Adam Driver Couldn't Keep It Together During Girls' Role Play Sex Scene

Adam Driver is a bonafide movie star now, with roles in everything from the Star Wars franchise to Noah Baumbach's "White Noise," but the actor had some of the most fun of his career in his break-out role on HBO's hit series "Girls." Driver starred opposite Lena Dunham as her on-again-off-again love interest. When his character Adam starts to pull away after finding success on Broadway, Dunham's character Hannah takes matters into her own hands and tries out sexual role-play. Her attempt is so hilarious that Driver actually had a hard time keeping a straight face while shooting the scene.

At first glance, Adam is a callous and unemployed loner that can't commit to anything. But once he decides to commit to Hannah, Adam gradually gets more serious about other areas of his life, including his career as an actor. His relationship with Hannah flourishes until he starts dedicating too much time and attention to his new Broadway role and fails to nurture his romance.

"Adam doesn't even really notice when Hannah sleeps somewhere else," Dunham noted in the HBO inside look at the "Role-Play" episode. "And that's, in some way, the most terrifying to her, is that he's not really engaged with her. And that's what inspires her to do this embarrassing roleplay thing — because she wants to get his attention in some way. And she does, but not in the way she wants because he ends up telling her he needs space."

Hannah's attempt to reconnect with Adam is sincere, but her methods are totally ridiculous. She wears a blonde wig and catches Adam off guard at a bar, then takes him to her friend's apartment to reveal crazy starfish lingerie. The shoot was embarrassing for Dunham, but it was a lot of fun for Driver, as he explained to The Daily Beast in 2017:

"It's always fun shooting 'Girls' but that sequence, in particular, I tried to do a good job of staying focused but I just remember losing it so many times because I thought Lena was pretty genius in the way she plays it. It was really hard for me to keep it together because she's so funny. The first time they meet at the bar when she was trying things out while we were shooting it I couldn't stop laughing."

Dunham's lingerie was also a huge shock for Driver. "I didn't know what it was going to be until she showed up on set," the actor recalled. "I just learned what it looked like when we were shooting and didn't see it beforehand. I just remember wandering around, coming in, and being very much surprised."

The series creator, on the other hand, was thoroughly humiliated. "The whole roleplay thing was so embarrassing," Dunham admitted to HBO. "I just had to kind of like put on this strange voice and go for it. The costume was ridiculous and uncomfortable. It looks totally deranged, but we needed it to look deranged without looking too much like I was at Comic-Con or something."

The role-play wasn't fun for Dunham, but it was even worse for her character. Hannah was hoping to get closer to Adam by reminding him of the thrilling sex that they had when they first met, but instead she frustrated him to the point that he pulled away even further. "He really wants to succeed at the play, and he feels like Hannah is holding him back," Dunham explained. "And I think that's one of the challenges of relationships, is trying to grow with another person."

A key part of Adam's growth in the series is that he evolves to appreciate and prioritize commitment. When Hannah can't make up her mind about her role-play character's backstory, Adam gets particularly enraged. "Adam really respects people who commit to something — whether it be right or wrong — and follow through," Driver told The Daily Beast. "I remember that being a stepping-stone for me when it comes to why he gets so aggravated."

It also bothers Adam that Hannah feels the need to fabricate a story to enjoy an experience between them. "One thing that's always an undercurrent between [Hannah and Adam] is that he feels she lives too much in her brain sometimes, and she thinks he lives too much in his body," the actor said. "For obvious reasons, he's desperate to have a carnal-blood relationship, and it's another example of Hannah not living in the moment and not caring."

Driver might not have been able to take the role-play sequence seriously, but his character took it to heart. What starts as an incredibly comical scenario actually leads to a major fallout in their relationship and produces a scene that's wrought with emotion. Even in her starfish lingerie, Dunham gives a devastating performance, and Driver miraculously manages not to laugh.