Dunham has been keeping to herself over the past few years. Her only role since the wrap of her hit series Girls has been a small feature in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which she claims has been by design. Now, ten years since the series first released, Dunham is back with new projects and aspirations.
Dunham left the public eye in 2018 after the public was made aware of an onslaught of past racist comments she made. After spending some time in rehab, then navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, Dunham claims she's had plenty of time to reflect and think to the future. She says about her time away,
"I just realized that the experience of Girls and my 20s was such an all-encompassing hurricane of both validation and derision that in order for me to keep that place of myself that loved to make art, that was what needed to happen."
Her first movie back, Sharp Stick, is set to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, and she couldn't be more excited. The film is said to explore female sexuality---a personal piece that Dunham wrote to help come to terms with her own life, and her hysterectomy.
The film will feature Jon Bernthal, Kristine Froseth, and Zola star Taylour Paige. Paige was initially skeptical on joining the cast, as she was weary as to how Dunham would handle the subject of race. Now, after filming, she states,
"She was so kind. So open. She wants to be better. She wants to do better. She wants to listen. She wants to engage. She has a really great attitude even when she’s dealing with illnesses. She was just a pleasant surprise of love. I hate cancel culture. I wish there was redemption culture."
Though Dunham wishes to put the past behind her, she's still proud of the show that made her. After watching the recent reboot of Sex and the City, Dunham is interested in exploring sexuality from the perspective of middle aged women. She's open to a remake of her 2012 hit show Girls, which she produced, wrote, and starred in through HBO.
As the series is only ten years old, HBO states they have no plans for a reboot just yet, despite how "proud" they are of it. Dunham recognizes that it may not be time just yet, and would rather come back when the lives of the characters would be in a different place. She says on the future,
"I’d love the next decade to be less about apologizing and just about openly making art. It was like the last four years I’d been building a boat and now was my time to sail it and see if it sunk or not. And I was like, ‘Oh. It holds up on the water.'”
