lack of racial inclusivity and for highlighting economic privilege; the series ran for five years.
Speaking on The New York Times’ podcast, Dunham said much of the negativity she received was rooted in people disliking her as a person. “I have annoyed people since I was so small. Like, I was an annoying kid,” she said.
Dunham has previously generated controversy for other public comments and comparisons, including likening producer Judd Apatow’s focus on rape allegations against Bill Cosby to an obsession with the Holocaust, comparing online hate from blogs to domestic violence, and comparing President Donald Trump to Dylann Roof.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
