Lena Dunham admits she broke down in tears over performance from 'disrespected' star
EXCLUSIVE Lena Dunham admits she broke down in tears over performance from 'disrespected' star
Lena, 39, heaped praise on the star's acting in her upcoming Netflix show
She applauded the performance during an appearance at Tribeca Film Festival
READ MORE: Lena Dunham admits to 'wrecking herself on male attention'
Lena Dunham has publicly lauded Rita Ora's performance in her upcoming Netflix series Too Much – and has called for the singer and actress to get 'more respect' for her on-screen talent.
The 39-year-old Girls creator was in conversation with Michelle Buteau at Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday night in New York City where she discussed her triumphant return to television and her sensational cast members.
During the intimate talk, Lena gushed over 34-year-old Rita's guest appearance in the new 10-part romantic comedy and described her acting as so 'affecting' that there were 'moments where I teared up.'
'Rita Ora is a really good actor, and I want her to get more respect on her acting name,' Lena declared when asked by Michelle, 47, if she could reveal a spoiler for ahead of the show's release.
'I want Rita Ora to get her flowers.'
She continued: 'I mean, we know she's beautiful, but she came in and played this sort of like pseudo version of Rita Ora. There were some moments where I teared up.
'It was extremely affecting. So, we get a little Rita Ora in the season finale and boy does she deliver.'
While Rita is arguably better known for her music career, she does have a number of acting roles under her belt.
Lena Dunham gushed over Rita Ora's performance in her upcoming Netflix show Too Much
Singer and actress Rita guest stars in the 10-part romantic comedy, due for release July 10
In 2015, 2017, and 2018 she appeared in the Fifty Shades films as Mia Grey, the adopted sister of Jamie Dornan's Christian Grey.
Rita has also starred in the teen musical fantasy films Descendants: The Rise of Red (2024) and the action thriller Tin Solider, alongside Scott Eastwood, Jamie Foxx, and Robert DeNiro (2025).
Over on TV, she has served as a judge on The Voice UK, The X Factor, and The Masked Singer.
Helmed by Megan Stalter and Will Sharpe, Too Much follows New Yorker Jessica (Stalter) as she starts a new life in London after a disastrous breakup.
There, she finds an impossible-to-ignore connection with Felix (Sharpe). Both in their 30s, the pair grapple with how to form a relationship with the baggage that both bring from their lives and previous romances.
Lena co-created Too Much with her husband Luis Felber, whom she wed in September 2021 months after she was set up with him on a blind date.
Besides Rita, Megan and Will, the cast also boasts of huge names including Emily Ratajkowski, Richard E. Grant, Adwoa Aboah, Rita Wilson, Stephen Fry, Andrew Scott, Andrew Rannells, and Reha Perlman.
And even Lena was blown away by the star power that she managed to gather for the project.
'Rita played this sort of like pseudo version of Rita Ora,' Lena revealed about the singer's guest appearance in the series
Lena spoke to Michelle Buteau at Tribeca Festival at Spring Studios on June 14
'I'm still shocked that all these schedules worked, and all these people came together because everyone was in this show was who I wrote the role for and so I'm just pinching myself,' she said.
'That's a rare experience.'
Lena explained how she wrote Too Much with all of the cast in mind.
'My goal is always write them a different kind of part than you've seen them do before, or write them something that's so in their wheelhouse that is just going to be so fun to come in and crush it, but no in-between,' she said.
'I'd rather go bold and send them something where they're like "why the f*ck did they send me that?" Then make them feel like they're getting handed the same part that they get to do every time…
'So, with every part I'm thinking, how can I draw something out and make it interesting for you to show up for those days?'
'Rita Ora is a really good actor, and I want her to get more respect on her acting name,' Lena told audiences
Earlier this month, Andrew Rannells spilled details of his Too Much role, revealing that he plays Lena's on-screen husband and Megan's boss.
Fans will remember how Andrew previously played Elijah Krantz in Lena's acclaimed HBO show Girls, Hannah Horvath's (Dunham) gay ex-boyfriend.
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com on the red carpet at the premiere for I Don't Understand You in New York City, he recalled reuniting with Lena.
'It was very fun to get to make with her,' he gushed. 'We're sort of the grownups now.'
'I play Lena's husband, who is also Meg Stalter's boss,' he continued.
'So, I have like a fun dual role that I get to play. So, Elijah and Hannah have grown up and are now married!'
Too Much is scheduled to premiere on Netflix on July 10.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
33 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Boca let slip two-goal lead as Benfica claim late point at Club World Cup
Well, that was different. On a violently hot Monday night in Miami Gardens, day three of Fifa's sport-style entertainment event, something unexpected happened. A football match broke out. And not just the styling, the outlines, the aesthetic sense of a football match. As Boca Juniors tore into a 2-0 first half lead against Benfica, as the stadium interior was transformed into a sustained static field by the Boca fans, as the coaching staff on both benches leapt up in random rotation, like the world's angriest improv night, this already felt like the real thing, blood, vim, borrowed life. The final score was 2-2 thanks to a late equaliser scored by Nicolás Otamendi, who hovered powerfully before butting the ball into the Boca net from a corner. At which point the air seemed to shoot out through the powder blue gap in the stadium roof, as the entire Benfica squad leapt up to caper about on the pitch, an impressive feat in itself given the overall effect of the afternoon heat is like trying to walk across the surface of the planet Mercury in a Victorian diving suit made from loft insulation. There were three red cards by then, one for each set of players, one for a furious Ander Herrera on the Boca bench. And Boca will be hugely disappointed to let slip a 2-0 lead having played with a sustained, bruising fury for most of the first half. This was the opening game in Group C for both of these teams, and a crunch moment too, a chance to slipstream Bayern Munich towards the knockout phase. For all that this felt like a self-contained event from the start as the Boca fans took ownership of the day and the space, parking themselves like a mobile city state in the home of the Miami Dolphins and putting on a kind of faux-clasico in south Florida. The three hours before kick-off had seen the blue and yellow shirts streaming in across the vast sunken surrounds of the Hard Rock, all sandy scrub and baked tarmac, and decorated now with names like Riquleme, Cavani and Carlitos. The day before had seen a mass gathering in Miami beach, the Boca fans drinking fernet and coke, grilling great flapping skirts of meat, and subjected also to a flying banter banner reading, in Spanish, 'RIP YOU DIED IN MADRID 9/12/18', arranged by some extremely prescient and well organised River Plate fans, and a reference to defeat in the 2018 Copa Libertadores final. The stadium was three quarters full at the start, and packed in the Boca section, which also helpfully drowned out the absurd WWE-style practice of announcing the players one by one, finishing with an ear-shredding field of white noise as Otamendi, a Vélez Sarsfield man, appeared with the Benfica flag. This was always an interesting basic premise, a meeting of yawningly opposed extremes. Boca are connection, collectivism, passion, an acme of the legacy football world. This club is all rootsy culture, history, legend, Diego-scale iconography, the Argentina of Argentina. And in the black corner, well, we have something else entirely. Authenticity: meet the Fifa Club World Cup, the most plasticised, commodified football competition ever devised. There was something a little uncomfortable about this spectacle. Here is Fifa saying lend us your edge, your colour, your clout, your stamp. Make us feel real. In the build up to this game Fifa's reliably unctuous website had described Boca as 'a nomadic passion'. And this is the business plan in one handy phrase. Instant reality, bolt-on culture. On the other hand, why not if it pays well? The thing about Boca and the other non-European teams is that they genuinely want to be here. And for obvious reasons too, finally offered a piece of the global broadcast pot that doesn't involve acting as a talent plantation. This what Gianni Infantino is getting at with his boilerplate chat about diversity and inclusion. Look. South America is getting a cut. Don't you want to share? This is also a little misleading. Boca will now have a cash boost, via Fifa/Dazn/Saudi, which means they can buy again, come back again, fed by this new stream of income. In effect Fifa is creating client clubs, a mini-elite to staff the show. For now Boca brought some authentic World Cup energy to this pop-up stage, as they were always going to do. This is a vast sporting enterprise with its own global reach. And after a slightly dozy start they began to play with some real fury. Boca's tactics were not complex. They kept a low block, challenged fiercely, broke at speed. The energetically squat Alan Velasco had their first shot at goal, veering into space and skimming the ball just over the bar. With 11 minutes gone we had the first mass vibration of the Boca fans leaping in unison and making even this vast mound of concrete and steel throb delicately. And 10 minutes later Boca scored, the goal made by Lautaro Blanco, who shimmied his way inside and crossed low for Miguel Merentiel to nudge the ball on into the far corner. The bodies seethed and writhed in the stands. And shortly afterwards it was 2-0, Rodrigo Battaglia heading in after a flick back across goal from a corner. This time the bench was cleared, the bibbed players streaming on, the stands in uproar, a noise that seemed to have many layers, hitting you in the chest, ears, teeth. Watching Boca defend in that period was like watching a group of hugely energetic construction workers demolishing a bungalow in formation, all hungry, rotational collisions. It was fun to see this kind of defending, not pressing or denying space or shutting down angles in the European style, but going straight for the man, rushing from the block to attack the ball. Benfica looked a bit unprepared for this. But they were awarded a soft penalty before half-time, beautifully rolled into the corner against a fury of whistles and boos by Ángel Di María, who has heard this stuff before. The second half brought more of the same, both sets of players running themselves into a state of desiccated exhaustion. With 72 minutes gone Andrea Belotti was sent off for a high boot into the head of Ayrton Costa. Jorge Figal got an instant straight red at the death for a targeted assault on the shins of the nearest man to the ball. And that was pretty much that. No doubt some will see an endorsement of Fifa's vampire show in the sheer vivid life of this game. But it felt like an act of defiance too, evidence of a culture and an energy that exists undiminished outside of all this.
BBC News
40 minutes ago
- BBC News
California doctor to plead guilty to supplying Matthew Perry with ketamine
A California doctor accused of giving Friends star Matthew Perry access to ketamine in the weeks before the actor's overdose death has agreed to plead guilty, according to federal prosecutors. Dr Salvador Plasencia will plead guilty to four counts of distributing ketamine, federal prosecutors said in a statement on Monday. The plea carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison and the doctor is expected to make his plea in the coming weeks. Who is the 'Ketamine Queen' accused of supplying Matthew Perry Doctor pleads guilty in Matthew Perry overdose deathKetamine swapped for salt as smugglers exploit Europe loophole in booming marketPerry – best known for playing Chandler Bing on Friends – was found dead in his hot tub in Los Angeles in October 2023. He was 54 and although he'd been open about struggles with depression and addiction, fans around the world were shocked by his death. According to text messages shared with prosecutors from Dr Mark Chavez - a doctor who already pleaded guilty in the case - Dr Plasencia called Perry a "moron" and wondered how much he'd be willing to pay for the drugs. According to documents filed for the plea agreement, Dr Plasencia injected Perry with ketamine at his home and in the parking lot of the Long Beach Aquarium. Dr Plasencia taught Perry's assistant - who is also a defendant - how to administer the drug and would sell extra vials for them to keep at home, according to the plea deal. The doctor is one of five people charged with what prosecutors allege was an underground network of dealers and medical professionals who supplied Perry with ketamine. The actor was taking legal, prescribed amounts of the drug to treat his depression, but wanted more than what was total, the plea agreement says, between 30 September 2023, and 12 October 2023, Dr Plasencia sold twenty 5ml (100mg/ml) vials of ketamine, less than a full package of ketamine lozenges, and syringes to Perry and his assistant. Dr Plasencia's lawyers could not be immediately reached for comment.
Daily Mail
44 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Modern Family star Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, 18, comes out as bisexual five years after end of iconic sitcom
Pride Month is more than halfway in the books for 2025, with a young actress using this time to come out as bisexual. Modern Family star Aubrey Anderson-Emmons - who played Lily, the adoptive daughter of Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) took to TikTok on Sunday to reveal the news. She did so in a rather humorous fashion, using the audio from a Season 4 episode of Modern Family called The Future Dunphys, where a young Lily claims she's gay. The actress shared a video of her lip-syncing to the scene where she declares, 'No I'm not, I'm gay! I'm gay!' after Gloria (Sofia Vergara) insists she's Vietnamese. Anderson-Emmons captioned the video, 'People keep joking so much abt me being being gay when I literally am (I'm bi).' She captioned the Sunday night post, 'hehe happy pride month and to all a good night,' with the hashtags #modernfamily #lily #pridemonth #pride #fyp #bi. Anderson-Emmons was just four years old when she joined Modern Family as Lily during the show's third season in 2011. The actress made history also at four years of age, when she became the youngest actor ever to win a Screen Actors Guild Award, as part of the show's ensemble cast. She also appeared as herself on Bill Nye Saves the World in 2017 and on a 2018 episode of Paradise Run. Last month, she shared a video to her 2.6 million TikTok followers that shed some light on growing up in the spotlight. 'People ask things like, "How did you know you wanted to do that when you were four? How do you know you love something when you're so young?" And the truth is, you don't,' she admitted. Aubrey insisted that she was 'not forced into anything,' adding, 'My mom wasn't like, "You're going to do this," it was not like that.' 'I was not abused on set or anything like that, but you don't know what you're getting yourself into at four years old when you sign a contract to be on a show,' she said. She also admitted that the show was basically 'all she knew' while opening up on facing harsh criticism at such a young age. 'Also, being on a TV show from a young age, people really took digs at my acting choices or they would say I'm a bad actor,' she recalled. 'I don't feel like I need to prove myself to other people... but it was really hard for me to grow up with so many people's opinions around me.' She has only appeared in a 2024 short film called Tallwinds since Modern Family went off the air, though she has been teasing new music. The actress and musician shared a snippet of what appears to be a music video, teasing, 'New music coming soon!'
