13 Behind The Scenes Secrets Of Girls You NEED To Know

The HBO show Girls just ended its six-season run, and we're already missing our favorite, narcissistic, messy, sort-of grownup foursome of friends who have loved each other, hated each other, and evolved together. When the show began, critics and audiences considered the series to resonate to only a select few, and those few were privileged, educated, white young women. While you could definitely make an argument to that effect, it was also refreshing to see the lives of twentysomething females reflected in all its ugliness, realness, brutality, hilarity, and honesty.

While the characters of Hannah Horvath, Marnie Michaels, Jessa Johansson, and Shoshanna Shapiro came together and fell apart throughout the course of the series, the four main actors have stuck closely by each other and created a show that resonates among its audience. Unlike the messy lives of the characters they play, however, there is less dirt to be found behind the scenes of the show, because there was very minimal drama on set! (The one exception to this was the abrupt departure of Christopher Abbott, who played Charlie.) With that being said, we managed to dig deep and discover 12 secrets behind the set of HBO's Girls.

12 Café Grumpy is a real place

The coffee place that Ray (and briefly, Hannah) works at is actually a real place! Before it was later renamed Ray's, after Ray's management takeover, Café Grumpy is a real chain of coffee shops that you can find in New York City. The crew chose it as the ideal place to film because they said it had “the best coffee in the city”. Also, since they were shooting in Greenpoint, it was very accessible. We know that the name 'Café Grumpy' seems pretty fitting for the stick-in-the-mud character of old man Ray Ploshansky (played by Alex Karpovsky), but now we know it really exists! The owner apparently had no idea that her shop was going to be mentioned by name on the show, either. As a thank you, the cast was regularly given to-go bags of the java, especially since they didn't want to get too hyped on caffeine before filming. If you happen to find yourself visiting the area, maybe make a stop at Café Grumpy for an authentic taste of the Girls set!

11 Marnie is based on Lena Dunham's real life BFF

The tightly wound, impossibly perfect Marnie Michaels of the first couple of seasons of Girls was actually based on creator Lena Dunham's real life BFF, Audrey Gelman! Physically speaking, both Allison Williams and Gelman resemble one another with their slight frames, brown hair, and large eyes. However, as Marnie morphed into a folk-singing, narcissistic young woman, the comparisons between her and Gelman fell by the wayside.

As a tribute to the real life person who inspired the character of Marnie, Dunham had Gelman come on set to play Marnie's rival (also named Audrey), who was opening a mustard company and competing with Marnie for the affections of her ex-boyfriend, Charlie. She was only on for a few episodes, because Gelman was becoming busy with her work with The Wing, which is described as a “work and community space” for women. But this isn't the first time the real life best friend duo have worked together: Gelman even appeared in some of Dunham's lesser-known, earlier projects.

10 Marnie's music video is Allison William's favourite scene

Remember that cringe-worthy music video Marnie did, featuring way too much eyeliner and an auto-tuned cover of Edie Brickell's “What I Am”? Marnie ended up hating it so much that she tried to convince YouTube to take it down since she was no longer in contact with her ex, Charlie, who had organized the whole thing.

While it may have been humiliating for Marnie, the actress Allison Williams who plays her cites it as one of her favorite scenes! “It was one of the most creatively fulfilling and satisfying experiences I had ever had,” Williams explained. “I got to get out of my system everything I hated about other amateur music videos that's always bothered me because I'm embarrassed about my own amateur music videos.” Curious about what she's referring to? Back in 2010, Williams put a video on YouTube that featured her singing the Mad Men theme song “with a twist”. Go ahead, Google it!

9 The apartments aren't real apartments

Isn't it so disheartening to learn that all those very Brooklyn-esque apartments throughout the series' run aren't even real? It's true! While the apartments of Hannah, Ray, Adam, Shoshanna, and Marnie all look like they belong in a New York borough, they're actually just sets! Although to be fair, Lena Dunham said that they made every effort to create a realistic look for the apartments, as opposed to creating “fancy lofts that our characters could never afford” like so many other shows set in the Big Apple (looking at you, Friends and Sex and the City).

While the sets may resemble authentic Brooklyn residences down to the last detail, Dunham says that they're a lot more hygienic than they look. “It smells better than you'd imagine. No actual dirty laundry or messy fridges.” Considering how yucky some of their places looked, we'll definitely consider this a good reason as to why they chose sets and not actual apartments!

8 Elijah wasn't supposed to be a regular character

Elijah has transformed from Hannah's gay ex-boyfriend to one of the most beloved characters on the show, who seems to steal every scene he's in. Knowing this, it's shocking to think that the character played by Andrew Rannells wasn't supposed to be a regular! His only scene was supposed to be the first time we see him, when he informs Hannah that her dad is gay (which later turns out to be true) after she approaches him to ask if he gave her HPV in season one. Fortunately for Rannells, he and Lena Dunham hit it off and he was asked back!

Another interesting point about Elijah: before Rannells auditioned, the character was meant to be something completely different. Originally, Elijah was written as a hippie type of character with a hoodie, but after Rannells blew everyone away with his take, the character was rewritten to accommodate his version. Besides, can you imagine our favorite Elijah being anything but perfectly coiffed? Neither can we.

7 Jessa almost left the show

Love her or hate her, the character of Jessa - played by Jemima Kirke - was almost gone before the show even really began. While Kirke has appeared in a couple of acting projects with her childhood friend, Lena Dunham, she never considered acting to be her passion, and was (and is) more focused on her career as an artist. In an interview with Glamour, Dunham explained that Kirke called her and said, “I don't want to freak you out. I want to quit the show.” Of course, we know that that didn't end up happening, and the character of Jessa continued to grow as the show progressed. But Kirke was still not happy a couple seasons down the line, explaining in the same interview that season two was “kind of traumatic” for her because she didn't feel like she knew who she was, what she wanted, or what she should be doing. If you thought the characters on the show felt real, then Kirke just proved the actors are, too. Because who hasn't felt like that at one point or another?

6 Allison Williams' father was on set for some of her scenes

If you're a fan of the show (and if you're reading this, you most likely are), then you know that Marnie has had more than a few risky scenes, the most memorable being the one where she's leaning against the counter while her bandmate and partner Desi is getting rather intimate with her from behind. We hope that for Allison Williams' sake that that was one scene her father chose to sit out on!

News anchor Brian Williams was said to appear on set every so often to watch his daughter perform in her first big break, probably to serve as moral support, and probably out of sheer curiosity as to what was happening on the set of this show that was already generating buzz for its realistic depictions of twentysomething women. Since we know now that Marnie has had the most sexual partners on-screen (although Williams has a strict no-nudity clause in her contract), we really hope that dear old dad didn't show up for those days of shooting, because those are some visuals that you just couldn't erase!

5 Malia Obama interned on the set

Back in the summer of 2015 when her father was still in office (those were the days!), Malia Obama left the White House for an internship with HBO. Of course, since she was the First Daughter, Lena Dunham wasn't going to be sending her on coffee runs. Instead, she assigned Obama as a writer's assistant in training. While she wasn't exclusively interning on the set of Girls, she did come by a couple days a week as part of her HBO internship. Dunham was quoted as saying she was incredibly impressed with Obama and her work ethic, saying, “She wanted to do all the jobs. That was the cool thing. She was totally enthusiastic.”

Despite the racy scenes that occur regularly on the set of Girls, they avoided filming any of those when Obama was around, because of her age. The First Daughter was eager and willing to help, but was still under immense protection by Secret Service, who even barred Dunham from using her own bathroom when Obama was in there!

4 Producer Judd Apatow thought Lena Dunham was too attractive

Considering all the flack she's gotten throughout the duration of the show's run for her nude scenes, it might be shocking to know that producer Judd Apatow initially thought that Lena Dunham was too attractive for the role of Hannah Horvath! Upon seeing Dunham in character for the first time, Apatow said her outfit was too cute, her hair and makeup looked too good, and that she was generally adorable. The scene in question featured Jessa, Hannah, and Shoshanna sitting on a bench, arguing about whether or not they qualified as “the ladies”, according to Shoshanna's self-help book. In that scene, Dunham was wearing hair extensions and Spanx, which is what added to her adorable, cute-girl look. After hearing Apatow's anger and frustration at Hannah's appearance (he also thought that such a cute girl didn't fit the look of the “underdog” they were going for), the crew eliminated the Spanx and any extra hair to create the Hannah we've been watching ever since.

3 There's an on-set recipe for fake semen

It was one of the most talked-about scenes in TV history (before we got to the already-mentioned Marnie scene), because of its frank depiction of the aftermath of a sexual act. After breaking up with Hannah, Adam begins dating Natalia, who he's been set up with after meeting her mom at an AA meeting. Since Adam is into the darker side of sexuality, he ends up demeaning and degrading Natalia, and forces her to crawl on all fours to his bedroom. Things quickly get rough and culminate with Adam squirting his, er, seed, on Natalia's chest, which she really does not like.

While it looks incredibly realistic, the materials used for that scene were actually a mixture of hair conditioner and Cetaphil face wash, a combination that disgusted Lena Dunham, who said that the application of the product required a prop guy with a rubber glove and squeegee! Although audiences gasped, HBO was reportedly fine with the scene, since the earlier season featured a (cut) shot of the mixture flying through the air!

2 Lena hooked up with an actor on the show

No, unfortunately for all the Hannah-Adam shippers out there, Lena Dunham didn't hook up with the guy who played her boyfriend for much of the series. In fact, we don't know exactly who she hooked up with, only that it happened very early on in the series' run. In a panel talk with The New York Times, Dunham revealed for the first time that she made out with a day player actor “before I knew the full boundaries of professionalism”. Although Dunham didn't reveal who it was, her cast mates quickly figured it out, and Dunham bemoaned the fact that getting physical with an actor while she was in the producer's chair made her “inadvertently become the grossest producer in Hollywood.” As we know, she's been with her boyfriend of five years, musician Jack Antonoff, so we can deduce that this happened before that relationship began, so maybe we should dip into the old seasons to figure out who it might have been!

1 A 'Girls' movie might be in the future

If you've watched the series finale (don't worry, we won't spoil anything if you haven't), you might have noticed that the ending wasn't the kind of tidy package we're used to getting when our favorite shows end. So, naturally, people have asked Lena Dunham if she will ever make a Girls movie.

In an interview with Howard Stern, Dunham said she'd love to make one, but that it wouldn't be happening any time soon. Since we've seen the women develop over six seasons - for better or for worse - it would be a bit hurried to do a movie so soon afterwards, even though Allison Williams has said repeatedly that she's happy to continue playing the role of Marnie forever. It seems that Dunham agrees with waiting, and explained that, “We'd like to find them in a new place.” So, we'll take that as a maybe, and hold out hope for a Girls movie in the future!