Melanie Lynskey arrives at the Film Independent Spirit Awards on March 4. Photo / AP
Melanie Lynskey arrives at the Film Independent Spirit Awards on March 4. Photo / AP
Actress Melanie Lynskey made a somewhat surprising admission when she sat down for an interview with American late-night host Seth Meyers last year.
“I’m a little bit nervous – this is my first ever talk show,” she confessed as she sat down.
It’s surprising because, at 45, Lynskey will next year mark 30 years since her first acting gig (Peter Jackson’s acclaimed film Heavenly Creatures). Since then, the New Zealand-born actress has barely stopped working.
But the past year or so has contained “so many” career firsts, she tells news.com.au.
“My first Emmy award nomination, my first Spirit award nomination, a magazine cover … I just have to keep taking deep breaths and trying to be present, because I know it doesn’t last forever. I know this is just a moment in time, and if I don’t enjoy it, I’m going to look back and be like, ‘Ugh, I wish I’d let myself feel how great that was.’”
The reason for this new-found career renaissance? Yellowjackets, an intensely watchable psychological thriller with a mainly female-led cast that debuted in November 2021.
Lynskey plays Shauna Shipman in the series, one of a group of women who, as high schoolers, survived a horrific plane crash that left them stranded deep in the Canadian wilderness for 19 months.
How on earth did they survive for so long? Well, it wasn’t pretty, and as Yellowjackets turns the screws on its characters, each is trying to balance their adult lives with the secrets they vowed to keep about what really unfolded after the crash. By the time we start season two – streaming on Neon in NZ this Friday – Shauna and her fellow survivors are completely unravelling.
Melanie Lynskey in Yellowjackets, season 2. Photo / Supplied
It’s a fantastic premise, but as Lynskey admits, she was reluctant to sign on until she’d been given some assurances the show wouldn’t “jump the shark”.
“I’m just such a commitment-phobe when it comes to signing my life away … I get nervous that I’m going to get stuck in something I do not want to do,” she says.
So she asked the show’s creators for spoilers.
“I asked them to be very specific about the first season. We were just doing a pilot, but it was so detailed, so I felt like I was in safe hands,” she says.
“[From there] they told me they had a sketch of five seasons. They were ready to talk me through all of it, but I was like, ‘okay, I got it’. It made me believe they have a true plan.”
Yellowjackets is the biggest role in what’s been a recent career renaissance for Lynskey. In a similar vein was her recent two-episode role on post-apocalyptic drama The Last Of Us, again playing a seemingly mild-mannered woman who has a much darker side.
“It’s interesting, because it’s kind of similar to Heavenly Creatures, the very first thing I ever did,” she says of the 1994 film that saw her and Kate Winslet play killer schoolgirls.
“I played this quiet, shy person who was capable of doing the worst possible thing. That is something I’ve always been fascinated with: The idea of being underestimated, or of containing much more rage than anyone would guess from looking at you. So I do love exploring these kinds of characters, honestly.”
Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet star in Heavenly Creatures. Photo / Supplied
For years, Lynskey appeared to have a pretty nice balance: A prolific, working actress (perhaps her most high-profile role was a 63-episode stint in the hit sitcom Two And A Half Men), but never quite so famous that she was mobbed leaving her house. Has she noticed that start to change?
“I’ve noticed more people knowing who I am. I used to get a lot of, ‘I went to college with you, I think?’ ‘You didn’t, I’m from New Zealand.’
“A lot of it was trying to satisfy people’s curiosity, which sometimes you don’t want to do, when you’re trying to get a toddler to the dentist,” she explains.
“Now it is nice that people kind of love me for me, and have lovely things to say – but I still feel pretty anonymous in a way that I’m very grateful for.”
The biggest shock for many, though, is that accent. Lynskey’s Kiwi accent is still as strong as ever despite several decades spent out of her home country. It’s fair to say she sounds nothing like the roles most people would know her for.
“People think that I’m doing something, that I’m putting on a voice!” she says of her real accent. “It’s such a funny thing to assume.”
Not all of the new-found attention has been so positive. While many celebs have all but abandoned the platform, Lynskey is reasonably active on Twitter. She’ll respond kindly to fan queries and compliments – but she’s also been known to hit back at online trolls, like the woman who recently criticised her appearance on The Last Of Us.
Apparently, Lynskey has the wrong body type to be a leader in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. (Lynskey’s perfect retort to the criticism? “I am supposed to be SMART, ma’am. I don’t need to be muscly. That’s what henchmen are for.”)
Firstly- this is a photo from my cover shoot for InStyle magazine, not a still from HBO’s The Last Of Us. And I’m playing a person who meticulously planned & executed an overthrow of FEDRA. I am supposed to be SMART, ma’am. I don’t need to be muscly. That’s what henchmen are for pic.twitter.com/YwkmkwUdOm
As her fame grows, has anyone urged her to disengage from the trolls?
“My publicist is probably laughing in the other room,” she says, explaining that she trusts her team would step in if she found herself “up at 3am responding to every person who felt the need to tell me what they didn’t like about me”.
“But I think it’s okay now and again to stand up for myself a little bit – and stand up for women in general. ‘Really, we’re still doing misogyny in 2023?’ I don’t have a tonne of time for it, but I’m going to say something back.
“Not always, though,” she says with a sigh. “A lot of stuff I’m ignoring, believe me.”
