We’ve all been there. Sitting on the sofa with our parents, innocently watching a programme when low and behold, the onscreen couple whip off their clothes and suddenly what you thought would be a PG viewing has become an excruciatingly embarrassing evening for all involved.
Well now imagine what it would be like for your mum to watch you act out sex scenes on screen and you might just have an inkling of what Lena Dunham’s mother has to go through. Having seen all three seasons of Girls, it’s hard to think of what might have been the worst scene – although the very first time we see Hannah and Adam getting it on, all the way back in the first episode, is pretty bad (he tells her to lie on her stomach and grab her legs…).
In a recent interview with The Times, Laurie Simmons, Lena’s 64 year-old mother, has revealed that: ‘No mother wants to watch her daughter have sex or be in a sex scene. When I went to the premiere I had to cover my eyes.’ She went on to say that it was even more uncomfortable for Lena’s dad and that, ‘to pretend that it’s really natural and that we’re very relaxed about watching the sex scenes — that would be just crazy.’ Crazy indeed.
A successful artist herself, you have to admire Simmons for her honesty, but when she goes on to discuss Lena’s development it is clear just how impressed and proud she is of her daughter. ‘I have an enormous amount of respect for her work,’ she says. ‘She’s going to do what she does and go forward. And be embarrassed.’
Still, a bit of embarrasment isn't much of a sacrifice for a TV, movie and book career that's already what most 28-year-olds can only dream about.
Follow Lucy Draper on Twitter @DraperLucy
**
**Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.