Lena Dunham has said she feels “protective” of Taylor Swift “in every single way” when asked in an interview about her friendship with the pop star.
Speaking to The New Yorker, Dunham praised many of Swift’s qualities and said she was very protective of the ‘Tortured Poets’ singer.
The Girls creator was critical of how Swift’s personal life was always scrutinised during her 20s.
She said: “I’m always very careful to be protective of her in every single way. Probably the two things I get asked most in life are ‘What is Taylor like?’ and ‘Can I have tickets to the Eras Tour?’
“And usually my answer to both things is no, but I will say that she’s everything that you would want her to be. She’s kind, she’s devoted, she’s introspective, she’s emotional, she’s funny as fuck. I guess my feeling sometimes is; Isn’t she giving us enough, guys?”
Dunham told the outlet: “Considering how complicated my 20s were, I do maintain really beautiful and emotional relationships with most of the people who were my friends.”
When asked about her experience attending the ‘Eras Tour’, she responded: “I like to sometimes go to the cities that are a little bit more off the beaten path. I was telling [her husband Luis Felber] before we went, ‘Listen, you’ve never seen me like this’. It’s like something comes through me – it’s my church. I start speaking in tongues.
“Even since before Taylor and I were friends, I just always had felt such a deep connection to her music. Something unique to only me, obviously.”
Dunham went on to say that she was inspired by how Swift acknowledges “her own prolific expression”, adding: “I love seeing a woman who’s not yet forty being, like, ‘Yes, I have a body of work’.”
The pair have a long-standing friendship. In 2014, Swift said: “Becoming friends with Lena… has made me realise that I’ve been taking a feminist stance without actually saying so.
“As a teenager, I didn’t understand that saying you’re a feminist is just saying that you hope women and men will have equal rights and equal opportunities.”
In 2015, Swift revealed that Dunham’s relationship with her then-partner Jack Antonoff – the former’s request collaborator – inspired her song ‘You Are In Love’ from her ‘1989’ album.
When asked by Elle in 2015 about the ‘You Are In Love’ lyric “You’re my best friend“, Swift replied: “I’ve never had that, so I wrote that song about things that Lena has told me about her and Jack.
“That’s just basically stuff she’s told me. And I think that that kind of relationship — God, it sounds like it would just be so beautiful — would also be hard. It would also be mundane at times.”
Dunham said she listened to ‘1989’ “every day, all day” in 2014, and opened up about her connection to Swift’s music.
“I’ve been obsessed with Taylor Swift since her first song,” she explained. “‘Teardrops On My Guitar’ was the first one I became familiar with, but I think she’s been a fully formed creative voice since she was 15 and really does sing my story.”
Earlier this week, Swift released the acoustic version of ‘Fortnight’ featuring Post Malone. The track, the lead single off her latest album ‘The Tortured Poets Department’, was also remixed by Cults.
The record earned a three-star review from NME: “The pitfalls that mire her 11th studio album are all the more disappointing – she’s proven time and time again she can do better.
“To a Melbourne audience of her Eras Tour, Swift said that ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ came from a “need” to write. It’s just that maybe we didn’t need to hear it.”
Swift is currently on the European leg of her ‘Eras Tour’. NME gave her Edinburgh show five stars in a review, commending her fanbase’s spirit.
It reads: “Despite being an arena show, in a huge, cavernous venue, Swift and her fans have managed to cultivate a community. Strangers swap friendship bracelets, laugh and cry together, and embrace the tour’s in-jokes and lore.”
The singer is due to return to London next month for five more sold-out concerts at Wembley Stadium, having played three gigs at the venue in June. Support will once again come from Paramore.
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