‘Girls’ Postmortem: Talking Abuse of Power (and Guest Star Matthew Rhys’s Reveal)
First things first, comrade: The Americans star Matthew Rhys did not just let it all hang out during his appearance on the third installment of Girls‘ final season, and the latest in the show’s remarkable run of Lena Dunham-penned bottle episodes that began with the Season 2 classic, “One Man’s Trash.” Sure, in the closing moments of “American Bitch,” Rhys’s character, Upper West Side novelist (and all-around creep) Chuck Palmer, appeared to expose his lil’ Palmer to an alternately fascinated and freaked out Hannah. But remember what The Americans has taught us about appearances being deceiving. According to the episode’s director, Richard Shepard — who helmed “One Man’s Trash” as well as Season 5’s standout standalone episode, “The Panic in Central Park” — a prop penis was substituted for Rhys’s actual member.
“Matthew said, ‘I don’t want to show my penis — can we use a fake one?'” Shepard tells Yahoo TV. “And I was like, ‘Sure.’ That wasn’t something to be fighting for, because the point of the episode is that you believe it’s his penis. Honestly, if it had been his real penis, we’d probably have had to shoot the scene quicker, because everyone would have been nervous. With a fake penis, you’re not worried about an erection or a non-erection. You can actually deal with what you need to deal with.”
For the record, that fake penis isn’t your average dildo either. No, Shepard “cast” Palmer’s penis via a medical supply company that provides realistic-looking penises to disfigured patients. “We wanted it semi-erect, not fully erect, which meant we couldn’t use a sex toy penis,” the director explains. “And then we had to match the skin tone and have the actor approve the size. I thought I’d seen everything in my career; it takes Girls to learn about semi-erect penises!”
Besides being a memorable sight gag, Palmer’s bit of indecent exposure functions as the checkmate move in a game that Hannah isn’t even aware she’s been playing. The author has summoned her to his apartment in response to a New York Times article she wrote about his rumored proclivity for using his literary world celebrity to entice comely college coeds into sexual situations. Since his attempts to blithely dismiss the rumors as “hearsay” fall flat, Palmer employs multiple tactics in his battle of wits with a highly skeptical Hannah. Sometimes he deflects blame (“I’ve never forced anyone to blow me!”), other times he relentlessly flatters his interrogator (“You’re funny, that’s a funny sentence”), and still other times he indulges in self-pity (“Why am I being punished?”).
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For her part, Hannah hangs in there with his ever-shifting arguments, a clear signal that — despite what some of her friends (and viewers) might think — she’s matured since the series began. “I don’t think Hannah could have had this debate in an earlier season,” Shepard insists. “She’s more confident, more assertive, and more articulate now than she has been.” Nevertheless, Chuck Palmer walks away with the victory when Hannah lets her hand drift down toward his penis. “In that moment, [he’s saying] because of the way that men and women have evolved and because of the power men have over women in our society, you are expected to touch my penis. You’re going to. And a moment later, Hannah jumps up saying, ‘I can’t believe she did it,’ but she proved his point. That’s how insidious it is.”
In public, Dunham hasn’t been shy about expressing her distaste for certain male celebrities accused of sexual scandals, whether it’s Woody Allen or Bill Cosby. (Indeed, a picture of Allen is pointedly displayed in Palmer’s apartment, a detail that Shepard says “makes sense on several levels, whatever one’s opinions are of Woody Allen’s personal life, which obviously has a little bit of play in the bigger picture. Also, any Upper West Side writer is probably going to revere Woody Allen.”) But Dunham says that neither of those controversial men were specifically on her mind when she sat down to write “American Bitch,” which was originally slated to be the sixth episode of Season 6, but is airing third in part to not impede the narrative momentum as the show heads towards its series finale.
“What was important to me with this episode was examining the way that men in positions of power abuse their station without even understanding what they’re doing wrong,” Dunham tells Yahoo TV. “They enact trauma and pain while thinking they’re in an equal exchange [with women]. And what they’re actually doing is abusing a kind of privilege that’s been bestowed upon them that women aren’t capable of receiving unless it’s inferred upon them by a man. I hope that a woman watches [this episode] and feels she doesn’t have to deny herself her own trauma. There’s so much shame that comes with coercion when women are trying to get ahead in an industry that’s designed to continue to perpetuate male power and deny women agency. Those are the experiences we have to pick at.”
Dunham’s creative partner, Jenni Konner, suggests that the episode was equally inspired by abuses of power they both have witnessed in the industry. “We had an experience recently with a director who was so inappropriate with us,” says Konner, who wrote at length about this encounter on their website, Lenny Letter. “I would consider us to be pretty powerful right now, and to him it wasn’t inappropriate. So I think it’s about exploring this area of how to be a man in the world without offending and upsetting people all the time.”
Of course, Dunham also hoped to make the episode a teachable lesson without having it feel like homework. That’s where casting Matthew Rhys came in — an easy choice for a creative team that confesses to being obsessed with The Americans. “There’s an inherent likability about Matthew,” Shepard points out. “You like him even when he’s playing a killer spy! And you have to like Palmer enough so that you believe Hannah would go into his bedroom when all is said and done. You don’t want the entire audience screaming, ‘Don’t go in there!'”
Dunham, meanwhile, praises her co-star’s lack of vanity. “You’d be surprised how many male actors [on Girls] through the years have wanted to be the hero or make sure their character was just in some way,” she says. “And Matthew was so willing to play the shades and shadows. Working with someone that open to the intricacies of the script made it a joy.”
Girls airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on HBO.
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