Adam Driver briefly addressed allegations made by Lena Dunham in her memoir Famesick during a press conference at the Cannes film festival on Sunday. When asked by the Guardian about the claims, Driver replied, “I have no comment on any of that – I’m saving it all for my book,” drawing laughter from the room.
Dunham's Account in Famesick
In her memoir, which topped the New York Times bestseller list in April, Dunham recounts several difficult experiences with Driver on the set of Girls, the HBO comedy-drama that aired from 2012 to 2017. She describes a late-night rehearsal where Driver became “verbally aggressive” after she forgot her lines, allegedly hurling a chair at the wall near her and shouting, “FUCKING SAY SOMETHING.”
Dunham also wrote about filming the characters’ first sex scene, claiming that Driver “hurled me this way and that” despite careful blocking. She expressed uncertainty about whether she had lost directorial authority.
Driver's Career and Silence
Driver, now an Oscar-nominated actor for BlacKkKlansman and Marriage Story, had not previously responded to the allegations. At Cannes, he was promoting Paper Tiger, a 1980s-set crime drama directed by James Gray, also starring Miles Teller and Scarlett Johansson.
Gray's Critique of Capitalism
Director James Gray used the press conference to criticize modern American capitalism, stating that the dominance of the market is “devastating.” He said, “When you cannot monetise integrity... you get someone like the current American president, totally transactional.” Gray set the film in 1986, which he called “the beginning of the moment in which the market became God.”
Javier Bardem also spoke at Cannes about toxic masculinity, condemning “big-balls men” like Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Benjamin Netanyahu during a press conference for The Beloved.
