Too Much: Lena Dunham, Megan Stalter, Will Sharpe, and Luis Felber on Creating Netflix’s Romcom

Netflix’s comedy Too Much marks Lena Dunham’s newest entry to television since Girls with a messy romantic comedy that feels both familiar and refreshingly raw. The series stars Megan (Meg) Stalter as Jessica Salmon, a workaholic New Yorker in her mid-thirties reeling from a breakup, who finds herself navigating love, loneliness, and cultural confusion in London. Opposite her is Will Sharpe as Felix Remen, a Londoner and indie musician with his own complicated past. The show is co-created by Dunham and her husband, musician and writer Luis Felber, and together with Stalter and Sharpe, the creative team sat down for a conversation about the show’s origins, collaboration, and the emotional truths of its characters.

The Spark That Led to Too Much – Two Countries Divided By A Common Language 

When asked what sparked the idea for the series, Luis Felber, co-creator, explains, “Well, one day… I was dating my new girlfriend at the time — just two weeks in. Now she’s my wife. Lena was just like, ‘Hey, would you want to make a TV show?’ or maybe ‘Would you want to riff on an idea?’ At the time, I was primarily focused on music and songwriting, but it felt like an organic extension of our conversations and the growing relationship between us. The idea of exploring transatlantic differences and love felt very personal.”

Dunham continues, “It’s funny because I had an idea about this just because I’ve been spending a lot of time in the UK for work and I had just noticed how you think you’re going to a country where you speak the same language as everybody else, and then it’s extremely clear once you arrive that you do not.”

“Winston Churchill who said two countries divided by a common language? It’s completely confounding to say words that you know another person understands literally, but not figuratively. It was happening in every area of my life. I haven’t felt this way since seventh grade. I don’t really have any friends. People look at me weirdly. I keep saying things that make people walk away from me at parties,” she candidly continues.

Dunham reflects on how her relationship with Felber and her love of romantic comedies shaped the show: “And once I met Luis and we started a relationship, I had to think about those mistranslations in the context of a romantic relationship and also all of the great kind of transatlantic romantic comedies, whether it’s Notting Hill or French Kiss or Four Weddings and a Funeral. And I thought maybe there would be something there and that he would want to think about it together.”

Lena watched many romantic comedies to nourish her transatlantic idea until she discovered her winning formula – a complicated person with a complicated past finding love.

Megan Stalter (Jessica Salmon) & Felix Remen (Will Sharpre) Photo courtesy of Netflix.

On Collaboration and Creating Jessica Salmon

Megan Stalter describes her reaction to joining the show. “I am the biggest Lena fan and the biggest Girls fan, and so I just couldn’t believe she wanted me in what she was making. I was so excited, and I think we clicked right away. I just felt like I was talking to myself or my sister and I felt like everything was so natural because I just had so much fun with Lena,” she recalls.

Luis Felber expands on the character creation process: “For me, it all started with conversations with Lena—lots of talking, riffing, and sharing experiences about life between New York and London. The characters began as sketches — almost like songs or poems — and evolved as we wrote together. When Will and Meg came on board, they brought their own perspectives and humor, which took the characters to another level. It was a true collaboration and a process of letting go, watching actors make the roles their own.”

Defining Felix and the Show’s Tone

Luis continues, “But I think Felix character lives within a version of London that I know really well. And once Will appeared, he took it to this whole other trajectory and level that just was beautiful to watch.”

Will Sharpe responds: “Felix is vulnerable. He’s witty. It’s like it really surprises you, what he turns out to be. At the very beginning Lena and I went for tea and she talked through the shape of the series and who our characters were. I guess one of the things that I was really drawn to was that, like Luis says, this idea that gets in the way of their present day relationship. That was all just quite exciting to us. But it was also quite fun kind of knowing this is Lena Dunham’s version of a romantic comedy, but the character has no idea. It’s a romantic comedy with ketamine.”

On working with Megan, Will expands: “With Megan, there was definitely some improvisation. The scripts were so tight there wasn’t much need, but Meg is so good at improvising, and everyone was confident in the shape of the show and each scene. There was room to play. Sometimes a scene you thought would be sad ended up funny, or vice versa, which brought realism. It was fun to do a relationship where neither person is the straight man — both are total weirdos. At any moment, one or both could be acting weird, so we let go of the idea that someone had to ‘keep time’ while the other went wild.”

Jessica Salmon (Megan Stalter) Photo courtesy of Netflix

Relationships: The Dunham Perspective

Lena reflects on the show’s approach to love and relationships: “When we were doing Girls, the relationships were all pretty demented. In this show, it’s beautiful, and you’re behind the romance. That was very different from the semi-abusive relationships in Girls.”

“My experience had been loving people who weren’t that kind to me, maybe because I wasn’t kind to myself. I told myself a lot of stories to keep myself in those relationships, but I don’t think that’s unusual or specific to women. People of all genders want to be loved. What was interesting about this show is that both characters have hurt and demeaned themselves — and probably others —because they lack a sense of self-worth. They don’t realize they’re important enough to affect the people around them.”

“What happens when two people like that meet and say, ‘I’d love to try to do what people do and be together?’ In romantic comedies, the threat is often a meddling mom or distance, but here, the threat is whether either of them will implode so completely that they can’t come back from it. One thing I loved about working with Will from the start was that he encouraged us to take things as far as they could go. The most beautiful thing is seeing people who can love each other after all of that.”

The Changing Landscape of Television

“What’s interesting is that when we were doing Girls, there was still a lot of snobbery around TV. TV was just becoming an art form, but at a certain level, actors would just say, ‘They don’t do TV.’ As Girls went on, we were amazed we could get certain people, but there was still this divide — you were either a film actor or not. Since then, TV has changed; people are hungry for great parts that aren’t underbaked or written for an algorithm. It was amazing how many people wanted to come and play for a few days, and that was also a testament to Will and Meg — everyone wanted to be in scenes with them,” Dunham says.

The Challenge and Reward of Vulnerability

Megan shares, “What helped me was feeling so connected to Lena — both as the writer and the director. If I was struggling with a scene, I could just go ask her about it, and it would unlock something for me emotionally. I couldn’t have done it without her.”

Lena adds, “It was a joy to watch. We shot some scenes with Meg without Will, and some with Will without Meg. When they finally did scenes together, you never know what will work until that moment, but from the first take, it was clear. I love seeing actors respect each other’s process — letting Meg do it her way, Will do it his way, and then seeing what comes out of it.”

The Creative Process: Letting Go and Taking Risks

Lena encourages, “Let people go wild. Let them try things. A good idea can come from anywhere. It reminded me this can be a free and joyful process. It’s all about finding the right balance — there’s no rule, just a gut feeling of whether we’ve gone too far in one direction or another.”

Will adds, “I didn’t really think about whether a scene was funny or hard. I just tried to react in a way I thought my character would. Acting with Meg was very easy; it felt natural and unforced. We didn’t overthink or overanalyze — we just jumped in, so it felt very human. I felt like your character was so vulnerable in those scenes, especially when Felix shares something painful from his childhood. I remember planning to block the scene with us standing apart, but then Meg said, ‘I’m British — my response would be to get as far away as possible the more someone comes toward me.’ So the scene ended up traveling through the apartment, which changed its energy.”

The Ending: End Of A Season or End Of The Story

In the final episode, Jessica and Felix experience ups and downs but ultimately find their happy ending. Does this romance continue into another season?

Lena replies, “We’ve had conversations about it, but we always thought of this as one season. Then I fell so deeply in love with Meg and Will that I wanted to see their characters do everything — go to Honolulu, have twins, start a horse farm. That’s the feeling you get when you fall in love with your characters. But ultimately, the goal was to make a romantic comedy that ended with a wedding.”

by Staff Writer

From our in-house editorial team.