Dunham Says She Projected Onto Girls Characters to Escape Her Own Problems

What was said

"When we were on screen, that was the best thing ever. That was my escape from everything else that was happening in my mind. I always felt like I could open a door into being those people. I felt like my— whatever Lena's problems are go away, and like the, the problems of these particular people, which feel sort of light and inconsequential at the end of the day, took over."

Dunham told Poehler that acting in Girls served as psychological escape, allowing her to shed her own issues and inhabit characters whose problems felt lighter by comparison. She responded to Andrew Rannells's concern that the book made it seem she wasn't having fun, clarifying that on-screen time was joyful while everything surrounding it was difficult.