In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast features in-depth conversations with today’s most noteworthy actors and creators. Join host and awards editor Jack Smart for this guide to living the creative life from those who are doing it every day.
How Melanie Lynskey decides whether a potential role resonates with her says a lot about her creative process. If a script has “a very gendered description of the character, it turns me off,” she says. “I have a judgment on the writer. And if I read something that describes the character’s body, I’m just like, now I kind of hate you.”
When an actor reaches a point where they can choose which parts to take, they often develop those kinds of artistic criteria: “There is a certain amount of responsibility to tell stories that are going to push the needle a little bit, move the conversation along,” she adds.
Lynskey got to that point using a combination of hard work, passion for the craft, and learning—often the hard way—that originality trumps imitation. “I got out to Los Angeles and there was a particular look in the late ’90s,” she remembers. “And that was very thin, and white, and blonde. And that was just a thing that it seemed like people were looking for, and I tried to be as thin as I could, I tried to be as pleasant as I could, but there’s already 50 of those people! Like, they can take their pick from this group of people who are already doing it.”
Rather than striving to deliver what the industry might want, she’s guided by a principle other working artists can live by: “There’s one me. As soon as I learned that lesson, things got a lot easier.”
After an improbable career breakout as a teenager in Peter Jackson’s “Heavenly Creatures,” Lynskey went from working and studying in her native home of New Zealand to appearing in American projects like “Two and a Half Men” (which, combined with her prolific indie film work, makes for a “double life,” she jokes). Now after a handful of scene-stealing turns in “Ever After,” “Coyote Ugly,” “Sweet Home Alabama,” “Hello I Must Be Going,” “Togetherness,” and “Mrs. America,” she’s SAG ensemble award–nominated for Adam McKay’s Oscar contender “Don’t Look Up,” plus Critics’ Choice Award–nominated for her buzzy work on Showtime’s hit drama “Yellowjackets.”
Acting in “Don’t Look Up” opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett was “very scary,” admits Lynskey. “But Adam McKay works in my favorite way. It’s similar to how Jay and Mark Duplass film, which is, there’s a script that’s written that’s absolutely perfect. You wouldn’t need to change a word of it. You have this incredible safety net of this great, great, great, funny, wonderful script. But he wants to be surprised. Like the Duplasses, they want to hear something new.”
Although she never approaches two roles in the same way, Lynskey recently started to work improvisation into her delivery of several characters, including Shauna on “Yellowjackets.” The actress completely made up an intimate monologue delivered to Tawny Cypress—inspired by real memories from Lynskey’s past.
“Mostly it’s about dropping in and being present,” she says of her character-building process. “And trying to let the emotion come to me and not judging what it is and not having a particular outcome that I’m expecting or wanting.”
That, and asking questions—and in the case of “Yellowjackets” creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, lots of questions. “I’m a nightmare,” deadpans Lynskey. “I’ll fight with a director. If I get given a note that doesn’t seem in line with the character, in line with my instincts, I’ll try something interesting.”
Playing Shauna also enabled Lynskey to experiment with portraying trauma; how it manifests physically and emotionally. “It was just a matter of remembering this is not a person who is allowing themselves those moments,” she explains. “Shauna is not somebody who’s had the therapy that I’ve had, who can be in the moment, in the feeling.”
For more insights into Lynskey’s many tricks of the trade, listen to her interview wherever you get podcasts. Also in this episode is a quick recap of the 2022 Academy Award nominations, courtesy of Backstage’s chief content officer Stephanie Snipes and managing editor Benjamin Lindsay.