{"id":862,"date":"2025-07-11T07:00:02","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T07:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/862\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T07:00:02","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T07:00:02","slug":"meet-the-real-meg-stalter-star-of-lena-dunhams-new-show-too-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/862\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Real Meg Stalter, Star of Lena Dunham’s New Show ‘Too Much’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\teg Stalter was fighting in a hot tub. She had come to a water park in Wisconsin to relax between stops on her comedy tour, which was styled as a series of fake rallies for a rich, famous, and clueless person running for president. (I know this is a difficult political scenario to imagine, but please stay with me.) While Stalter soaked, she became enraged by a group of hot-tub dwellers who were not embodying what she considered to be the spirit of the aquatic center, and she began screaming back and forth with them. \u201cWow, you seem like a lot of fun,\u201d Stalter yelled, informing them that there were three other sections of the park they could move to if they had a problem with this particular one. Then she stood up, said, \u201cYou know what? I\u2019m going to show you that if you don\u2019t like to be around someone, you get up and leave,\u201d turned, and banged her head on the wall.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is probably tracking for those who know Stalter from her live performances, or Hacks<\/a>, on which she plays the indefatigably clueless nepo-agent Kayla, or Stalter\u2019s Instagram, which showcases her myriad well-\u00admeaning, clueless characters, such as the personification of a business attempting to project allyship to the LQBTQIA+ community. (\u201cHi, gay! Happy Pride Month. We are sashaying away with deals.\u201d) These talents are deployed to great effect on Too Much (July 10), the new Netflix series from married co-creators Lena Dunham<\/a> and Luis Felber, in which Stalter plays a fictionalized version of Dunham, a voice of a clueless generation.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Meg Stalter is not so much clueless as compassionately guileless. See, she was at the water park with her girlfriend, and there was a tiny child swimming alone in the hot tub. Some adults started sticking their arms out and pushing the boy away so he couldn\u2019t enter \u201ctheir area\u201d because he was allegedly \u201cscratching and splashing.\u201d (At an all-ages water park, this seems like a barrier of entry.) When Stalter told them they could not touch another person\u2019s kid but could feel free to steep elsewhere in the massive facility, the man in the group started cursing at her. And then she was so upset, actually shaking with anger as she went to go find the little boy\u2019s parents, that she clonked her skull in front of those assholes. \u201cIt was so embarrassing,\u201d Stalter says. \u201cIt was, like, out of a movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tStalter\u2019s protective instincts for the innocent extend to her own inner child, who is close enough to the surface as to be visible; her grooming tends toward pigtails and the kind of glittery makeup job one applies after receiving a fully stocked Caboodles makeup kit from Santa. Today, sitting in the empty audience of her favorite Los Angeles performance spot, Largo, before it opens, Stalter is wearing Hello Kitty Crocs and a one-shoulder dress in Lisa Frank-lite pastels. When we greet each other, she gives me tangerines she\u2019d picked the day before on a trip to a farm with her girlfriend. The produce bag is sweetly tied with a sextuple-looped yellow ribbon.<\/p>\n

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Outfit by Reformation. Scarf by Mads Allen. Jewelry by Loren Stewart<\/p>\n

\n\tIn person, with her comedic cutie-brat persona tucked away, Stalter is earnest and vulnerable, frequently invoking the importance of her faith. \u201cI\u2019m very, like, a God girl,\u201d she says. \u201cSo I believe that God has a plan for me, and if something happens, then he\u2019ll have another plan.\u201d Stalter is also, against all evidence, quite soft-spoken. \u201cIf I was in a store and someone shushed me in a scary way, that would affect me,\u201d Stalter says. \u201cIf someone was mean to me, I could feel like the little girl. \u2018Why would they be mean to her?\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring Stalter\u2019s childhood in Ohio, they were mean to her. After graduating from Catholic elementary school, she attended civilian middle school and struggled to understand why everyone wasn\u2019t friends. The popular girls \u201ctortured\u201d her, she says. In an effort to facilitate the missing camaraderie, Stalter invited everyone to a Hawaiian-themed party at her house. She discovered invitations she\u2019d lovingly handed out tossed in the trash at school. Two people wound up attending.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\tStalter\u2019s mom was (perhaps unsurprisingly) an early ally. She found Stalter funny for the things she still perceives to be true about herself: being \u201cembarrassing or nervous and confident at the same time.\u201d Stalter would do interpretive dances on the sidewalk; the joke was that her mom was the only one who knew she wasn\u2019t crazy.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat tension of not everyone getting it is Stalter\u2019s comedic modus operandi. She recalls a show at the Laugh Factory in Chicago, before she was famous, where the audience was full of drunk tourists \u2014 and a lone friend of Stal\u00adter\u2019s. She had a bit where she would take the stage with blood pouring out of her mouth and open by saying, \u201cSorry if my mouth bleeds tonight. My mouth bleeds when I get nervous, but I think I\u2019m OK tonight.\u201d The only person who laughed at that show, and hysterically, was her buddy. It was a great night.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s fun if it\u2019s even just one person,\u201d she says of connecting with an audience. \u201cAnd sometimes that could be me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen she performs, Stalter says, \u201cIt\u2019s something that comes over me like a trance. One of my best friends, [Saturday Night Live star] Sarah Sherman, told me that when she does stand-up, it feels like meditation. And I was like, \u2018Oh, my God. It feels like that.\u2019\u2009\u201d Stalter says when she\u2019s performed with a headache, she stops feeling it until she leaves the stage. \u201cI think that\u2019s when [I know] I\u2019m meant to do that,\u201d Stalter says. Any pain goes away while she enacts God\u2019s purpose for her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Too Much, Stalter\u2019s Jessica is a celebration of the show\u2019s title. The character is caught between a manic id fueled equally by a painful breakup and the lust of new love, and the debilitating superego induced by the same life events. Jess records a series of videos she doesn\u2019t intend to release, directly addressing the woman her ex is now engaged to (played by the comically hot Emily Ratajkowski), and whips herself into self-\u00adsabotage by questioning her new relationship with Felix (Will Sharpe of The White Lotus Season Two fame), who is loosely based on Felber. Any time you fear things are getting unsustainably tumultuous, you need only remind yourself that every episode is a play on the title of a famous rom-com (e.g., \u201cNotting Kill\u201d) and that its creators are now happily married enough to want to work together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m performing, something comes over me like a trance. That\u2019s when I know I\u2019m meant to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe show gives Stalter her first major leading role. She is perhaps the only person besides Dunham who could have played it, which is why Dunham wrote it for her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAndrew Scott<\/a>, who also appears in Too Much, introduced Dunham to Stalter\u2019s work. Dunham says he\u2019d shown her Meg\u2019s videos \u201cin the heart of Covid and said, \u2018Do you know this girl? She\u2019s your sister.\u2019\u2009\u201d (Dunham does play Stalter\u2019s onscreen sister, hilariously despondent after her husband decides to explore bisexuality and polyamory while she languishes in a series of increasingly sedentary supine positions.) \u201cI became totally transfixed,\u201d Dunham says. \u201cSomeone whose characters operate on the edge of delusional, on the edge of cringe, but is always ultimately in on the joke \u2014 that, to me, is my comedy DNA.\u201d Dunham cites the characters David Brent on the U.K. Office, Patsy and Edina on Absolutely Fabulous, and Valerie Cherish of The Comeback as Stalter\u2019s fictional ancestors.<\/p>\n

\n\tAround 2022, Dunham DM\u2019d Stalter on Instagram and said she had a project in mind. Stalter was a mega Girls fan and had felt a kinship with Dunham through the screen. \u201cI\u2019d connect to this person,\u201d she\u2019d thought about a hypothetical but unlikely future meeting while watching Dunham play Hannah Horvath, the series\u2019 divisive protagonist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Stalter and Dunham got on Zoom, Stalter\u2019s instinct was confirmed. Dunham had made a deck of the show \u2014 kind of a mood board\/game plan for a television series \u2014 and there were photos of Stalter on it as the main character. Then Dunham told Stalter, \u201cGirls was about sex, and this is about love.\u201d It was kismet; Stalter had met her now-partner only four months earlier and refers to her this way: \u201cNo one\u2019s perfect except for my girlfriend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re very different, just like Lena and Luis,\u201d Stalter says. \u201cWhen me and Lena first talked, we were bonding over that. I feel like I\u2019m the Lena, and I\u2019m the one bringing home a thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStalter is referring to the chaos of her life, but sometimes the \u201cthing\u201d is literal. Imagining a conversation between Felber and Dunham, Stalter riffs, \u201cShe could be like, \u2018Honey, I bought a pig today.\u2019 And then he\u2019s like [affectionately], \u2018Oh, Lena.\u2019\u2009\u201d Working with the couple proved the premise of the show. \u201cIt just feels like Luis fully lets Lena, and Lena lets Luis, be exactly who they are,\u201d Stalter says. \u201cI think sometimes you could be with someone who likes all the differences.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Top and Shoes by Reformation. Bra by Norma Kamali. Scarf by Mads Allen. Jewelry by Loren Stewart.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn her own menagerie, Stalter currently has two cats \u2014 one rather more aloof, and one hairless snuggler named Suki \u2014 and a dog called Bunny, who manages an anxiety disorder with medication and as much physical contact with Stalter as possible. On Too Much, Jess, like Dunham, has a bald dog, procured after giving up a rescue (in this case named Cutesie) because of behavioral issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2017, Dunham went through several heinous press cycles, including one around the saga of her and then-partner Jack Antonoff\u2019s real-life dog, Lamby, whom they surrendered to a canine rehabilitation center after multiple instances of aggression. In Too Much, Jess\u2019 boyfriend forces her to \u201cget rid\u201d of their dog after it nearly bites someone. It\u2019s one of many moments that invite a close read, especially in the context of Dunham\u2019s autobiographical pieces of writing about her wrenching breakup with Antonoff and her subsequent move to London \u2014 the city where Stalter\u2019s character decamps after the end of a relationship with a Jewish ex-boyfriend.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPeople love when they see something and they\u2019re like, \u2018Is that from that person\u2019s real life?\u2019\u2009\u201d Stalter says. \u201cEven if it\u2019s not all factual or it\u2019s not literally a biography, someone so open about sharing their real experiences or at least putting them into certain characters, it\u2019s really beautiful, because we get to learn about her. That\u2019s why when I saw Girls, even though [Lena is] not Hannah, there\u2019s parts of her in her stuff. That\u2019s the most beautiful thing to see, someone who\u2019s putting their heart and energy into something and you get to learn about them \u2014 but then you\u2019re not taking everything that happened as truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the precipice of her highest-profile role yet, Stalter is contemplating what the project might mean for nonconsensual probing into her own life. People watching her videos is fine, because she has complete control over them, and people are seeing them in their homes. When audiences come to her stand-up shows, well, that\u2019s what she\u2019s always wanted, and the work is begetting fans who want to see more work. \u201cIt feels contained or something,\u201d Stalter says. \u201cAnd then with Hacks, it\u2019s been so huge and life-changing. But in my mind, I could be safe because I\u2019m not the lead in it.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLena is someone I\u2019ve been such a huge fan of, so it was really crazy to wrap my mind around being in the show,\u201d Stalter says slowly. \u201cBut then when I got to know her, she felt like a sister and a friend. So now the show feels like a play that we did for each other, and that this really contains a special thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting to know Lena, she felt like a sister and a friend. So now the show feels like a play that we did for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSharpe remembers filming an episode \u2014 one of the best of the series \u2014 that takes place over one night, in Stalter\u2019s character\u2019s apartment. The couple has had sex too many times, and Sharpe\u2019s character has hit his refractory limit. Sharpe\u2019s line after aborting the encounter was supposed to be something like, \u201cI\u2019m in my thirties, queen. I\u2019m all out.\u201d After an exhausting day of filming, it came out, in a posh accent, as, \u201cThat\u2019s me done for the evening, I\u2019m afraid.\u201d Stalter named this imaginary interloping gentleman \u201cthe Midnight Man,\u201d and pointed out every time Sharpe strayed into Midnight Man territory during production. Then she made him a shirt with the moniker on it. \u201cBecause of the energy of Lena \u2014 and Meg, in particular \u2014 it put you in quite a positive, hopeful, loving mindset,\u201d Sharpe says of shooting the series. \u201cJust seeing the best in everything and in everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe setting allowed Stalter the confidence and space to play a role that both exercises her obvious comedic virtuosity and shows previously untapped dramatic ability, from dealing with insecurity (not a state expressed by a typical Stalter character) to a breakdown during a breakup. \u201cSome of the stuff that\u2019s in the show I feel is like, Oh! Nobody would ever see me do this if it wasn\u2019t on TV,\u201d Stalter says. \u201cWhen you\u2019re crying in your room alone, people don\u2019t see that unless it\u2019s on TV. I\u2019m really crying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEmbodying what Dunham describes as Stalter\u2019s \u201cincredible mix of warm\/fuzzy and boundaried strength,\u201d Stalter explains how she approached fictional sex with the advice of intimacy coordinator Miriam Lucia: \u201cDuring kissing scenes or during vulnerable stuff, it\u2019s not actually you, and you don\u2019t have to do it the way you do, because you can save that part for yourself.\u201d As for Stalter\u2019s corporeal being \u2014 beautifully showcased on a series in which her character is implicitly contrasted with one played by an actual supermodel \u2014 she says, \u201cI\u2019m very about taking care of my body and being healthy, but I have not wanted to be skinny or lose weight for cosmetic reasons since high school.\u201d A beacon for us all.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo make public the kind of deeply personal moments fostered by Dunham\u2019s writing is, by definition, exposing. \u201cIt just feels really vulnerable,\u201d Stalter says. \u201cIt\u2019s hard or strange to think of it being on such a huge platform. It\u2019s exciting \u2026 but also, just, Netflix is so big.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStalter points to her career-long luck of collaborating with people like Dunham and the Hacks team. \u201cI\u2019ve not worked with evil people,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t know how.\u201d But she also considers the world this project is opening her up to. \u201cI think there is power in Hollywood that is gross,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of darkness in the industry, and things that can corrupt you, like money and power.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStalter isn\u2019t particularly concerned. \u201cI feel so connected to God and grounded that I feel like I would not get swept up by anything in Hollywood,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\tStalter sees herself representing \u2014 in her life, in a movie she\u2019s developing called Church Girls, and in the \u201cevil, crazy, weird villain\u201d version of herself she plays onstage \u2014 people like her, who grew up with God in places like the Midwest, and who maybe didn\u2019t finish college either. \u201cTheir lives are just as big as ours,\u201d she says, finally daring to group herself in with her famous peers.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m always going to be sensitive,\u201d Stalter says. \u201cI am still that little girl in middle school being like, \u2018Why don\u2019t they want to come to the Hawaiian party?\u2019 But it\u2019s like, there\u2019ve been so many other parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

Production Credits<\/p>\n

Produced by PATRICIA BILOTTI at PBNY PRODUCTIONS. Styled by KAT TYPALDOS. Hair by ERICKA VERRETT at A-FRAME using ROZ.\u00a0Makeup by MELISSA HERNANDEZ at A-FRAME using HAUS LABS. Photo assistants: SCOTT TURNER and SANDRA RIVERA. Styling assistant: LYDIA GINGRICH. Photographed at DUST STUDIOS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"M eg Stalter was fighting in a hot tub. She had come to a water park in Wisconsin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1064,88,1065,1066],"class_list":{"0":"post-862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-andrew-scott","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-hacks","11":"tag-lena-dunham"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}