HBO ‘Girls’ Season 3 Cast: Lena Dunham, Allison Williams Marine’s a "Villain"; Defends Friendship

HBO's Girls Season 3 is drawing to a close and Allison Williams admits that Lena Dunham and the rest of the writers had to make Marnie a villain in order to deal with Christopher Abbott's (aka Charlie) sudden departure from the series. Williams remarked that Marnie is the kind of person that would end up there anyways, while defending the ladies' continued on air friendship in a recent interview.

Allison Williams loves her role as Marnie on Lena Dunham's HBO hit Girls, even if she isn't exactly sure how people will relate to the ne'er-do-well's actions.

Allison told BuzzFeed that she understood why some folks might find it hard to relate to her morally ambiguous character's character (via Complex):

"I think it's a hard show for some people to figure out because they don't know what character to root for at any given moment. But that's the current era of television. Look at the cast of House of Cards. Who is good on that show? No one. None of them...well, besides Cashew.

"But I can appreciate people feeling that way. I have always been aware that Marnie is divisive, and I feel like we leaned into that this season. I mean, Marnie is probably the closest I will ever come to playing a villain without actually killing someone."

And Williams understands why her character had to take such a dark turn into despair so quickly-- the writers had to cope with their plans being overturned by Christopher Abbott's decision to leave the series (via Entertainment Weekly):

"I think for Marnie, almost her entire season was Charlie-related. We were going to see how that relationship went. I think there was talk of cohabitation certainly, engagement, all of that.

"So it definitely required a big shift on the part of the writers. But what we've ended up with is something that I'm incredibly proud of, and obviously as brilliant as whatever the writers were planning to write initially.

"It probably closely resembles what Marnie's fourth season would have looked like, because obviously things with Charlie wouldn't have worked out. She would have ended up kind of where she was at the beginning of [this] season anyway."

So go watch Allison Williams act like a first class A-hole on HBO Girls Season 3 finale, which airs Sunday March 23 at 10 p.m.

About the Author