Lena Dunham Says Odell Beckham Jr. Controversy Taught Her "Great Lesson" About Stereotypes

Lena Dunham sits down with the 'Breakfast Club' crew to talk about that time she projected a bunch of nonsense onto Odell Beckham Jr.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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When Lena Dunham detailed her Met Gala experience during a Lenny Letters chat with Amy Schumer last month, damn near everyone took serious issue with the Girls creator's decision to seemingly project a bunch of nonsense onto Odell Beckham Jr. Controversy soon followed, with Beckham eventually telling Complex he wasn't down for having "problems" with anybody. Dunham revisited the controversy on Wednesday's The Breakfast Club, apologizing for unintentionally perpetuating dangerous stereotypes and insisting the experience taught her a valuable lesson.

"It was a great lesson to me in how your humor can be misconstrued," Dunham told Charlamagne Tha God at around the 35-minute mark in the video above. "I just had this whole projected thought process of, like, Odell doesn't want to be sitting next to me, he doesn't want to be talking to me, he thinks I'm garbage, he thinks I look like a boy. So I thought all of that was coming across, but it seemed like I was actually accusing him of some kind of misogyny."

Dunham said the biggest lesson she learned during the Beckham fiasco was from other women, who informed her via her Twitter account (which she now says she no longer operates) that her commentary was perpetuating unjust stereotypes. "Especially at this moment in history, we have to be hyper-vigilant about the way that we depict each other because of how much darkness and tension exists in this Trump-ified world," Dunham said, noting that she "immediately" apologized to Beckham and would be more careful in the future about "creating destructive images."

Dunham's HBO series Girls, also starring Allison Williams and Adam Driver, will kick off its sixth and final season next year. In an interview with Refinery 29 regarding the perils of turning 30, Dunham said the final episodes will take a closer look at how each character is dealing with the common enemy of time. "Everyone I trust has reported back to me that the challenging aspects of your 20s—the sort of stuff Girls is about, actually—just evaporates into the rearview mirror in your 30s," Dunham explained.

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