Lena Dunham's acclaimed series Girls is a HBO show that got the world talking, and is one of my favorite shows of all time. The show has been re-watched a ton in recent years for those with an HBO Max subscription, and Lena Dunham has addressed the response to Adam Driver's character while promoting her new book. Andrew Rannells famously starred as Eljiah Krantz in an impressive 35-episode throughout its run on TV, and there's one famous line that folks are still yelling at him on the street.
Girls is endlessly quotable, thanks to the hilarious scripts written by Lena Dunham and company. Elijah is one of the best characters IMO, and has plenty of memorable one-liners about the rest of the cast. But in an interview with The Guardian, Rannells revealed the line that's shouted at him the most on the streets. Namely:
Your dad is gay!
Honestly, I should have known. This line comes from Rannells' very first episode of Girls, during Season 1 Episode 3 "All Adventurous Women Do." In this scene Hannah reunites with her college boyfriend Elijah shortly after being diagnosed with HPV. She tries to blame him for this, and the two have a quiet but hilariously biting argument in a bar.
During this conversation he comes out as gay, something Lena Dunham's protagonist feels personally offended by. The argument eventually ends with Elijah accusing her father Tad (late actor Peter Scolari) of being gay, to hilarious results. As a reminder, you can check out a clip from that scene below courtesy of the Girls Rewatch Podcast's Instagram.
The argument ends with "It was nice to see you, your dad is gay." And just like that, lives were changed. This scene ended up being so iconic that Rannells was routinely brought back on future seasons of Girls. And after being a recurring character in the first three seasons, he was promoted to a series regular for Seasons 4–6.
As someone who watched Girls during its original run on the air, it's been fascinating to see the way it's remained in the pop culture landscape since the 2017 series finale. The show has aged like fine win, which is why it's gotten a newfound respect and popularity in recent years. And Andrew Rannells' performance as Eljiah is consistently hilarious in every appearance he makes.
Years ago, Lena Dunham mused about where the Girls characters would be nowadays. She thought Elijah would likely be a sitcom actor, while still struggling with his love life. Dunham recently teased she had ideas for a Girls movie, and I'm going to have to hold out hope that it comes to existence one day... including Rannells' iconic character.
Girls is streaming in its entirety over on HBO Max. Rannells has been keeping busy lately, hosting The Great American Baking Show and acting in projects like Nobody Wants This and Deli Boys.
