Lena Dunham: My early success in Hollywood was due to white privilege

Los Angeles, June 30 (IANS) Actress Lena Dunham has admitted that her “white privilege” helped her find success with the series “Girls” at an age of 23.

The actress took to social media to respond to the criticism coming her way, indicating that her early success in Hollywood was linked to her privilege. In a series of tweets, the 34-year-old said she didn’t know what privilege was early on in her career, reports dailymail.co.uk.

It all started when netizens started retweeting and commenting on a tweet from The Hollywood Reporter that said “@LenaDunham was 23 when she sold #Girls to HBO with a page-and-a-half-long pitch, without a character nor a plot.”

“Whenever I find out I’m trending, I have to immediately check if I’m alive! Then, I try and see if there’s a constructive dialogue to have on Twitter. Often there isn’t, but today there really WAS,” she began.

“It actually wasn’t a dialogue — it was just me agreeing that the Hollywood system is rigged in favour of white people and that my career took off at a young age with relative ease, ease I wasn’t able to recognise because I also didn’t know what privilege was,” she added.

The actress continued: “The past ten years have been a series of lessons. The lesson now? Sit down. Shut up, unless it’s to advocate for change for Black people. Listen. Make art in private for a while — no one needs your book right now lady. Give reparations widely. Defund the police. Rinse & repeat.”

The majority of the backlash about her previous comment she made in 2017 was in regard to her lack of preparation and development when she signed the deal for “Girls”.

“Lena Dunham’s parents were highly influential art curators that lived in SOHO,” one user wrote, adding: “And also both inherited wealth themselves can we stop f*****g glorifying trust fund babies in entertainment plz they truly offer nothing.”

–IANS

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