What To Know
- Andrew Rannells confirmed that his brief relationship with Anderson Cooper inspired his Girls storyline involving a romance with a news anchor.
- Rannells said his experience became the basis his character’s relationship with Dill Harcourt.
- Both Rannells and actor Corey Stoll previously denied the connection, while Anderson Cooper expressed surprise at the speculation.
After years of speculation, actor Andrew Rannells has confirmed that his Girls storyline about dating a news anchor was, in fact, based on CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
Rannells made the revelation on the latest episode of The Daily Beast’s Obsessed podcast, where he opened up about a “very brief” relationship he had with Cooper in his mid-twenties. The actor, who played Hannah’s (Lena Dunham) gay ex-boyfriend and roommate, Elijah Krantz, on the hit HBO series, said the relationship ultimately inspired an on-screen story.
“I told Lena and [co-showrunner] Jenni Konner a story about when I was 25 that I had dated Anderson Cooper,” Rannells said, per The Huffington Post. “And I told them about the experience and what that was like, and then it became the story that Elijah had in the series.”
In the show’s fifth season, Elijah starts dating Dill Harcourt (Corey Stoll), an older man who works as a successful news anchor. However, much like the real-life fling with Cooper, the relationship doesn’t last very long. In the Season 5 finale, Dill rejects Elijah’s advances and tells him he’s looking for “someone less aimless.”
“When I told them that, they were like, ‘Oh, that’s a fun story,’” Rannells said on the podcast.
Ever since the fifth season, which aired in 2016, fans have speculated about who Dill’s character was based on. Stoll himself was asked in a 2016 interview with Queerty whether the character was modeled after Cooper, though he rejected the idea. “I don’t know. I was playing Dill Harcourt,” he said. “I did not base this character on anybody.”
That same year, Rannells also initially denied the connection between Dill and Cooper. “I think the general idea that he’s this powerful, you know, adult, is what’s important,” he told Elle. “For my money, his job could have been any number of things. It just represents that he’s very much from the outside of these characters’ world.”
Cooper, who has said he is a fan of Girls, was also asked about the character during an interview with the New York Post. “I just met Lena Dunham at Sundance, and she didn’t mention anything to me, but I’d be flattered,” he said when asked if Dill is based on him.
He added, “Wait, is that the guy Andrew Rannells’ [character] is dating? I thought he was more of a [Bill] O’Reilly character. I’m a friend of Andrew’s. I should ask him.”