Jews: Lena Dunham, Amy Schumer and Comedy Actress A-List in Raunchy, R-Rated Roundtable

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This story first appeared in the June 5 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

"So, what's your policy on 'pussy'?" inquires a polite Amy Schumer regarding what can and can't be said during THR's annual gathering of Emmy-contending comedy actresses. If the ensuing conversation — held inside a Manhattan studio where, at one point, one of the six women offers another oral sex — is any indication, nothing is off limits when feminism and comedy collide: From rape and death threats on Twitter to the absence of women in late night ("Les Moonves is asleep in a cave somewhere far away," offers Lena Dunham as an explanation) to hanging their hopes on Hillary Clinton, Schumer, 34 (Inside Amy Schumer); Dunham, 29 (Girls); Gina Rodriguez, 30 (Jane the Virgin); Ellie Kemper, 35 (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt); Tracee Ellis Ross, 42 (Black-ish); and Kate McKinnon, 31 (Saturday Night Live), prove they are as fearless as they are (f—ing) funny.

What was your most mortifying moment performing comedy?

KATE MCKINNON I did stand-up at the Aspen Comedy Festival once, a tight two and a half minutes. I asked the booker afterward, "What did you think?" She said, "There wasn't enough for me to judge, but what I saw, I didn't like." I went to a Starbucks and cried.

LENA DUNHAM But look at you now!

AMY SCHUMER I was opening for [comedian] Dave Attell at an Improv in Washington, D.C., and was walking past the White House. This woman came up to me; she had kind eyes. I'm like, "She's a fan!" I was like, "I'm a comedian," and she goes, "These people are on a hunger strike; would you perform for them?" I then noticed there were 40 people there with signs showing how long it'd been since they'd eaten. I called some friends, and I was like, "I shouldn't do this, right? [Comedian] Jim Norton was like, "You gotta take the gig." (Laughs.) So I tried to write hunger-strike jokes. These people looked like everyone in The Exodus.

TRACEE ELLIS ROSS You have such a good soul.

SCHUMER So I performed, and no one laughed.

GINA RODRIGUEZ They were hungry!

SCHUMER I made jokes like, "Hey, at least no waitresses will be distracting you here!" But I bombed. They put a video of it online, and I found out later they were a known terrorist organization. Making people laugh is what I can do to give back.

Is there something that you would never do for a laugh?

SCHUMER I would never suck a dick for a laugh.

DUNHAM I would never f— someone.

RODRIGUEZ I'm a brown girl, so I have to cross all the lines. I did just recently give birth onscreen [in Jane the Virgin].

MCKINNON Me, too!

RODRIGUEZ The actress playing my OB-GYN, Julie, was in right between my legs. I have Spanx on, this big [fake] belly, legs spread wide open. I probably should've showered that morning.

DUNHAM I stopped wearing the nude patch after the first season of Girls. There's not one guy who works on that show who hasn't seen the inside of my vagina.

SCHUMER They could d

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