1. Melanie Lynskey is the recipient of numerous accolades, including three Critics' Choice Awards and nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards.
58 Facts About Melanie Lynskey
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Melanie Lynskey later had supporting roles in Ever After, But I'm a Cheerleader, and Coyote Ugly.
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Melanie Lynskey's starring role as a depressed divorcee in Hello I Must Be Going proved to be a turning point in Lynskey's career, with subsequent lead roles in Happy Christmas, The Intervention, and I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore establishing her as a prominent figure in independent cinema.
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On television, Melanie Lynskey appeared as Rose on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men.
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Melanie Lynskey received a further Emmy nomination for her work on HBO's The Last of Us.
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Melanie Lynskey is married to actor Jason Ritter, with whom she has a daughter.
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Melanie Lynskey was born in New Plymouth, New Zealand, to Kay Barbara, a real estate agent, and Tim Melanie Lynskey, an orthopedic surgeon.
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Melanie Lynskey has Irish, English, and Scottish ancestry; her surname originates in Ireland.
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Melanie Lynskey played an active role in the raising of her siblings; she is the eldest of five children, and has three brothers and one sister.
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When she was six, Melanie Lynskey's family moved to England for one year before returning to New Zealand.
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Melanie Lynskey later attended New Plymouth Girls' High School, where she was involved in the drama department and school plays.
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Melanie Lynskey portrayed Pauline Parker, a schoolgirl who conspires to kill her mother.
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Melanie Lynskey auditioned for the role when a casting director visited her high school; prior to this, five hundred girls had been considered for the part, but "none were right".
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Melanie Lynskey turned 16 during the making of Heavenly Creatures and was 17 by the time of its release in 1994.
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Roger Ebert complimented the film's director, Peter Jackson, on picking "the right two actresses", noting that "There is a way Melanie Lynskey has of looking up from beneath glowering eyebrows that lets you know her insides are churning" while Richard Corliss wrote in his review for Time:.
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Melanie Lynskey regards working with Jackson and Winslet as an important learning experience.
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Melanie Lynskey had a minor role as a policewoman in Peter Jackson's first project after Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners, and starred in a production of Jean Genet's The Maids for the New Zealand Fringe Festival.
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The director, Mark Tapio Kines, contacted Melanie Lynskey to offer her the part after reading online that she was eager to work in America.
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Melanie Lynskey then returned to New Zealand to star in the independent thriller Snakeskin, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and earned Lynskey a Best Actress nomination at that year's New Zealand Film Awards.
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Melanie Lynskey made her television debut that same year in the Stephen King miniseries Rose Red, playing the protective older sister of a girl with supernatural powers.
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In Shattered Glass, a drama depicting the downfall of disgraced ex-journalist Stephen Glass, Melanie Lynskey appeared as Amy Brand, a writer for The New Republic.
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Worried about being typecast as a result of her involvement with the series, Melanie Lynskey decided to leave the main ensemble in 2005 to concentrate on film work, a move that showrunner Chuck Lorre said he had "a lot of respect for", despite "not [being] happy at first".
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Melanie Lynskey returned infrequently to Two and a Half Men as a guest star up until its final episode, which aired in February 2015.
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Melanie Lynskey played Pauline Harnois, the fame-hungry fiancee of soldier Rene Gagnon, in Clint Eastwood's epic war film Flags of Our Fathers.
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Melanie Lynskey then joined the main ensemble of the short-lived Fox series Drive, with Los Angeles Times critic Mary McNamara describing her work as Wendy Patrakas, a new mother desperate to get away from her abusive husband, as "especially compelling".
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Melanie Lynskey's rhythms are really unusual, like her cadence and her reaction times to things, and the way [she] lays out a sentence.
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Also in 2009, Melanie Lynskey appeared as the pregnant girlfriend of a cannabis farmer in Tim Blake Nelson's Leaves of Grass, with RogerEbert.
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Melanie Lynskey played an insecure wife in Helena from the Wedding, with The Hollywood Reporter stating in their review, "The actors form a seamless ensemble, but [the film] belongs to [Melanie Lynskey]".
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Melanie Lynskey then appeared in the sports drama Touchback, receiving praise for her role as the childhood sweetheart of an ex-football prodigy, and garnered positive notices the same year for her portrayal of drug addict Cindy Timmons in Tom McCarthy's dramedy Win Win.
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Between 2015 and 2016, Melanie Lynskey played Michelle Pierson on HBO's Togetherness, which focused on the lives of two couples living under the same roof.
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In Sadie, Melanie Lynskey starred as Rae, a woman bringing up her daughter in the confines of a trailer park while her husband serves in the military.
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Variety described her work in the drama as "compelling", while Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter stated, "It's no surprise that Melanie Lynskey, who has quietly [been] establishing herself as one of indie cinema's finest actors, is superb in her emotionally complex turn".
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Between April and May 2020, Melanie Lynskey appeared as Rosemary Thomson in the FX on Hulu period miniseries Mrs America, a political drama centred on the life and career of conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly.
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Melanie Lynskey agreed to star as a layabout stoner in Lady of the Manor, the directorial debut of Justin Long, because "the thought of being in sweatpants [and] acting like I was high for a whole movie was so freeing".
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Melanie Lynskey's performance was well received, with The Hollywood Reporter commenting that she "brings the same airtight commitment to hot mess Hannah that she does to all her varied roles", while Screen Rant felt she "unabashedly embraces physical humor [and] really commits to the gags".
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Melanie Lynskey said that working on Up and bonding with DiCaprio had been "beautiful".
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On Showtime's Yellowjackets, Melanie Lynskey plays Shauna Sadecki, a suburban housewife carrying grim secrets about a plane crash that occurred twenty-five years ago.
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Melanie Lynskey admitted it was Shauna's "internalized rage" that attracted her to the role, as well as "a real dark streak [that I] loved and was terrified of".
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Melanie Lynskey spoke of the intense emotion involved in recreating her character's murder, saying she and Biel took great care to perfect the sequence's staging and choreography.
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Melanie Lynskey went on to receive Critics' Choice and Satellite Award nominations for her portrayal of Gore.
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On HBO's The Last of Us, an adaptation of the action-adventure video game, Melanie Lynskey appeared in the guest role of Kathleen Coghlan, a ruthless war criminal.
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Melanie Lynskey described herself as a character actress in the early stages of her career, but has since renounced the term.
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Melanie Lynskey has subsequently taken on leading roles in numerous independent films and been labelled an "indie queen".
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Melanie Lynskey is often complimented on her ability to perform an American accent.
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Melanie Lynskey is known for her improvisation skills, which she attributes to classes she attended in her youth.
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In 2012, Melanie Lynskey voiced an animated version of herself in a pre-flight safety video for Air New Zealand.
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The event was directed by Jason Reitman, who assembled a cast of women to read the all-male script; Melanie Lynskey played the role of George Aaronow, originally portrayed by Alan Arkin.
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Between 2014 and 2016, Melanie Lynskey featured on several occasions as part of The Thrilling Adventure Hour, a staged podcast in the style of old-time radio, which was performed monthly in Los Angeles.
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Melanie Lynskey served on the jury for the US Narrative Competition at the 2017 Tribeca Festival.
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In October 2023, Melanie Lynskey narrated Devin Scillian's Memoirs of a Hamster for Storyline Online, a branch of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation that specialises in child literacy.
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Melanie Lynskey was selected as one of the judges for the 2024 Heath Ledger Scholarship, an initiative that offers financial support and career mentorship to emerging Australian talent.
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Melanie Lynskey has appeared on the covers of magazines such as The Hollywood Reporter, InStyle, Variety, TheWrap, and Backstage.
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That same year, when asked how she was dealing with the response to her role on Yellowjackets, Melanie Lynskey explained to The Guardian that a lot of attention was being placed on her weight: "It's [about] trying to tune out [the negative comments] and [listening instead] to the women who say: thank you for just being on screen and not pinching your tummy, or being like: 'I wish I was thinner'".
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In 2001, Melanie Lynskey met American actor Jimmi Simpson during the filming of Rose Red, in which they both appeared.
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Melanie Lynskey filed for divorce from Simpson on 25 September 2012, citing irreconcilable differences, with TMZ referring to it as "the nicest divorce ever".
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In February 2017, Melanie Lynskey announced that she was engaged to Jason Ritter, who she had been dating for four years.
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Melanie Lynskey is a close friend of Clea DuVall, who she met when they appeared together in But I'm a Cheerleader.
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Melanie Lynskey became a vegetarian at age 10 after learning about sheep farming but now identifies as pescetarian.