Lena Dunham [Writer, Actor and Director]

By: Editor | March 15, 2011 | Ten by Ten

What’s the greatest piece of advice you’ve ever received (and from whom)?
From my father: “Go where the bliss is.”

What do you consider your greatest professional success?
Making two truly independent feature films, telling stories that are meaningful to me. These labors of love have allowed me to expand professionally and to meet Ice-T’s babe-tastic wife, Coco, at a premiere party.

What do you consider your greatest personal failure?
I am sure it’s still to come, but at the moment I have one particular criticism of myself: I tend to get focused on work and then ditch out social engagements, promise I’ll be places and then decide to stay in and keep writing (or sleep, because I’ve been at it all day.) It makes me feel (and look) like a flaky tool. Working on it.

Favorite all-time:
Biography: Fran Drescher’s Enter Whining
Novel: Lolita
Album: Jagged Little Pill (Alanis Morissette)
Song: “The Boys of Summer” (Don Henley)
Film: Right now: Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
TV Show: Prime Suspect
Invention: a tie between Final Draft screenwriting software and flexi-straws
Painter: My dad and Renoir are neck-and-neck.
Photographer: Bill Cunningham, but also my mom
Clothing Designer: Agnes B. (Clothes for old French women who want to have sex with young American boys!)
Athlete: Johnny Weir
Architect: Kisho Kurokawa, the man behind the Nakagin Capsule Tower

What is the strangest number you have programmed into your phone?
In high school, someone distributed what they claimed was Paris Hilton’s cell number. I tried it once and got her voicemail, which said, “Hey, it’s Paris. You know what to do.” It really sounded like her. Then I tried it again but it had been disconnected.

How would you define love?
My friend Isabel once said that love is binge eating saltines while your boyfriend films it on his flip camera because he finds it so funny. That rang true to me.

If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be and why?
Sorry to be the Duchess of Obvious, but I’m really dismayed with racism, homophobia — all the prejudices that prevent people from feeling safe and expressing themselves in a truthful way.

Describe your perfect day?
I’m directing something that I wrote, surrounded by inspiring people, and it’s going off without a hitch (well, maybe a few fun little hitches.) My parents call to check in. There are snacks.

List three things you cannot live without:
Family, granny panties, laptop.

Tell us one thing we don’t know about, but we should.
Ishtar is an amazing movie.

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