Lena Dunham’s Tearful Goodbye to ‘Girls’

Some people just aren’t good at goodbyes. Lena Dunham is one of them. In the wee hours of Sept. 30, the Girls creator bid adieu to the show that launched her to Hollywood’s A-list when it premiered just over four years ago.

“It’s 2 am on Friday morning and we just finished shooting Girls. Forever,” she began. “No insert shots of cell phones or exteriors to grab. We’re not missing a quick shot of Shosh marching down a Soho street. We’re finished. We did it all. Jenni called that final cut, I dropped my costume on our van floors (sorry Kristen, sorry I never hang my damned costume) and we got into our vans to head home for the last time.”

Alongside her tearful selfie, Dunham admitted, “To say I don’t enjoy goodbyes is an understatement. But, as a wise woman once told me, ‘relish it. We so rarely get to choose our goodbyes.’ She’s right. And we got to choose this one. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy– I know I’m not alone in the Girls family when I say this is the end of the largest and most potent chapter of my life so far.”

She went on to reflect on how the show has changed her life for the better. “Before Girls I had zero identity, zero self-love and an urgent sense of untapped creative desire that kept me up and sweating at night in other people’s beds, wondering why vague sexual affirmation wasn’t enough to make me feel human.” (Anyone who saw Dunham’s first feature film, Tiny Furniture, will likely remember the scene in which she has… umm… relations in a storm drain.)

“I had hardly an inkling of the responsibility we take on when we tell stories, or of the power words can have, but what I had- as an obsessed fan of shows from Girlfriends to Felicity to Ally McBeal– was the audacity to think that people might want to see women like my friends and me (broken, imperfect, angry) on television,” she added. Whether you love or hate Ms. Dunham, it’s likely that at least one of those aforementioned shows worked its way into your heart at some point way back when.

The 30-year-old star then shared a message of pure, unbridled gratitude. “When we shot our pilot six years ago, I never dreamed that I could be so fulfilled by the process of art-making, of collaboration, of honest expression. And so through this show I developed an identity, gained a new kind of family and began my life in earnest. It’s an embarrassment of riches.” And while she didn’t name specific names, she still made sure to call out the people who had helped her amass this wealth.

“There are too many essential personnel to name here, and the messages I have for them are far too intimate for this modern venue, but I trust I’ve made it clear who you are and what you mean to me. If I haven’t, please feel free to demand explanations.”

Dunham went on to share an old photo of herself and co-stars Allison Williams, Jemima Kirk, and Zosia Mamet, and left messages to her fans, critics, cast and crew, and the men and women of Girls. She ended that post with “love is all I have for every single one of you (even the 16 year old who keeps telling me to blow him in the comments section, though I do feel concerned he’s not being parented closely enuf.”

There were more tears throughout the evening, and Allison Williams would be the one in Dunham’s final pic of the night because she stayed “until the bitter end like the queen she is,” said Dunham.

Before the tears took over, Dunham did give some personal shout-outs, like the one to Shihan Fey for “always being there with an umbrella, a cup of tea and a brilliant smile.” Dunham praised her more because “You wrangle the actors on this show like an expert zookeeper and you never break a sweat.”

More shout-outs went to her other female producers, or “the big cats,” as she called them. “@jennikonner & I have learned so much from Regina Heyman and Ilene Landress, who know how to run a set with heart and grit and power. We love them fiercely.”

Dunham and Konner even showed some love to the women who were stand-ins on the show over the years and who got their first speaking parts in the final episode.

The filming may be done, but Dunham promises “I’ll be back with my Girls when it’s time to promote this MFer in January… And also forever and ever, everyday, in my heart. Thank you all. In perpetuity, Lena.”