Andrew Rannells is opening up about a past romance that not only involved a fellow celeb but also his role in one of HBO’s most beloved shows.
During a recent episode of The Daily Beast’s “Obsessed” podcast, the “Girls” star — who played Elijah Krantz, Hannah’s gay ex-boyfriend from college and later roommate throughout the show’s six-season run — revealed that he once had a “very brief” relationship with Anderson Cooper in his mid-20s. And according to the actor, that experience ultimately inspired a storyline for his character in the Lena Dunham-created comedy.
“I told Lena and [co-showrunner] Jenni Konner a story about when I was 25 that I had dated Anderson Cooper, and I told them about the experience and what that was like, and then it became the story that Elijah had in the series,” Rannells explained.
The storyline in question emerges in Season 5 when Elijah starts dating an older, successful news anchor named Dill Harcourt (played by Corey Stoll). Much like Rannells’ real-life love affair with Cooper, however, Elijah and Dill’s relationship proved to be short-lived.
Their romance came to an end in the Season 5 finale after Dill turned down Elijah’s proposal to be his boyfriend, telling him he’s looking for “someone less aimless.”
Even so, Rannells told “Obsessed” host Kevin Fallon that Dunham and Konner found his fling with Cooper compelling enough to build the Dill character around it.
“When I told them that, they were like, ‘Oh, that’s a fun story,’” the actor said.
During the series’ run, there was speculation about the real-life inspiration behind Dill, but no one involved with the show ever officially confirmed any connection.
When Stoll was asked in a 2016 interview with Queerty whether Dill had been modeled after Cooper, he declined to draw any parallels, saying, “I don’t know. I was playing Dill Harcourt. I did not base this character on anybody.”
Similarly, Rannells initially pushed back against theories linking Dill to Cooper while discussing Elijah and Dill’s breakup episode with Elle that same year.
“I think the general idea that he’s this powerful, you know, adult, is what’s important,” the actor explained. “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.”
He continued: “When we shot that party sequence from Sunday’s episode, it was in this beautiful apartment, in beautiful clothes — it’s probably the best I’ve ever been dressed on the show — and it felt very foreign, like all of a sudden we were shooting this completely different show, because we were in this very grown-up situation. That’s what Dill represents.”
Meanwhile, the New York Post asked self-proclaimed “Girls” fan Cooper whether he believed Dunham had based Dill on him. But the former “60 Minutes” host mentioned another media figure instead.
“I just met Lena Dunham at Sundance, and she didn’t mention anything to me, but I’d be flattered,” he told the outlet in 2016. “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.”