Despite being a loveable presence on screen, fans might not know as much about Lynskey's life off-screen. Photo / Getty Images
Despite being a loveable presence on screen, fans might not know as much about Lynskey's life off-screen. Photo / Getty Images
What Kiwi actress Melanie Lynskey really thinks about constantly being mistaken for an Australian.
Melanie Lynskey is known for portraying soft-spoken, quirky characters on screen, from Two And A Half Men to Sweet Home Alabama.
But despite the actress being a loveable presence on screen, including her leading role in the acclaimed series Yellowjackets, fans might not know as much about her life off-screen.
For starters, while the 47-year-old has the American accent down pat, Lynskey is of course from New Zealand.
And like great actors Russell Crowe and Sam Neill before her, Aussies have claimed her as their own.
“I think people just can’t differentiate, which is understandable. It’s very similar,” she tells news.com.au of the New Zealand and Australian accents while promoting Yellowjackets, now streaming on Paramount+.
“But I’m so proud to be a New Zealander. I’m so proud to be from Aotearoa, and I do love all the New Zealanders jumping in the comments when people are like, ‘OMG, I didn’t know she was British. I didn’t know she was Australian.’ And [the New Zealanders are] like, ‘Actually…’ People get very defensive, and I appreciate it.”
New Zealanders and Australians are well represented in the series, which examines the lifelong fallout of a girls’ soccer team (the Yellowjackets) when they survive a plane crash that leaves them stranded in the wilderness for 19 months in the mid-1990s.
Simone Kessell (who plays adult Lottie Matthews) is from Auckland, while Courtney Eaton (teenage Lottie) is from Bunbury in Western Australia. Meanwhile, Liv Hewson (teenage Van Palmer) is from Canberra.
Lynskey has been nominated for several awards for her role in Yellowjackets.
Lynskey portrays crash survivor Shauna, who endures more than her fair share of trauma out in the wild. When what really transpired threatens to reveal itself 25 years later, Shauna and her fellow survivors – all now adults – go out of their way to make sure those events never come to light.
Shauna is reserved and mysterious but has a wild and reckless streak, which Lynskey says makes her a delight to play.
“The fact that I get to play this thing and that thing and everything in between – she’s a character, and she could really go anywhere. She’s a very interesting person to me,” the actress says.
“I also love playing the feeling of repressing something. I love something coming out and another thing being underneath it and with Shauna, and there’s like 10 things underneath and it’s so fun. And the writing is very, very good… It’s a real dream.”
The show took off shortly after after a psychic told Lynskey she was on the precipice of major career success.
“After we filmed the [Yellowjackets] pilot and we had not heard anything, [the psychic] told me that it was going to be a big success,” she recalls. “It seemed very unlikely at that point. I hadn’t heard anything about it, so it was a surprise [to get picked up].”
For her role in Yellowjackets, Lynskey has won a Critics Choice Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series in 2022, and she was nominated consecutively for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series at the Primetime Emmy Awards in 2022 and 2023.
Christina Ricci loves the camaraderie the co-stars have off-screen as working mothers.
Also in the strong, female-led cast is Christina Ricci, 45, who loves the camaraderie the co-stars have off-screen as working mothers.
“It’s actually so amazing,” the mum-of-two, who plays the mysterious Misty Quigley, tells news.com.au. “We get to talk about things that I don’t get to sit in a room for 12 hours and talk to other women my age about what they’re going through. And so that’s been incredible and so helpful because my mother remembers nothing from her forties.”
“It’s just such a great comfortability and understanding,” she adds.
Lynskey, a mum-of-one, agrees: “It’s really amazing to have that. We have a genuine bond with each other. And it’s also nice to have the shorthand to not be the only one in the room who misses your child, who knows exactly what that feels like. And we have so much in common and we’re really genuinely supportive, which is so nice.”
The new season of Yellowjackets is streaming on Neon in New Zealand.
