The season finale of Girls left us reeling. Some have commented that Marnie and Hannah have finally settled with their Prince Charmings, but the lack of interaction between the two of them is really scary. Now you have the Best Friends video with Rachel premiering. Tell us: How important is it for girls to have besties?
"I think that, to me, the great complicated romance in the show takes place in female friendship. One of the reasons I was so excited about Rachel picking the BFF theme, and the thing that got me so inspired, is it was a chance to explore the friendship theme in a way that is totally unmediated. It was totally un-messed with by all of the varied plot devices we've introduced over the two seasons we've been doing Girls. I thought about it almost as like a hyper real-nature documentary exploring the phenomenon of friendship. Something about Girls — I think these girls are more tortured by their relationships with each other, specifically Marnie and Hannah, then they are with their relationships to men. Men are, in some ways, simple, while their ability to get on the same page with each other, at the same time, is more of a challenge."
We totally got that in the last episode.
"If I sound a little scattered, it's because I am writing the third season of the show right now, and answering a question like this gets all these wheels turning in my brain because...I'm constantly trying to wrestle with, 'Okay, if Hannah is here in her life and Marnie is here in her life, how do they relate to each other?' It's this constantly changing dynamic. One of the things that's frustrated me about female friendship on television in the past is we see a lot of depictions that suggest once you are BFFs, you are always BFFs. But it's one of the most tough, volatile relationships you've ever had."
Having real, long-term BFFs is actually quite rare, right?
"It really is! I've had some of the same best friends since childhood. We've had our phases — you know, there's been some face-slapping. There's been some water dumped over heads. The girl who plays the third wheel in the BFF video is my best friend from when I was born. And I dumped a bucket of watercolor paint over her children's Gap baby-tee, and she will never forgive me."
In the last episode, not one of the ladies interacted. Even Marnie and Hannah missed each other, because Hannah was hiding from Marnie. It felt very strange and discomforting.
"There is nothing more tragic. The scene that was most heartbreaking for me was the one where they are both on the phone, and they are both lying to each other about what they are doing. It was like, this is horribly lonely...it is worse than lying in bed next to a lover while you are thinking about another lover. It is a dramatically terrible emotional reality."
So, did you cut your own bangs? Or was that fake?
"Okay, they were fake, but I accidentally got a hunk of my own bangs. My hair person flipped out because we had more to shoot with my Hannah-length hair. I just f***ing went at it. I got too method."
"Exactly."
Photo: Courtesy of Instagram user LenaDunham.