When Christopher Abbott abruptly left HBO's Girls after the show's season two finale, it was a shock to fans of the show, since the series had just shown his character finally getting serious with Allison Williams' Marnie, suggesting that storyline would continue into season three.
Now Abbott is starring in a small play in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, Where We're Born, and he told The New York Times why he felt the need to break away from the TV show.
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It wasn't a single moment that made him decide to leave but more of a gradual realization that he no longer related to the character.
“The world that Lena [Dunham, the creator] wrote was very real, especially in New York,” Abbott tells The Times. “But it wasn’t as relatable for me on a personal level. It’s not that I only like to play roles I know to a T, but there’s something satisfying about playing parts where you really relate to the characters.”
Currently Abbott is playing the macho but fragile Tony in a segment of Lucy Thurber's Hill Town Plays, a cycle being staged at five theaters in New York, which focus on a girl from a poor western Massachusetts town struggling to escape her roots.
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Abbott, who grew up in a working class neighborhood in Greenwich, Conn., said he did identify with the characters in Where We're Born.
Shortly after Abbott left the HBO series, his rep told The Hollywood Reporter, "[Chris] is grateful for the experience of collaborating with Lena [Dunham], Judd [Apatow] and the entire Girls cast and crew, but right now he’s working on numerous other projects and has decided not to return to the show."
But, Page Six's initial report about his exit said he was having creative differences with creator and star Dunham and didn't like the direction the show was going.
