Lena Dunham is unrecognizable in eye-catching T-shirt and long dark hair at screening

Daily Mail​

13-05-2025

Lena Dunham made a rare red carpet appearance on Monday.
The Girls star, 38, was at a New York City special screening of Pee-wee As Himself at the Museum of Modern Art.
She was almost unrecognizable because her normally short light brunette hair was seen long and black.
Dunham also had on dramatic makeup with black eyeliner and ruby red lipstick for a goth appearance as she added earrings, rings and several necklaces.
The talent had on a Pee-Wee T0-shirt underneath a black-and-brown striped jacket with matching slacks and black shoes.
The outing comes after Dunham admitted that she stepped back from acting over body-shaming comments.
Last year Lena revealed she was stepping back from acting because she didn't want her body to be 'dissected again' by critics.
The star decided to cast Megan Stalter instead of herself in her semi-autobiographical 10-episode comedy series Too Much, which is set to premiere on Netflix this year.
'I was not willing to have another experience like what I'd experienced around [my HBO series Girls] at this point in my life,' the star explained to the New Yorker.
'Physically, I was just not up for having my body dissected again. It was a hard choice, not to cast Meg — because I knew I wanted Meg — but to admit that to myself.'
'I used to think that winning meant you just keep doing it and you don't care what anybody thinks. I forgot that winning is actually just protecting yourself and doing what you need to do to keep making work.'
Lena continued: 'I remember looking at Meg and being, like, "You are my muse. You inspire me every single day to go home and tap out pages upon pages." I definitely don't want to be my own muse.'
Dunham gushed over how 'inspiring and unbelievably talented' the 33-year-old Hacks star is as her thinly-veiled character Jessica, who falls in love with a British musician called Felix (Will Sharpe) after moving from New York to North London.
The eight-time Emmy nominee also happens to be a New Yorker who had a bad break-up (Jack Antonoff) and moved to London where she married British-Peruvian musician Luis Felber, who's the composer and co-creator of Too Much.
'It's not a huge leap. But I knew from the very beginning I would not be the star of it,' Lena noted.
'I was thinking a lot about, like, What is it that allows women to be complicated on TV and still be embraced and seen and understood? There's an openness to Meg's presence that I think goes a long way. She has whatever the opposite of resting b***h face is. She has resting angel face.'
Dunham continued: 'Meg is one of the beautiful women working today. She is so alarmingly gorgeous. The fact that she is not a size 0, or that she's not part of the new class of Ozempic-thin women, is not part of it...It's really important to me that there be a love affair between a guy and a girl where the fact that she is not teensy-weensy doesn't drive it...We were, like, "We don't want anyone to think we're doing a show about a beautiful man doing someone a favor."'
However, the tattooed millennial does have a small acting part in Too Much as the spouse of the character played by Andrew Rannells, who previously played her Girls character Hannah Horvath's gay best friend Elijah.
The ensemble cast also includes Emily Ratajkowski, Richard E. Grant, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Rita Wilson, Andrew Rannells, Janicza Bravo, Rhea Perlman, and Stephen Fry.
Dunham created, wrote, and starred in the HBO television series Girls from 2012 until 2017. The show garnered critical acclaim and numerous awards.
The show also notably launched the career of Adam Driver, 41, who played her charismatic boyfriend Adam, and went on to star as Kylo Ren in the Star Wars franchise. He has since nabbed multiple Academy Award nominations.
Lena has recently entered a creative partnership with Netflix. The streamer secured the rights to her rom-com 'Good Sex' — which she will write and direct — starring Natalie Portman, in a $55 million worldwide deal.
Dunham is also writing a film about cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried for Apple and A24, adapted from Michael Lewis's book Going Infinite.
In 2010 she directed and starred in the film Tiny Furniture.
Last May, Lena spoke out about her genetic condition, Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, in an Instagram post.
The star revealed she was diagnosed with hEDS in 2019.
Hypermobile Ehlers-Danos syndrome is one type of EDS, caused by defects in a person's collagen.
Common symptoms of the condition include muscle and bone pain, hypermobility, easily bruised, skin that is slightly elastic, according to the Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center.
The star has been also candid about her struggles with endometriosis, her decision to have a hysterectomy at 31 due to her endometriosis and also mental health issues.