Lena Dunham believes she made a "terrible mistake" in defending 'Girls' writer Murray Miller when he was accused of rape last year.
Lena Dunham
The 32-year-old actress and 'Girls' creator publicly spoke in defence of Murray last year when Aurora Perrineau alleged he had raped her in 2012 when she was 17 and he was 35, but has now said she "regrets" the decision, which she described as "inexcusable".
In an open letter published by The Hollywood Reporter, she wrote: "I made a terrible mistake. When someone I knew, someone I had loved as a brother, was accused, I did something inexcusable: I publicly spoke up in his defense. There are few acts I could ever regret more in this life.
"I didn't have the 'insider information' I claimed but rather blind faith in a story that kept slipping and changing and revealed itself to mean nothing at all. I wanted to feel my workplace and my world were safe, untouched by the outside world (a privilege in and of itself, the privilege of ignoring what hasn't hurt you) and I claimed that safety at cost to someone else, someone very special."
Lena went on to speak directly to Aurora, and said she was working to "right that wrong" she believes she committed by defending Murray.
She continued: "To Aurora: You have been on my mind and in my heart every day this year. I love you. I will always love you. I will always work to right that wrong. In that way, you have made me a better woman and a better feminist. You shouldn't have been given that job in addition to your other burdens, but here we are, and here I am asking: How do we move forward? Not just you and I but all of us, living in the gray space between admission and vindication.
"It's painful to realize that, while I thought I was self-aware, I had actually internalized the dominant male agenda that asks us to defend it no matter what, protect it no matter what, baby it no matter what. Something in me still feels compelled to do that job: to please, to tidy up, to shopkeep. My job now is to excavate that part of myself and to create a new cavern inside me where a candle stays lit, always safely lit, and illuminates the wall behind it where these words are written: I see you, Aurora. I hear you, Aurora. I believe you, Aurora."
The actress closed out her letter by apologising, and said it is important to "listen" to the women "moving forward from trauma".
She wrote: "I'm sorry. Moving forward from trauma is never easy, but there are brave women doing it for us. All we have to do is listen.
"Love and more of that, Lena."
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