Is Lena Dunham’s ‘Too Much’ based on a true story? Here’s what she’s said about the new show
Lena Dunham’s new Netflix series “Too Much” may not be a direct retelling of her own love story, but fans wondering if it mirrors her real-life romance with musician Luis Felber aren’t entirely off base.
Billed as a messy, modern rom-com, “Too Much” follows Jessica (played by TikTok star and “Hacks” standout Megan Stalter), a New Yorker in her mid-30s coping with the disastrous end of her seven-year relationship.
Jessica moves to London, hoping to start over. There, she falls for Felix (Will Sharpe), a charming but damaged musician with his own emotional baggage.
Dunham, known for writing and starring in “Girls,” co-created the series with Felber who, like Felix, is a British musician. How much of “Too Much” is inspired by Dunham and Felber’s love story? Here’s what to know.
Is ‘Too Much’ based on a true story?
Dunham confirmed that “Too Much” was inspired in part by her own relationship with Felber, whom she met and married in the U.K. in 2021.
“A girl moves to England. She meets a musician. They fall in love. That was the exoskeleton,” Dunham told The Hollywood Reporter. “While the germ of it may be autobiographical, it’s gone in directions I never could’ve dreamed.”
She echoed the sentiment in an interview with Variety. Essentially, even though it started in truth, “Too Much” quickly veered into the fictional.
“It’s certainly not quote-unquote based on a true story,” Dunham told Variety. “But like everything I do, there is an element of my own life that I can’t help but inject.”
Still, fans were quick to draw comparisons between Jessica’s story and Dunham’s personal life, including her 2017 breakup with musician Jack Antonoff and her eventual move to the U.K., where she met Felber.
Dunham resists attempts to decode “Too Much” as a dramatized memoir.
“My least favorite thing would be if people were to try to ‘Baby Reindeer’ it, because it would be impossible,” she told Vanity Fair, referring to Netflix’s hit drama based on the creator’s life, sparking controversy and lawsuits as a result. “It’s so many influences, so many stories from friends.”
She said moments in the show stem from a collective experience rather than a single relationship.
“That ex-boyfriend is very much an amalgamation of every ex that I’ve had, or that a friend’s had,” Dunham said. “If someone were to say, ‘Who inspired that character?’ I’d be like, ‘Do you have time for me to give you the 42 examples?’”
Do Dunham and Felber appear in ‘Too Much’?
Dunham has a supporting role as Jessica’s sister, Nora, who is going through a divorce from her husband (“Girls” alum Andrew Rannells) and experiencing depression.
Felber makes a brief cameo as DJ Ludwig in Episode 8. In addition to writing, producing and creating the show, Felber scored the series under his stage name Attawalpa.
One of the songs for the series is named, of course, “Too Much.”
“Lyrically ‘Too Much’ is about meeting ‘the one’, but you’re not quite evolved yet,” Felber told the arts publication Nowness.