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Melanie Lynskey

New Zealand actress (born 1977)

Melanie Jayne Lynskey (born 16 May 1977) is a New Zealand actress. Known for her portrayals of complex women and her command of American accents, she works predominantly in independent films and television. She is the recipient of various accolades, including three Critics' Choice Awards and nominations for three Primetime Emmys.

It's good in New Zealand to be humble; it's good to be a quieter person. And then you get to [Los Angeles] where everyone wants you to be brash and confident, and I just was like, 'I don't know how to do that!'

Quotes

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  • I was picking my luggage up, and I turned around and there she was. She looked like this vision. I said, 'Oh my God, you look like a movie star!' I was so in awe of her. And she had head shots! I'd never seen such a thing. She had these black-and-white photos with her hair blown back. And I said, 'What do you do with them?' And she said, 'Send them to fans.'
  • The first audition I ever did [in America], the casting director said, "I don't know why you're here. You're never going to work [here]. You don't look right. You don't have the right kind of personality. I don't even know if you can do an American accent. Maybe you can try England." ... It made me more determined.
  • I always wanted to be an actor, but I had this whole plan to go to a good drama school and do it that way. I wasn't trying to get into movies; someone came to my high school and auditioned some girls, so it was a complete accident.
    • On being cast in Heavenly Creatures, Interview, Emma Brown (23 January 2012)[3]
  • Matt Damon said something to me that I really have lived by ever since ... "At the end of your career, when someone looks over your filmography, all they remember is if the movie was good or not. They're not saying, "Oh, he got [to] play that crazy character!" Or, "Oh, all those people were in that movie." He says "all people know is if the movie was good or not," and all that has to do with whether the script is any good; so, if you consistently choose good scripts — whether you're in three scenes or every scene — you're going to build a very strong résumé.
    • The Film Stage, Nick Newman (6 September 2012)[4]
  • I knew I had to get out and start building up something else.
  • It's very challenging to put yourself out there and be like, 'You know what, this is what I look like. I am having thyroid issues and I gained 20 lbs. and I still have to be naked on television.'
    • On nude scenes, People, Kara Warner (13 March 2016)[6]
  • Honestly, doing three or four episodes a year [of Two and a Half Men] enabled me to pay my mortgage and do independent films.
    • On the benefits of being a sitcom guest star, IndieWire, Jude Dry (4 November 2016)[7]
  • I made a movie last year [which] cost $50,000. I'm willing to do stuff like that. I basically worked for free. Whereas other people have requirements.
    • On pursuing creativity, The Playlist, Jordan Ruimy (24 February 2017)[8]
  • I have this sort of weird thing where people know me from one [project] and then think I've never worked again. And they'll say, "Do you ever think about acting? Do you think about acting again?"
  • It's a lot easier to stay under the radar, have people be like, 'You should get more attention, you should have more roles' or whatever. It's weird to have been doing this for 30 years and then all of a sudden [find fame]. I didn't think this would happen. I thought if it was going to happen, it would happen in my 20s. So I'm grateful, and it's really nice to have choices. But it feels vulnerable.
    • On becoming famous later in life, The Guardian, Emine Saner (24 February 2022)[10]
  • I once auditioned to play Janis Joplin and I still sometimes wake up in a cold sweat thinking that there's a tape of me auditioning to play Janis Joplin out there somewhere... so mortifying. It was when I was younger, and was auditioning for everything, so there were roles that I would go for that didn't resonate with me, in my soul, and that was torturous. I mean I wish Janis Joplin was in me, but she really isn't.
    • Denizen, Margie Riddiford (16 March 2022)[11]
  • People I hadn't heard from in years were getting in touch with me. I started to do some interviews, and then what I was saying in the interviews, people were paying attention to. It was a really hard, odd place to be for me. I was like, 'Oh, gosh, I've got to start watching myself, because I have no filter.'
  • I said to [my] agency, I have a real problem being a size six — which is what I was at the time — and playing a chubby friend. I hate that these roles exist. I think it's damaging. It's weird for little girls to watch this movie and be like, 'Oh, she's supposed to be the fat one.'
    • On being typecast early in her career, Vulture, E. Alex Jung (23 May 2022)[13]
  • It's good in New Zealand to be humble; it's good to be a quieter person. And then you get to this place where everyone wants you to be brash and confident, and I just was like, 'I don't know how to do that!'
    • On moving to Los Angeles in her 20s, Backstage, Cameron Scheetz (8 June 2022)[14]
  • I'm someone who cares very deeply about critics and what critics think. So I'm on Rotten Tomatoes, reading every single review. Like, I care, you know, I respect these people.
  • I started calling myself a character actor in interviews when I was really young because I think it was reclaiming the term or something. I think I just was like, "That's what I am."
  • I was friends with Brittany Murphy, and the way she viewed herself was always really heartbreaking to me — the things she felt she had to change to be a successful actor. She was perfect just as she was, but people were trying to cast her as, like, 'the fat one,' because when she was a very young teenager, her cheeks were a little bit round. People tell you that you're a particular thing, and it's very hard to fight back against.
  • When I first came [to America], I watched a lot of movies. I couldn't afford a dialect coach. And so I just watched everything I could. I tried to learn a lot of different accents. And I'm an introvert, I'm an observer.
    • On perfecting accents, AwardsWatch, Erik Anderson (11 August 2022)[18]
  • I very much want to be onscreen representing an interesting person who's not paying attention to what her tummy looks like ... If there were more people [onscreen] who look like me, then I wouldn't have to talk about it as much.
  • When I read a script for the first time, I have to have something instinctive happen where I feel like that character is there somewhere. I have to hear a person, I have to feel them inside me in a way.
  • I am quite shy sometimes. I do have some social anxiety. I am soft-spoken. But I'm quite ferocious. I think to be labeled as someone who is a pushover has been the hardest thing to get out of in terms of my personal and professional life.
  • I had a very old-school agent who was like, 'TV? That's for has-beens!'

Quotes about Lynskey

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  • What we were looking for was an actress who has that kind of aspect to her that's a real movie-star thing: where you can film somebody sitting in a room, doing nothing, and they're still fascinating to watch. We found that in Mel.
  • Mel is like the left side of my body. Mel and I had the exact relationship in terms of communication and love that Pauline and Juliet had. From the minute we saw each other.
  • Probably Melanie Lynskey ... I have a lot of respect for her. I think she's great.
  • She is so watchable. You never quite know what you're going to get, you just know it's going to be good. Her rhythms are really unusual, like her cadence and her reaction times to things, and the way she sort of lays out a sentence. It's just really, really interesting.
  • They seem [at once] constantly joyful and constantly on the verge of tears.
    • Jason Reitman on Lynskey's eyes, Los Angeles Times (15 September 2009)
  • I would love to work with Melanie. So many people throughout my little career [have] said I should work with her. I've loved her ever since Heavenly Creatures.
  • I never saw [Susan Smith] more focused than after attending a screening of Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures. Kate Winslet was all the rage — every major agency wanted her — but Susan was far more interested in her costar, Melanie Lynskey, who was barely 17 at the time and living halfway around the world in New Zealand. Susan gave Melanie a place to stay during trips to the U.S. and was determined to get her work. I still don't believe I've seen an audition on tape as amazing as Melanie's for [The Crucible] ... which she did almost immediately after signing with Susan.
    • Film journalist Aaron Dobbs on the death of Lynskey's manager, Out of Focus (14 October 2013)[27]
  • [She] has a way of intuiting interpersonal dynamics that is beyond me. It's beyond that old soul thing that people have. It's a next-level thing.
  • [In person she has] a kind of serenity and intense gentleness ... [but] as an actor, she has so much depth that it's easy to believe she may carry some secrets with her ... It's an interesting thread through her work, this idea of rage under the surface.
  • She's just a fantastic, fantastic actress, and everything that comes out of her mouth is so truthful.
  • She might be the nicest human being on this planet, literally speaking. And she's a great collaborator and a wonderful scene partner.
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