Entertainment

Lena Dunham Was Axed From HBO

by Caitlyn Callegari

It may be hard to believe, but Lena Dunham wasn't always HBO's darling. The Girls' jack-of-all-trades opened up to Grantland and revealed that she was Lena Dunham was subtly fired from Mildred Pierce back in 2011. Dunham had acted only one day on a three day project and was told that they had, ahem, gotten what they "needed" from her. Ouch. To further twist the knife, Dunham explains that Ilene Landress, a co-executive producer on the mini series and a current executive producer on Girls said to her, "...she was auditioning extras in the basement to replace me because that’s how bad I was.” Oh, Lena.

It is certainly notable that while Dunham shines in her Generation Y, whiny yet endearing role as Hannah Horvath, perhaps period pieces just aren't her forte. Mildred Pierce is well out of Girls' domain, focusing on a single mother raising two very different daughters in the 1930's, whereas Girls is all about entitled narcissistic hipsters posing as functioning adults in present time. I trust in Dunham's acting still, I mean girl won a Golden Globe and all, it could just be chalked up to the fact that Dunham was just a scared and bewildered newbie. Who hasn't had an off day or a royal mess up at one of their first big kid positions?

We shouldn't overlook the fact that Dunham was let go from her first gig on HBO as an actor. We would be remiss to not mention that Dunham shines in so many different facets other than acting. In fact, acting is probably one of the areas where the 27 year old isn't a damn near prodigy in. She was merely 24 when Girls got picked up with her as creator, director, writer, and actress on the show. So while Mildred Pierce may have cast her out, HBO took her back in ever so quickly, certainly realizing they had a talent on their hands.