‘Girls’ creator: Israeli youth ‘kooky’

Lena Dunham, the creator and lead actor on the Golden Globe-winning HBO series “Girls,” recently talked to “Good Evening with Guy Pines” about her popular, offbeat show, the experience of early success and her 2010 trip to Israel.

The 27-year-old has won accolades for “Girls,” a comedy about female hipsters in their 20s living in New York City. What’s been noted about “Girls” is its honest, funny and forthright attitude about the trials and tribulations of early adulthood, and, among other things, sex and what women’s bodies really look like naked.

Dunham mentioned in the interview that she first traveled to Israel for the screening of her first movie, “Tiny Furniture” in the film’s first international screening.

“I think I thought because Israel has this fascinating cultural difference — of having to spend time in the military right after high school — that there would be an increased seriousness,” she said. “But even though there’s this impressive discipline thing, they’re just as lost and kooky as the youth in America.”

http://youtu.be/MRtwqdQ6UdI

She also spoke about some Jewish angles to the show — Dunham herself is half-Jewish and was raised in New York while Shoshanna Shapiro, another character, is played by Zasia Mamet, the daughter of American playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and film director David Mamet and actress Lindsay Crouse.

Shoshanna, said Dunham, is a Jewish American Princess, “a sort of coddled New York girl with a certain kind of neurosis found in Jewish households and Shoshanna is a good example of that.”

No insult intended, mind you. Dunham often refers to herself as “half-Jew, half-WASP,” and once told The New York Times, “I feel like with everything that happens, Dayenu.”

The new season of “Girls” premieres with back-to-back episodes on Sunday, January 12 on HBO.