When Amy Schumer, a verifiable comedy queen, and Lena Dunham, Girls star and founder of Lenny Letter, start gabbing, no one expects it to be boring. And to be fair, when you’re chatting with a friend, you should be allowed to let loose a little. But a new interview released in Lenny has left some folks scratching their heads over their comments — certain sections in particular.
The interview was released to help promote Amy’s new book, The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo, and starts with some pretty normal musings before veering off into iffy territory. Then it continues with the two reminiscing about this year’s Met Gala, with a few different passages that have left readers cringing hard.
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Lena: “You and I were literally sitting across from each other at the Met Ball, and it was like a crazy countdown to when we could escape. You were like, ‘We’re honored to be here. We’re honored to be here.’”
Amy: “I left so early. When did you leave?”
Lena: “I attempted to grind my ass on Michael B. Jordan for an additional twenty minutes and then left right after you. I was sitting next to Odell Beckham Jr., and it was so amazing because it was like he looked at me and he determined I was not the shape of a woman by his standards. He was like, ‘That’s a marshmallow. That’s a child. That’s a dog.’ It wasn’t mean — he just seemed confused. The vibe was very much like, ‘Do I want to fuck it? Is it wearing a … yep, it’s wearing a tuxedo. I’m going to go back to my cell phone.’ It was like we were forced to be together, and he literally was scrolling Instagram rather than have to look at a woman in a bow tie. I was like, ‘This should be called the Metropolitan Museum of Getting Rejected by Athletes.’”
Amy: “You were dressed like a boy, and you looked sexy, and I really appreciated you showing me your tits several times.”
Jezebel gets it right, saying, “Dunham’s deployment of two black men here as both object — ‘I attempted to grind my ass on Michael B. Jordan’ — and misogynist — ‘Do I want to fuck it?’ — is telling, and deeply infuriating, particularly in her projection of an idea about black male athletes and their sexual prowess, all done to overemphasize how much she does not fit into a certain beauty or fashion ideal.”
But it didn’t end there. Lena and Amy go on to discuss the controversy around Inside Amy Schumer writer Kurt Metzger, who recently got a lot of flack for a viral Facebook post he wrote about whether rape victims should be believed. Many Schumer fans criticized the comedienne for employing Metzger, and those fans’ reactions made Schumer resentful (“I was resentful of the lack of trust.”). Then they go on to imply that women who found Metzger’s comments hurtful were somehow weaker than they are:
Lena: The other thing that I get really crazy about is this new world in which women aren’t just supposed to be protected from actions, they’re supposed to be protected from language. Women are so strong. My ovary has basically exploded in my stomach twice, and I was pretty chill about it. You think I can’t listen to some short comedy loser say something dumb about rape?
Amy: Right.
Lena: I’m not going to cry, I’m a fucking queen.
Amy: Yes!
Lena: I don’t think anyone should be a troll on the Internet, but I also get crazy about the idea of trigger warnings because a book isn’t what I have a problem with. What I have a problem with is actions in the world. I understand that art and public figures teach people how to behave, but I want to be outraged about what’s truly happening, because it’s always happening.
The interview continued, and the two also made some pretty insensitive comments regarding the murder of two women during a Trainwreck screening (“It is never some toothless f*cking crackhead who gets killed”).
We totally get that these ladies like to be funny and that being risqué is part of the biz, but there’s a chance that this time, they’ve crossed the line.
(h/t Jezebel; photos via Jemal Countess, Larry Busacca/Getty)
