Lena Dunham Denies Donald Glover’s Daring Joke About Her Using the N-Word
Lena Dunham has seen her fair share of controversy over the years and this weekend was no different. Unfortunately, she was tangled in a new controversy from a speech by Donald Glover.
This incident took place at the Writer’s Guild Awards on March 5. At the WGAs, Glover presented writer Paul Simms with the Herb Sargent Award for Comedy Excellence. The presentation included an eight-minute speech and honor by Glover.
Donald Glover at the Writers Guild Awards where he will present Herb Sargent Award for Comedy Excellence to Paul Simms (What We Do in the Shadows, Atlanta, The Larry Sanders Show) pic.twitter.com/PHOaPxHTKF
— TheWrap (@TheWrap) March 6, 2023
Simms was an executive producer on Glover’s hit series Atlanta, which is why he was presenting the award. Before that, he was an executive producer on Girls, Dunham’s hit comedy. Glover mentioned a conversation he and Dunham had about Simms, which was the setting for the controversy.
“I was on the set of ‘Girls’ after filming a sex scene for like eight hours. Which they cut down to two minutes. I’ve never seen the rest of that footage,” Glover quipped, “Afterwards, I asked Lena, ‘Yo, what made you decide to work with Paul?’” And she goes, ‘honestly, this n— lets me do whatever I want.’ And I remember thinking two things. One, Lena is using the N-word extremely liberally. Who does she think she is, Chevy Chase? And two, that’s the kind of producer I want.”
here is Donald Glover presenting an honorary award to Paul Simms and talking about Lena Dunham saying the n-word pic.twitter.com/QNaJki8cei
— Kathryn VanArendonk (@kvanaren) March 6, 2023
Dunham’s representatives vehemently denied Glover’s claims that she used the N-word. They declared, “Donald Glover told a joke referencing Lena Dunham for last night’s WGA Awards. It included, for effect, language Lena never used, nor would use. Full stop,” The statement was made very soon after Glover’s speech, as defamation can be serious.
Glover’s representatives confirmed this story as well. They agreed that Dunham did not actually say the N-word. Glover’s remarks were not implying anything serious about Dunham. The intention of the comment was for it to be a joke, not a fact.
Lena Dunham’s rep. denies that Dunham’s used the N-word after Donald Glover made a joke at an award show about her using the slur:
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) March 7, 2023
“Donald Glover told a joke referencing Lena Dunham for last night’s WGA Awards. It included, for effect, language Lena never used, nor would use.” pic.twitter.com/HEYgzpB1fo
Glover was on the first two episodes of season two of Girls. He portrayed Sandy, Hannah’s (Dunham) new boyfriend. While they both originally liked each other, their downfall came from different political beliefs. Hannah is a Democrat, whereas Sandy is a Republican. They try to make their relationship work anyways, but the two cannot mesh well. Season one of Girls received backlash for having no notable POC characters. That is what led to Glover’s involvement in season two.
After the success of Girls, Dunham has done a lot of work behind the scenes. In television, she created the American revival of the British comedy Camping in 2018. Dunham was also an executive producer of the teen drama Genera+ion in 2021.
In terms of movies, she wrote and directed the indie comedy Sharp Stick and the children’s film Catherine Called Birdy. She seems to have had more focus on being behind the scenes in recent years, but she sure works hard. Despite her success, this is not her first case of controversy. She has elt with a lot of backlash in her career, including trying to slander Odell Beckham Jr, saying she wishes she had an abortion, and making other controversial statements and sentiments.
Rewatching Girls bc the internet for some reason is doing that, but when and why did we all turn on this show? The first season is so insanely funny.
— Lucy Huber (@clhubes) February 28, 2023
This past November, Glover’s Emmy-winning program Atlanta ended after four seasons. Currently, he is working on a horror series, Swarm, starring Dominique Fishback and Chloe Bailey. Glover is also writing and starring in a television remake of the hit spy film Mr. and Mrs. Smith alongside Maya Erskine. Glover has found his match with television writing and will likely have a terrific future.
Just finished Atlanta, and it’s incredible to me just how multi-talented Donald Glover is.
— Joe Crann (@YesWeCrann) March 7, 2023
Also, LaKeith Stanfield as Darius is simply perfect. pic.twitter.com/2A14HW4z5f
Glover also spoke about former Community co-star Chevy Chase at the WGAs. It is no secret that Chase has had a history of racist remarks, particularly on the set of Community. This comment came up in Glover’s reference to the award being given out, “This award was named after Herb Sargent, a writer who worked on ‘Saturday Night Live’ and came up with the ‘Weekend Update’ with Chevy Chase,” Glover began, “Chevy Chase once called Herb one of the funniest writers working in television. And Chevy Chase once called me… you know what, this is about Paul.” So it looks like Glover is willing to joke about anyone and everyone.
