Just weeks after Lena Dunham accused him of “physically imposing” and “verbally aggressive” behavior, Adam Driver is finally speaking out, and his cryptic response has only further fueled the controversy.
While promoting his latest film at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival on Sunday, May 17, the actor was directly asked about the explosive allegations made in Dunham’s recently released memoir Famesick.
Highlights
- Adam Driver finally addressed Lena Dunham’s disturbing memoir allegations during a tense Cannes press conference.
- Instead of directly denying the claims, the actor responded with a cryptic joke that immediately sparked a heated online debate.
- Dunham accused Driver of “verbally aggressive” behavior on the set of ‘Girls,’ alleging that he screamed at her and hurled a chair at a wall during a rehearsal.
Adam’s carefully worded remarks immediately sparked a heated online debate, with many users openly questioning the actress’s credibility.
“I would take everything she says regarding any man she wasn’t actively in a relationship with, with a boulder of salt…” one critic wrote.
Adam Driver cryptically addressed his former co-star’s disturbing accusations against him during a recent panel discussion
Image credits: TheStewartofNY/Getty Images
In her memoir Famesick, released in April, Lena detailed what she described as a volatile and intense working relationship with Driver on the set of HBO’s Girls.
She alleged that Adam screamed in her face and hurled a chair at a wall next to her during a late-night rehearsal after she forgot her lines.
Dunham also claimed that he punched a hole in his trailer wall over a haircut and would frequently scream at her on set.
Image credits: Dominique Charriau/Getty Images
Addressing the chair-hurling incident, she wrote, “I remember doing a fight scene with Adam and how scary it was… Late one night, as we practiced lines in my trailer, I found that mine were suddenly gone. I knew I’d written them. I’d known them only minutes before.”
“But when I opened my mouth, all that came out was a stammer — until finally, Adam screamed, ‘F**KING SAY SOMETHING’ and hurled a chair at the wall next to me. ‘WAKE THE F**K UP,’ he told me. ‘I’M SICK OF WATCHING YOU JUST STARE.’”
Lena added, “I reasoned that the intensity of his anger at me, anger that could make him spit and throw things, was proportionate to the intensity of our creative connection.”
Image credits: Alessio Botticelli/Getty Images
The American Horror Story star also recalled Driver “hurling” her around during intimate scenes, clarifying that while she didn’t feel “violated,” she felt she had lost directorial control.
She further wrote, “I couldn’t speak for a moment, unsure of what had happened — had I lost directorial authority, allowed the scene to go off the rails, not given proper instructions? Would I be removed from my command post immediately?”
“It wasn’t that I felt violated — and I also wouldn’t know if I had, as there was little in my s*xual life that I hadn’t allowed to happen, and for no pay,” she added. “But I felt that something intimate, confusing, and primal had played out in a scenario I was meant to control.”
Lena Dunham alleged in her memoir that Adam displayed “physically imposing” and “verbally aggressive” behavior on set
Image credits: Festival de Cannes
Lena also recounted an incident in which the two nearly “crossed whatever boundary we were threatening to cross.”
At one point, when Adam’s then-girlfriend, Joanne Tucker, was out of town, the actor allegedly visited Lena at her apartment almost every night for about a week to keep her company.
Despite the unsettling nature of the incidents she described, the actress clarified during her book promotions that Adam never physically harmed her.
During a press conference at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival yesterday, while promoting his crime thriller Paper Tiger, a journalist representing The Guardian asked the actor whether he would like to comment on the allegations.
Image credits: HBO
The House of Gucci star appeared to dismiss his former co-star’s accusations with a brief, lighthearted remark, saying, “I have no comment on any of that – I’m saving it all for my book.”
The outlet noted that his response drew widespread laughter from the audience.
Moreover, off-mic, Driver reportedly muttered to co-star Miles Teller, who was also on the panel, that he had no idea what Lena was talking about.
The internet also reacted strongly to Dunham’s allegations in her memoir, with some users openly questioning her credibility.
Netizens appeared divided over Lena’s claims, with some criticizing her as “narcissistic,” while others said they believed her account
One skeptic wrote, “She's so narcissistic…” while another commented, “She’s just unfortunately got very little credibility at this point. Too much self-inflicted baggage, too much being an absolute mess in public… Her defenders will chalk it up to misogyny, but that’s not all this is.”
Another user wrote, “Of all the people to be born into wealth, she’s literally the most annoying one created. Everything about her irks me.”
Others expressed, “Everything she says is a lie or huge exaggeration to make her out to be some victim. She is one of the worst people in Hollywood. I do feel sorry for her… but she has ruined many lives with her hateful and dishonest claims…”
“Calling a man who is about a full foot taller than you, ‘physically imposing,’ is lowkey funny af,” one user quipped.
Image credits: The Interview
“It’s funny how she’s an unreliable narrator when talking negatively about Adam Driver, but she’s 100% correct and factual when talking negatively about herself.”
While Lena appeared to paint a darker picture of Adam in her memoir, she also described the actor as “very talented” and “charismatic” in interviews promoting the book.
Speaking to People, she explained that her intention was not to portray Driver as an “outlier” or villain, but rather to explore “how complex and confusing those first experiences of trying to be a boss were” when she was in her 20s.
Adam and Lena have not spoken to each other in nearly a decade after filming wrapped on the series finale of Girls in 2017
Image credits: lenadunham
Dunham said, “It was an attempt to capture that [relationship] in an honest way, and also really talk about how much being around this very talented, charismatic, complex, and powerful person affected me in ways that were really positive and in ways that were a bit harder.”
Many online appeared to agree with that interpretation, with one fan writing on X, “As someone who actually read this book, I have to say again, it’s a nuanced and ultimately flattering depiction of Adam Driver, even with these unseemly cherry-picked details.”
“I don’t think Lena intended [for] anyone to read Famesick and think Adam is an a*user or even a bad guy.”
Image credits: HBO
Another person agreed, writing, “How Lena Dunham tells the story in interviews is totally different than what the headlines are trying to make it out to be.”
“She’s talked about it in interviews and I don’t think she’s trying to cancel him, it was a weird situation between them but there isn’t beef. Also, Adam wouldn’t have a career without her,” remarked a third.
Despite their complicated history, Driver and Dunham have reportedly not spoken to each other in nearly a decade.
According to Lena, the two completely lost contact after filming wrapped on the series finale of Girls in 2017.
“Given how she has projected her assumptions on others before, I take her with a bag of salt,” one user wrote
