Last night at the New York premiere of Gimme the Loot, we found ourselves panicking when John Cameron Mitchell approached us on the carpet. It was a visceral reaction to his role as Hannah’s pissy e-book editor, David Pressler-Goings, on Girls. “I will sue you!†Mitchell said to us, mocking the character. “It was fun to be a has-been. I had some other stuff that got cut out. [Lena] was really fun to improvise with.†Mitchell then leaned in closely and reenacted an exchange that was cut:
David: I had a small window of time where I could fuck anyone.
Hannah [Still John Cameron Mitchell, doing a Hannah voice]: No way!
David: And I did.
Hannah: Courtney Love?
David: [Pauses and purses lips as if to say, “Come on.â€] It was available. I just didn’t take that.
Â
“So it was fun to kind of play someone who was confused by what’s happening now and in the nineties knew what was going on — which is a little bit me,†Mitchell said. “And it has to be the e-book, right? It’s like, what the fuck is this? And she of course has to write in a month.†Mitchell assured us we aren’t the only ones who conflate Girls characters and the actors who play them. In fact, people have stopped him on the street to ask if he’s a real-life editor. And when a writer in a café recently confused him for one, he just went with it. “I was suddenly talking to her about her book like an editor.â€