Actress Lena Dunham opens up about her complicated relationship with her ‘Girls’ co-star Adam Pilote. The two played an on-again, off-again couple on the HBO comedy series, which ran for six seasons. In his new memoir, “Famesick,” Dunham claimed he could be volatile and even threw a chair on one occasion. Despite this, she alleged that there was a time when their working relationship almost crossed a line when his then-girlfriend, now his wife, was out of town.
Lena Dunham Details Her Relationship With ‘Girls’ Star Adam Driver
In her new memoir, “Famesick,” Lena Dunham reflects on her complicated relationship with Adam Driver, which played out both on the small screen and in real life. In her tell-all book, she recounts how she once saw him throw a chair at a wall next to her while they were rehearsing a scene. She also claims to have seen him drill a hole in the wall of her trailer on another occasion.
In addition to an allegation that he would yell directly in her face, Dunham also claimed that the couple almost crossed a boundary a month before getting engaged to his current wife, Joanne Tuckerwhen Dunham’s parents were out of town and his then-girlfriend was filming a play in Cincinnati while they lived in New York.
Lena Dunham Felt Like ‘Partners’ Despite Chair Incident
In excerpts from the book obtained by Entertainment Weekly, Dunham describes how “we felt like partners” during the show’s first season, despite the “chair incident.”
“I made decisions that weren’t his. We rehearsed on weekends in his white living room, even when the scene was easy and didn’t require it,” she wrote. “He hugged me tightly in the morning and again at the end of the day.”
She claimed that one time they were standing in the kitchen and she “looked up to see him smiling at me with something so tender, it was like it could only be love.” She said she felt so “helpless” that she dropped her glass of water.
Lena Dunham alleges Adam Driver was ‘angry and verbally aggressive’
Despite this encounter, Dunham said they were prone to arguments during these additional rehearsals. “I reasoned that the intensity of his anger at me, an anger that could make him spit and throw things, was proportional to the intensity of our creative connection,” she wrote.
“I spent an awful lot of time wondering if Adam even liked me,” she continued. “He could be angry and verbally aggressive, condescending and physically imposing. He could also be protective, even loving.”
She recalled how the “Marriage Story” actor was often protective of her when she told him she had been abused by other men. “The general feeling was very strong: ‘no one talks about my mother except me.’ But did he consider me a mother? A boss? A girl? F-ckable? Infeasible? Irritating? Bright ? He showed flashes of it all.
Lena Dunham claims she and Adam Driver almost crossed a boundary
Dunham says their on-screen relationship almost spilled over into real life when her parents were out of town and Tucker was doing a play in Cincinnati.
“That week, the week my apartment was empty, he came almost every night,” she wrote. “I was still frail and flattering, a cautious and terrified version of myself – and maybe he loved me most that way. Maybe it brought out his heart for me, or maybe it just evened the balance of power.”
At the end of the week, she claimed he called her as he was leaving a theater. She alleges he asked her, “Are you still home alone, Dunham?” Then he said, “Okay. I’m coming down to you. But I’m warning you, if I go up, I’m not leaving this time.”
She said she responded, “Call me when you’re out.” »
Lena Dunham claims she pretended to be asleep to stop the encounter
Dunham explained that she had stayed awake waiting for him; however, when he arrived and called her to say he was outside, she did not answer.
“It was as simple as ignoring your doorbell, pretending to be asleep, as impossible as stopping your blood from flowing,” she wrote. “But part of me knew – a wise part of me, a bold part of me – that if we crossed the line we might cross, the return to work would be tinged with humiliation, that I would minimize any authority I still had, and that, no matter what, my heart – bruised but probably not yet broken – would break.”
She claimed they never spoke about the alleged incident again.
Adam Driver reportedly called to tell her he was engaged a month later
A month later, Dunham claimed that Driver called her to tell her he was engaged, rather than telling her in person. She alleges he said, “When my girlfriend was away, I realized I wasn’t good on my own. I needed someone to keep me in check.”
“It was absurd to be heartbroken, to think that I meant something, that I occupied a role beyond distraction. I was his scene partner, of course, and so when we were in a scene, his attention was piercing, his presence all-consuming,” she wrote. “But in life? I would never be the one to keep him in line. I didn’t have the means. Even at work, I couldn’t do it, in the one place where I was supposed to make the rules.”
Adam Driver has yet to comment on these allegations. He reportedly met Tucker while they were both in school at Juilliard and they married in June 2013. They welcomed a son in 2016, the same year “Girls” finished its final season, and a daughter in early 2023.