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 played schoolgirl Pauline Parker, who carries out a brutal crime with the assistance of her best friend, played by Kate Winslet. 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 of Pauline, but "none were right". Fran Walsh, the script's co-writer, admired Lynskey's "quiet intensity" and said, "We knew immediately that she was right for the role". Lynskey turned 16 during the making of the film and was 17 by the time of its release in 1994, whereupon it was met with critical acclaim. Roger Ebert praised its director, Peter Jackson, for 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". Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman described her as "extraordinary", while Richard Corliss stated in his review for Time:
During a three-year hiatus, Lynskey continued her education and auditioned for parts in films such as The Craft and The Crucible, as well as making a brief, non-speaking cameo appearance in Peter Jackson's The Frighteners (1996). She returned to more substantial roles with the independent drama Foreign Correspondents, playing Melody, a timid receptionist who forms an unusual friendship with an overseas pen pal. The part was offered to Lynskey in an email from the film's director, Mark Tapio Kines, who had seen Heavenly Creatures and read online that she was eager to work in America. Filming took place in Los Angeles in 1997, with the project garnering attention for its use of crowdfunding, a strategy that was considered a "breakthrough" at the time. That same year, she was cast in the supporting role of "charming and funny" stepsister Jacqueline De Ghent in Ever After, a feminist re-imagining of the Cinderella fairy tale. Filmed in the south of France, it was released to favourable reviews in 1998.
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, which is often referred to as one of the best LGBT films ever made. Next, she wore "big hair and fake nails" and adopted a New Jersey accent to play Gloria—the best friend of main character Violet—in Coyote Ugly (2000), and returned to New Zealand to star as Alice—a free-spirited drifter who embarks on a dangerous road trip—in the award-winning thriller Snakeskin (2001), which screened at the Cannes Film Festival. For the latter, she received strong reviews and a nomination for Best Actress at the New Zealand Film Awards.
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, whom 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 re-teamed with director Andy Tennant, whom she previously worked with on Ever After, to play a key role in the record-breaking romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama. Writing for The Austin Chronicle, Kimberley Jones called it an "earnest, affectionate portrait of a town that refuses to keep pace with the rest of the world", mentioning Lynskey as a highlight among the ensemble cast. In recent years, the scene in which her character—Lurlynn, a young mother of four—nurses her baby in a crowded bar has been noted for its cultural relevance. Next, she co-starred in Abandon, the directorial debut of Stephen Gaghan. The psychological thriller received negative reviews, but Lynskey's portrayal of a mousy librarian was considered to be one of its strengths, with Todd McCarthy of Variety pointing out that she "does some self-conscious scene stealing". That same year, she made her television debut in the Stephen King miniseries Rose Red, a ratings hit with an average of 18.5 million viewers over three consecutive nights.
In Shattered Glass (2003), a drama based on the career of disgraced former journalist Stephen Glass, Lynskey appeared as Amy Brand, a writer for The New Republic. IGN praised the film's "excellent cast", while 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 landed the part of Rose, the devious but lovable neighbour of Charlie Harper, on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men. After initially appearing in the pilot as a guest star, she was invited by the producers to become a series regular and went on to appear frequently throughout the first two seasons. Fearing that she might become 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 series executive producer Chuck Lorre said he had "a lot of respect for", despite "not [being] happy at first"—but continued to make guest appearances 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 recognize me from Two and a Half Men and think that I never had another job. But I couldn't have done one without the other".
Also in 2009, Lynskey co-starred as the pregnant fiancée of a cannabis farmer in the Tim Blake Nelson-directed black comedy Leaves of Grass, with RogerEbert.com's Seongyong Cho writing that her performance was one of the key contributors to the film'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 portrayal of Julie Bingham in the Oscar-nominated dramedy Up in the Air. In his previous work, 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 that same year, she was presented with a Spotlight Award at the Hollywood Film Festival.
Lynskey received strong reviews in 2009 for her appearance in Away We Go, a dramedy directed by Sam Mendes, where she played a woman who has suffered a series of miscarriages. Referring to the scene in which her character, Munch Garnett, performs a pole dance in front of her grieving husband, Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe stated, "Lynskey dramatizes sadness and dysfunction with quiet, moving physicality. [Her] whole life is there in her long face and drooping limbs. It's the best performance in the movie". Next, she co-starred as Ginger, the foolishly devoted wife of FBI whistleblower Mark Whitacre, in Steven Soderbergh's darkly comedic biopic The Informant! Based on real events, the film was described as "devilish fun" by Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, while Geoffrey Macnab felt that Lynskey provided "sterling support" in his review for The Independent. During promotion of the film in September that year, Soderbergh told the Los Angeles Times:
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". Lynskey has subsequently taken on leading roles in numerous independent films and has been labelled an "indie queen".
In 2012, Lynskey appeared in the doomsday romantic comedy Seeking a Friend for the End of the World and had a key role as Aunt Helen—the sexually abusive older relative of main character Charlie—in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a coming-of-age drama based on the novel of the same name. In his review of Perks for The Tuscaloosa News, Corey Craft said the film's strengths "lie in its details and performances", believing the cast to be "uniformly strong". Due to the nature of her character, Lynskey said it had been a difficult decision to take the part. Also in 2012, she played professional dancer Sally in Putzel, a romantic comedy set in the Upper West Side. Writing for the Tallahassee Democrat, Mark Hinson said that Lynskey "steals the show" and that "[the film] sparks to life whenever [she] arrives on the screen"; while in his review for Redefine, Allen Huang 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 2013, Lynskey took on a lead role in The Big Ask, an independent black comedy. The film received a mixed reception, but Lynskey's portrayal of Hannah was praised, with Brian Tallerico stating in his review for RogerEbert.com, "[Lynskey] so often finds ways to elevate lackluster screenwriting, and does so again here. She's the best thing about the movie". In April the following year, she was named an Emerging Master honouree at the RiverRun International Film Festival. Her next role was in Happy Christmas (2014), where she played Kelly, an aspiring novelist whose passion for writing is rekindled when her sister-in-law comes to visit. The film drew attention for being almost entirely improvised. Stephen Holden of The New York Times commented, "The performances in Happy Christmas are so natural that the actors melt into their characters", while other critics singled out Lynskey as a highlight. Later that year, she appeared in David Wain's satirical romantic comedy They Came Together and played the female leads in We'll Never Have Paris—the directorial debut of Simon Helberg—and Goodbye to All That, a dramedy. In his review of Goodbye, Bilge Ebiri said Lynskey's portrayal of a frustrated wife 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".
In February 2013, she participated in a Live Read performance of the 1992 film Glengarry Glen Ross. The read-through 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.
Also in 2014, Lynskey provided the voice of Beatrice, an ill-tempered bluebird, for the Cartoon Network miniseries Over the Garden Wall. Writing for The Guardian, Brian Moylan said the ten-part animation was filled with "existential dread" and "profound uneasiness", while Kevin Johnson of The A.V. Club noted, "Lynskey steals the show with her amazing putdowns and passive-aggressiveness, smartly avoiding overdone sass or sarcasm". The series won several Creative Arts Emmys and is now considered a "cult classic".
In 2015, she starred in the music video for the song "Waiting on Love" by Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers, alongside Jason Ritter.
USA Today praised the film for being "funny, well-written, involving and emotionally honest", while noting that "Lynskey brings dimension and intelligence" and a "sympathetic blend of humor [and] dignity to the role". The performance earned her a Breakthrough Actor nomination at the 22nd Gotham Independent Film Awards. In 2015, Screen Rant placed Lynskey's portrayal of Amy at #6 in their ranking of the best film performances of the early 2010s.
Also in 2017, Lynskey headlined the controversially themed independent drama And Then I Go, playing the concerned parent of a troubled high schooler. Parade critic Samuel R. Murrian called the film "stark, timely, unsettling" and felt that it featured "quality work" from Lynskey. Next, she received a Golden Nymph nomination for her portrayal of a headstrong criminal defense lawyer in the well-reviewed Australian miniseries Sunshine; co-starred as the mother of a teenage girl with supernatural powers in The Changeover, a fantasy thriller shot in New Zealand; and appeared as a flustered housewife in the horror film XX, in which she frantically tries to conceal her husband's corpse after finding him dead. In her review of the latter, Stephanie Zacharek of Time wrote, "The picture has a wry, comic charge, and Lynskey, terrific as always, brings a grace note of pathos to the wicked proceedings".
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, Lynskey was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
In the 2018 drama Sadie, Lynskey starred as a woman struggling to raise her daughter while her husband is serving in Afghanistan. Variety described her work in the film as "compelling", while Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter commented, "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 Molly Strand on the first season of Castle Rock, a psychological horror series based on characters and settings from the novels of Stephen King. The series premiered on Hulu in July 2018 and garnered positive notices, particularly for 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 ... a tradition that goes back to when she was a teenager in Heavenly Creatures". The series was renewed for a second season, but, due to the anthological nature of the narrative, it featured a different set of actors.
Between April and May 2020, Lynskey appeared in the nine-part period miniseries Mrs. America, a political drama centred on the life and career of conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, played by Cate Blanchett. The series aired on FX on Hulu to widespread acclaim, with James Poniewozik of The New York Times calling it "meticulously created and observed". Lynskey's portrayal of the real-life Rosemary Thomson, an ambitious champion of Schlafly and staunch opposer of the Equal Rights Amendment, was described 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. She called working with Blanchett "one of the great experiences of my life".
On the Showtime series Yellowjackets, which premiered in November 2021, Lynskey stars in the role of Shauna Sadecki (née Shipman), a suburban housewife and mother who, along with three old high school friends, has been harbouring secrets about a plane crash that occurred twenty-five years ago. The series was commended by Judy Berman of Time for its "psychological realism" and ability to mix different genres together successfully, while Lacy Baugher Milas of Paste believed it was "one of the fall television season's most compelling new offerings, a twisty mystery [that] grounds its story in a specifically female experience". The cast were unanimously praised for their performances, but Rolling Stone felt that Lynskey was the "standout", noting, "She's always great, but Shauna 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 the show, 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. She has since received many other accolades for Yellowjackets, including 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'".
Lynskey co-starred as Betty Gore, the victim of real-life murderer Candy Montgomery, in the true crime Hulu miniseries Candy, which aired over five consecutive nights in May 2022. Despite receiving a mixed critical reception, with some finding the show too similar to others of its type, the acting was unanimously 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 she "gives Betty a memorable and constant presence ... [she] was clearly depressed and in need of help [and] through Lynskey's performance, we find that tragic and heartbreaking". She went on to receive Critics' Choice and Satellite Award nominations for her work.
In 2023, Lynskey narrated the children's book Memoirs of a Hamster (by Devin Scillian) in a video for Storyline Online, a branch of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation that specialises in child literacy.
On HBO's The Last of Us, an adaptation of the action-adventure 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 to strong reviews: Stephen Kelly of BBC Culture called it "The best video game adaptation ever", adding that Lynskey's "chillingly violent" performance was "superb". Daniel Fienberg felt she was "thoroughly effective" in his review for The Hollywood Reporter, while 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 the 2023 Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress.
In February 2023, Lynskey responded to criticism about her involvement in HBO's 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".