Jemima Kirke has said that her tenure on Girls was a steep learning curve about how the industry worked.
The actress played Jessa Johansson, the selfish and often careless bohemian pal to troublesome Hannah, in the hit HBO series which began airing in 2011.
Now reflecting on the show 12 years on, Kirke admitted that filming the show taught her a valuable lesson about the industry – that it’s not all about the actor but everyone working together on set.
Speaking to AMAZING magazine, she shared: “It was such a different time in my life; it feels like a lifetime ago.
“I did enjoy it… I also didn’t completely understand how that world worked, so there were many times when a PA would come and get me from my trailer, and they’d say, ‘They’re ready for you,’ which is shorthand for, ‘Get the f*** out there now, because we’re on a budget and time limit, and you are a worker in a larger group of workers.’
“But I was just like, ‘Yeah, I’ll be there in a minute.’ I didn’t understand that wasn’t how it worked, so it was a valuable lesson I learned about being a worker among workers.”
Although she has learned that being an actor is one piece of the puzzle, Kirke added that she’s worked with actors in the past who believe their role is more “important” than everybody else’s job on set.
The Conversations With Friends star added: “As an actor, I think that there are actors who – even after years – still don’t think of themselves as that.
“They still think of themselves as having unique roles in the process, as not being replaceable, and that their role is much more important than anyone else’s on the crew or the creative side.
“I’ve been around that and they’re talented actors sometimes, and sometimes not, but they’re not very pleasant to work with.”
Kirke’s comments come after it was reported that Girls is currently having a revival on streaming platforms.
At the time, the series was both a commercial and critical success, but the show’s characters were often critiqued for being annoying, self-absorbed and displaying problematic behaviour.
Over a decade since it first aired, the New York Times revealed in March that the series’ viewership had doubled between November and January, compared with the previous three months.
When recently asked about what she thought about the dramedy’s revival, She told GQ last month: “I think people are watching it and seeing the things they’ve been protesting, but also the humanity and the stories and the character.
“Maybe this comeback is going to soften some of these hard edges that people have carved out in our society.”
