Former Girls star Allison Williams has said she and her co-stars weren’t given proper credit for their performances in the hit HBO drama due to unrelenting criticism of their privilege.
The 37-year-old actor played the twenty-something narcissist Marnie Williams in Lena Dunham’s series from 2012 to 2017, with Dunham, Jemima Kirke and Zosia Mamet taking on the roles of her close friends, Hannah, Jessa, and Shoshanna respectively.
Throughout its six-year run, Girls garnered critical praise for its frank depictions of sex, personal growth and flawed female characters. It was also the focus of intense cultural debate and sexist disapproval.
Speaking to The Guardian, Williams said “a gazillion think pieces about every episode” were published online, slamming her, Dunham, Kirke and Mamet for taking themselves “too seriously”.
She reflected: “We were all pretty privileged people who were the leads of this HBO show that was definitely skewering our own, but we weren’t given credit for that, or for being on it.”
Some of the criticism of Girls was well founded – the show was set in New York but the cast was overwhelmingly white – but a slew of remarks were sexist or attacked Dunham’s weight.
“The shame is that, when it is coupled with misogyny and fatphobia and everything, the valid criticism gets lost,” said Williams. “We were easy targets, I get it.”
Williams is the daughter of former NBC news anchor Brian Williams and journalist Jane Stoddard Williams.
Dunham’s parents are photographer and filmmaker Laurie Simmons and the painter Caroll Dunham.
Mamet is the daughter of Broadway actor Lindsay Crouse and playwright David Mamet.
Meanwhile, Kirke’s parents are vintage boutique owner Lorraine Dellal, who supplied a number of outfits for Sex and the City, and Bad Company drummer Simon Kirke.
Girls viewers often struggled to separate the privileged cast from their selfish and out-of-touch characters. “Here [our characters] were, who looked basically like we looked and sounded like we sounded, but crucially said and did things that we would never do,” said Williams.
“It always felt weird that, since we didn’t transform ourselves in some way, people weren’t buying us playing characters.”
Girls won the Golden Globe for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy in 2013, with Dunham scooping the gong for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy.
When asked if she’d return for a Girls reunion or spin-off, Williams replied: “I kind of want us all back together.
“It was so fun and it was the beginning of my career, so I didn’t have the perspective I have now on just how lucky we were, or to know how unusual a creative experience it was.”
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