Melanie Jayne Lynskey (/ˈlɪnski/ LIN-skee; 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 numerous accolades, including three Critics' Choice Awards and nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards.
Lynskey's professional debut came at age 15 with a starring role in Heavenly Creatures, a psychological drama based on a 1950s murder case. Lynskey portrayed Pauline Parker, a schoolgirl who conspires to kill her own mother. She 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". Fran Walsh, who co-wrote the screenplay, admired Lynskey's "quiet intensity" and said, "We knew immediately that she was right for the role". Lynskey turned 16 during the making of Creatures and was 17 by the time of its release in 1994. Critics were effusive about the performances, especially those of Lynskey and her co-star, Kate Winslet. Roger Ebert complimented the film's director, Peter Jackson, on picking "the right two actresses", noting that "There is a way 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:
Over the next three years, Lynskey continued her education while auditioning for various film parts. She also had a minor role as a policewoman in Peter Jackson's first project after Creatures, The Frighteners (1996), and starred in a production of Jean Genet's The Maids for the New Zealand Fringe Festival. Her return to substantial film roles came with the independent drama Foreign Correspondents, where she played Melody, a timid receptionist who strikes up an unusual bond with an overseas pen pal. The director, Mark Tapio Kines, contacted Lynskey to offer her the part after reading online that she was eager to work in America. Filming took place in Los Angeles in 1997, with the project drawing attention for its "breakthrough" use of crowdfunding. Her next film was the period fairytale romance Ever After (1998), a feminist reimagining of Cinderella that was shot in the south of France; Lynskey played Drew Barrymore's "charming and funny" stepsister, Jacqueline De Ghent. She attributes her growth in self-confidence around this time, as well as the advancement of her career, to the support and advice she received from Barrymore and their co-star, Anjelica Huston, during the making of After.
Lynskey appeared in four features in 1999: teen comedy Detroit Rock City, period drama The Cherry Orchard, British gangster drama Shooters, and the cult hit satire But I'm a Cheerleader—considered to be one of the foremost examples of LGBT cinema—where she played a lesbian undergoing conversion therapy. Next, she wore "big hair and fake nails" to portray Gloria, a girl from New Jersey, in the musical romantic comedy Coyote Ugly (2000), with Salon's Stephanie Zacharek calling her "a bridge-and-tunnel Betty Boop, full of google-eyed charm". She then returned to New Zealand to star in the independent thriller Snakeskin (2001), which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and earned Lynskey a Best Actress nomination at that year's New Zealand Film Awards. Variety's David Stratton felt that her work in Snakeskin, where she played Alice, a free-spirited drifter who embarks on a dangerous road trip, was "excellent".
In 2001, Lynskey met American actor Jimmi Simpson during the filming of Rose Red, in which they both appeared. They became engaged in 2005 and were married on 14 April 2007, in a chapel on Lake Hayes, near Queenstown, New Zealand. Lynskey filed for divorce from Simpson on 25 September 2012, citing irreconcilable differences, with TMZ referring to it as "the nicest divorce ever". The divorce was finalised on 23 May 2014. The two remain good friends. In February 2017, Lynskey announced that she was engaged to Jason Ritter, who she had been dating for four years. In December the following year, they became parents to a daughter. Lynskey and Ritter were married in 2020.
In 2002, Lynskey reteamed with director Andy Tennant—whom she previously worked with on Ever After—to play a key role in the romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama, with The Austin Chronicle mentioning her as a highlight among the ensemble cast. The scene in which her character, Lurlynn, nurses her baby in a crowded bar has since been recognised for its cultural relevance. Next, she had a supporting role in Abandon, the directorial debut of Stephen Gaghan. In his review of the psychological thriller, Variety's Todd McCarthy pointed out that Lynskey did "some self-conscious scene stealing" with her portrayal of a mousy librarian. She 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.
In Shattered Glass (2003), a drama depicting the downfall of disgraced ex-journalist Stephen Glass, Lynskey appeared as Amy Brand, a writer for The New Republic. Critic Andrew Sarris noted that "the performances [of] Ms. Sevigny, Ms. Dawson and Ms. Lynskey do more than [just] complement Mr. Christensen's central characterization; they provide a sane backdrop for [his] pathological deceptions to steadily unravel against". Later that year, she began playing the part of Rose, an endearingly devious stalker, on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men. Having initially made a one-off appearance in the pilot episode, she was invited by the producers to become a series regular, and went on to feature in various storylines throughout the first two seasons. Worried about being typecast as a result of her involvement with Men, 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". She returned infrequently to Men as a guest star up until its final episode, which aired in February 2015. "Doing three or four episodes a year enabled me to pay my mortgage and do independent films", she later said. "People in [the indie world] didn't know I was on this huge sitcom. Then, [others] would recognise me from [the show] and think that I never had another job. But I couldn't have done one without the other".
Lynskey played Pauline Harnois, the fame-hungry fiancée of soldier Rene Gagnon, in Clint Eastwood's epic war film Flags of Our Fathers (2006). She then joined the main ensemble of the short-lived Fox series Drive (2007), 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". Her next project was the Western miniseries Comanche Moon, which aired on CBS in January 2008. In their critique of the show, People felt that Lynskey's portrayal of Pearl Coleman, a settler whose marriage falls apart after she is raped, was among the best in the cast. Later that year, she returned once again to New Zealand to headline the romantic drama Show of Hands, earning strong notices and a Best Actress nomination at the Qantas Film Awards for playing Jess, a single parent who enters a gruelling endurance competition to win a car.
Also in 2009, Lynskey appeared as the pregnant girlfriend of a cannabis farmer in Tim Blake Nelson's Leaves of Grass, with RogerEbert.com believing her performance to be one of the key contributors to the black comedy's "quirky charm". Nelson said of her casting, "Melanie came in and read for me and, though she's from New Zealand, she was by far the most credible version of an Oklahoma girl I saw. And I probably auditioned 50 actresses for that role". Next, she received positive notices for her work as Julie Bingham, a soon-to-be bride, in the Oscar-nominated dramedy Up in the Air. With his previous films, director Jason Reitman had always rejected the idea of casting non-American actors in American roles, but Lynskey said that she "tricked" him into giving her the part by avoiding conversation with him during her audition, thus concealing her real accent; Reitman admitted to being "thrilled" by this. In October 2009, she was presented with a Spotlight Award at the Hollywood Film Festival.
Asked by a journalist in 2012 about how she felt being cast—up to that point in her career—as a supporting player rather than a lead, Lynskey said it was something she had thought about a lot, and that the "meaty" parts are mostly written for men, or actresses like Meryl Streep. She told a different journalist the same year, "It's been a big issue that I'm not [famous] ... I'll audition for something and then the feedback has been, 'The director wants you, the creative people want you, but the studio is saying no' ... but I understand. People are investing a lot of money and they want somewhat of a guarantee". She has subsequently taken on leading roles in numerous independent films and been labelled an "indie queen".
In 2012, Lynskey appeared briefly as the flirtatious Karen in doomsday romantic comedy Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, and had a key role as Aunt Helen, the sexually abusive relative of the teenage protagonist, in coming-of-age drama The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Due to the nature of her character in Perks, she said that agreeing to take on the part had been a difficult decision. Her next role was that of love interest Sally in the same year's Putzel, an independent romcom. In their critique of the film, the Tallahassee Democrat stated that Lynskey "steals the show ... [Putzel] sparks to life whenever [she] arrives on the screen", while Redefine described her as "delightful" and "deftly believable".
In 2012, Lynskey voiced an animated version of herself in a pre-flight safety video for Air New Zealand.
Lynskey told a journalist in 2012 that, for a while, the only roles she was being offered were "fat-girl parts", adding, "Seriously? Sometimes I feel like I'm making some kind of radical statement because I'm a size 6". In a 2022 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she discussed being body-shamed early on in her career: "It was ridiculous. I was already starving myself and as thin as I could possibly be ... people [were] putting a lot of Spanx on me in wardrobe fittings ... [costume designers would say], "Nobody told me there would be girls like you" ... the feedback [around that time] was constantly ... 'You're not beautiful'". That same year, when asked how she was dealing with the response to her role on Yellowjackets, 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'". Meanwhile, she said that the creators of Yellowjackets were "excited" about her being "an average-size woman": "Nobody's pressuring me to look a different way [and] that's something that I did not think would ever be possible".
In February 2013, she participated in a Live Read performance of the 1992 film Glengarry Glen Ross. The event was directed by Jason Reitman, who assembled a cast of women to read the all-male script; Lynskey played the role of George Aaronow, originally portrayed by Alan Arkin.
In April 2014, Lynskey was named an Emerging Master honouree at the RiverRun International Film Festival. Her first film project that year was Happy Christmas (2014), where she played Kelly, a creatively bored novelist whose passion for writing is rekindled when her disruptive sister-in-law comes to visit. Christmas drew attention for being almost entirely improvised, with Stephen Holden of The New York Times stating, "The performances [are] so natural that the actors melt into their characters"; while other critics singled out Lynskey as a highlight. She then had a supporting role in David Wain's satirical romcom They Came Together, and played the female leads in We'll Never Have Paris—the directorial debut of Simon Helberg—and Angus MacLachlan's Goodbye to All That. In his review of Goodbye, Bilge Ebiri said that Lynskey's portrayal of frustrated wife Annie was "fantastic", while Variety described her as "heartbreaking ... This is what falling out of love looks like. It's not screaming matches and altercations; it's apathy and indifference". Towards the end of 2014, she provided the voice of Beatrice, an ill-tempered bluebird, for Cartoon Network's Over the Garden Wall. In their appraisal of the animated miniseries, which has since been recognised as a cult classic, The A.V. Club commented, "Lynskey steals the show with her amazing putdowns and passive-aggressiveness, smartly avoiding overdone sass or sarcasm".
In 2015, she starred in the music video for the song "Waiting on Love" by Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers, alongside Jason Ritter.
Between 2015 and 2016, Lynskey played Michelle Pierson on HBO's Togetherness, which focused on the lives of two couples living under the same roof. Created by the Duplass brothers, the heavily improvised dramedy series was a "dream" job for Lynskey, who referred to its co-writer and director, Jay Duplass, as her "creative soulmate". The show's performances were commended, with critics paying particular attention to Lynskey. Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Robert Lloyd said, "[Lynskey] is all deep waters and live wires; soft and steely, trying on new personas for size, her Michelle becomes the series' gravitational center. You can feel her feeling". The performance earned her a nomination for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress, and was singled out by numerous publications as being worthy of an Emmy nomination. It was announced in March 2016 that HBO would not be renewing Togetherness for a third season; Lynskey compared this to having her "heart broken by someone I'm still in love with".
Speaking in 2017 about taking risks in her film work, Lynskey said, "I want to tell stories about women who are interesting and complicated and not like people you've seen before ... There aren't that many opportunities [to do that] except in the independent film world. I've made films that have cost $50,000 for the entire film. If you're willing to work like that, you get chances to do really creative, interesting stuff".
In June 2018, she was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
In Sadie (2018), Lynskey starred as Rae, a woman bringing up her daughter in the confines of a trailer park while her husband serves in the military. Variety described her work in the drama as "compelling", while Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter stated, "It's no surprise that Lynskey, who has quietly [been] establishing herself as one of indie cinema's finest actors, is once again superb in her emotionally complex turn". Next, she appeared in the principal role of troubled psychic Molly Strand on the first season of Castle Rock, a supernatural horror series based on characters and settings from the books of Stephen King. It premiered on Hulu in July 2018, with critics pointing out the strong work of the cast: Paste referred to Lynskey as "delicately complex", while Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone felt the show was "the latest example of how much humanity and grounding [Lynskey] can bring to the most surreal and macabre of stories – it's a tradition that goes back to when she was a teenager in Heavenly Creatures". Rock was renewed for a second season but, due to the series' anthological narrative, it featured a different set of actors. Earlier that same year, the Seattle International Film Festival hosted a tribute event in celebration of Lynskey's career.
Between April and May 2020, 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 (played by Cate Blanchett). Her portrayal of the real-life Thomson, an ambitious champion of Schlafly and staunch opposer of the Equal Rights Amendment, was described by critics as "delightful" and a "standout" among the cast. Despite not sharing her beliefs, Lynskey said that her own Baptist upbringing enabled her to empathize with Rosemary's position, and called working with Blanchett "one of the great experiences of my life".
On Showtime's Yellowjackets, Lynskey plays Shauna Sadecki, a suburban housewife carrying grim secrets about a plane crash that occurred twenty-five years ago. The series premiered in November 2021, with Rolling Stone feeling that Lynskey was the "standout" among its ensemble cast: "She's always great, but [this] feels like the kind of dark, messy, and charismatic part she's been waiting her whole career to play". In a similar review, The Guardian agreed that "Lynskey does by far the most emotional heavy lifting of the series". She 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 also terrified of". For her work on Yellowjackets, Lynskey won Best Actress in a Drama Series at the 27th Critics' Choice Awards, where her acceptance speech drew attention for paying tribute to her daughter's nanny. Her subsequent accolades for playing Shauna include two nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress, in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
Writing for InStyle in 2022, Laura Norkin referred to Lynskey as "the nicest person in Hollywood" and "one of the most skilled and compelling [actresses] of our time". In the same article, actress Danielle Brooks said of Lynskey's reputation in the industry, "People are like, 'She's the real deal. She will deliver'".
In the true crime miniseries Candy, Lynskey co-starred as Betty Gore, a Texan schoolteacher battling postpartum depression who is killed by her husband's lover (played by Jessica Biel). Airing on Hulu in May 2022, the show's acting was widely praised: Entertainment Weekly felt that Lynskey "captures the sadness and seething resentment of a woman stifled by the confines of stay-at-home motherhood", while RogerEbert.com's Brian Tallerico said, "She does so much with just a sigh or defeated body language". Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, Richard Roeper believed that the real Gore was "clearly depressed and in need of help" and that "through Lynskey's performance, we find that tragic and heartbreaking". 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. She went on to receive Critics' Choice and Satellite Award nominations for her portrayal of Gore.
On HBO's The Last of Us, an adaptation of the action-adventure video game, Lynskey appeared in the guest role of Kathleen Coghlan, a ruthless war criminal. The character was created specially for the series by executive producer Craig Mazin, who wanted to work with Lynskey. The show premiered in January 2023, with Stephen Kelly of BBC Culture stating that Lynskey's "chillingly violent" performance was "superb"; while Daniel Fienberg felt she was "thoroughly effective" in his review for The Hollywood Reporter, and Ben Travers of IndieWire wrote that one piece of dialogue in particular—"kids die, they die all the time"—stood out for him as "an all-time cold-blooded bad guy quote, delivered with exhausted gravity by the great Melanie Lynskey". The performance earned her a nomination for that year's Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.
In February 2023, Lynskey responded to criticism of her casting in The Last of Us, when fashion model Adrianne Curry implied that Lynskey's body type made her ill-suited to the role of a villainous leader: "[The character is] supposed to be smart, ma'am. I don't need to be muscly. That's what henchmen are for". Jeffrey Pierce, Lynskey's co-star on the show, defended her by saying, "Hollywood has done a terrible job of creating the mythology of, what is a man? What is a woman? What are these aesthetics that we hold up as power?", adding that he thought Lynskey had handled the situation with "grace [and] courage".
In October 2023, Lynskey narrated Devin Scillian's Memoirs of a Hamster for Storyline Online, a branch of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation that specialises in child literacy.
In the Peacock historical drama series The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Lynskey portrayed New Zealand social worker Heather Morris, a fledgling novelist who befriends an elderly Holocaust survivor (played by Harvey Keitel) and pitches him her idea for a book about his time spent imprisoned at a concentration camp. The show was released in May 2024, with The Daily Beast's Nick Schager pointing out Lynskey's chemistry with Keitel, but criticising the quality of the wig she had to wear in an effort to resemble the real Morris; while other reviewers believed her work to be "understated [and] endlessly empathetic", as well as "measured, nuanced, textured, and altogether beautiful". Owing to the nature of the material, Lynskey described the filming experience as "heavy", but said she felt it was "important to tell as many stories as we can from this period in history".