Allison Williams Responds to Girls Co-Star Lena Dunham's Memoir: What She Really Thinks

Allison Williams is reading Lena Dunham's new memoir and, wisely, not sprinting to any hot takes. Meanwhile, the book itself gets unusually candid about Dunham's dynamic with Adam Driver back in the early Girls days. Here is where everyone lands right now.

Allison Williams, playing it careful (but warm)

In a Tuesday, April 14 chat with Variety, Williams, 38, said she wants to finish Lena Dunham's memoir before weighing in. She happens to be at the chapter about the pilot table read for HBO 's Girls and even joked she half-expected a story about her showing up 40 minutes late. Not in there, apparently.

Williams also made a point of saying she and Dunham, 39, are still close and talking regularly, and that if there were anything in the book designed to set her life on fire, Dunham would have warned her.

"We love each other. It's a lifelong bond. It's the best."

What Dunham writes about Adam Driver

Dunham's memoir, Famesick, also out Tuesday, digs into how her on-screen relationship with Adam Driver on Girls (six seasons, 2012–2017) bled into real life feelings. She describes realizing she was drawn to him off camera, recounting a moment in his kitchen where a look from him felt so tender it knocked her off balance — literally, she says she dropped a glass. She also frames their working friendship as volatile but intense: lots of arguments, lots of gravity.

The almost-crossed line

Then there is the night-that-wasn’t. Dunham lays out a week where the boundaries got wobbly — and how she ultimately pulled back. She says they never discussed it afterward, and a month later, Driver got engaged. He has been married to Joanne Tucker since 2013.

• Dunham writes that during a week when her parents were out of town, Driver was around a lot, showing up at her place most nights.
• She notes that his girlfriend at the time was away in Cincinnati doing a play.
• On Friday, after his show, he called to say he was heading over — and warned that if he came upstairs, he might not leave.
• She did not pick up the phone.
• Dunham says they never revisited that night in conversation.
• About a month later, per Dunham, Driver was engaged; he and Joanne Tucker married in 2013.

Why this lands with a thud (and matters for fans)

It is a very behind-the-scenes slice of Girls history: the lead actor and showrunner co-star navigating a charged friendship while also trying to make a show that practically defined messy relationships on TV. Dunham is clear she believes acting on it would have complicated the work and her authority on set — and might have blown up her heart in the process. Whether you loved or bounced off Girls, that is a striking peek at what was going on off camera while they were building those characters on it.