MELANIE LYNSKEY

‘I WAS VERY HAPPY NOT TO HAVE THE LIMELIGHT ON ME. IT’S NOT SOMETHING I’VE EVER LOOKED FOR’

After being discovered during a high-school audition aged 15, Melanie Lynskey had been working steadily in film and TV for decades before Yellowjackets and The Last of Us supercharged her career. Now, with the release of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, she tells Total Film why she’s always found acting addictive…

Melanie Lynskey might be the nicest actor working in Hollywood. When Total Film catches up with the New Zealand star, her thoughtful and gentle presence feels as soothing as a light breeze on awarm day. Dressed in a pink-and-white jumper, with her hair tied back, she is video-chatting from her daughter’s bedroom in Los Angeles. ‘Can you see the Encanto bedspread?’ she asks, moving out of the way to offer up a better view.

It is this sweet-natured manner that the 46-year-old has deployed to chilling effect over a decades-long career. She has always been drawn to complicated women, who are often grappling with a fierce, unwieldy torrent of emotion under a mild exterior. Lynskey can portray rage and how it shatters the soul so viscerally; it’s the bee sting covered in honey, unleashed when you least expect it.

She brings an emotional intensity to each of her roles, whether it’s as the baby-faced, scowling teen in Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures, who ends up murdering her own mother; or a woman, still hurting after several miscarriages, in Sam Mendes’ romantic movie Away We Go, delivering a melancholy pole dance in front of her husband.

The past few years have been a whirlwind for Lynskey. Before that, she had established herself as a quiet force to be reckoned with in the indie world, in films such as I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, Hello I Must be Going and The Intervention. Lynskey has also been a frequent scene-stealer in bigger productions like Ever After, Shattered Glass, Sweet Home Alabama, The Informant! and Up in the Air. But mainstream recognition had always eluded her until Yellowjackets, Showtime’s gory cannibal drama. An explosive part last year as a resistance leader in HBO’s The Last of Us only cemented her new, white-hot status.

In The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Sky and Peacock’s adaptation of the bestselling novel, Lynskey plays real-life author Heather Morris. The aspiring writer interviews Holocaust survivor Lale Sokolov (Harvey Keitel and Jonah Hauer-King playing the older and younger versions respectively) about his incredible life story. Slowly, he reveals his moving romance with a fellow concentration-camp prisoner, Gita (Anna Próchniak).

Finding fame in her 40s, an age when many other women lament the lack of good roles in TV and film, has taken Lynskey by surprise. ‘I didn’t think this was going to happen in my career and I was totally fine with that,’ she says. ‘You go so long being like, “Well, all that stuff is meaningless to me. I don’t need to make a ton of money. I don’t need awards.” Then there’s this complicated thing where you’re like, “Oh, suddenly, do I care about these nominations?”’

But Lynskey is taking it all in her stride. ‘You have to just keep checking in on your actual priorities, which are your work, your heart and your self, and not let the outside noise come in.’ She’d better be careful, though, because that noise is reaching a deafening crescendo.

Why did you want to get involved with The Tattooist of Auschwitz?

It was not a book I had read. It just came out of the blue. When I read the script, I just couldn’t stop reading. The story was so heartbreaking. Getting the chance to play aNew Zealander seemed really fun as well. It’s been so long. I just felt a little tingle. I was like, ‘I think I should do this.’

What drew you to the role of Heather?

She’s working in a doctor’s office, she’s going about her life, she has kids. But she’s had this secret passion her whole life, this thing that she feels like she might be good at, but she’s not sure. Then she gets this opportunity to record this survivor’s testimony and write this novel, and she flourished. She says she’s a different person today than she was when she started writing the book. The opportunity to tell the story of that journey, awoman in middle age discovering that she’s really good at something… That was really moving to me.

How closely were you trying to imitate the real Heather Morris?

It’s always a tricky thing when you’re playing a real person, especially a real person who’s living and can give you their opinion [laughs]. When I read the script, I was like, ‘OK, she’s the eyes of the audience.’ There are little breaks in the storytelling where it cuts back to her and her reaction is our reaction. I wanted to show the level of care and love that Heather had during that experience with Lale, how much she helped to get the story out of him, how much she listened, how patient she was.

It’s a new look for you…

I was a little surprised about the wig, initially. I got an email that said my wig fitting was at 9am and I was like, ‘What wig?’ They said, ‘Heather has blonde hair.’ Then I had this blonde bob. I never thought I could have blonde hair. There were so many swatches held up to my face to try to make it work. So there is a level of wanting her to feel represented, but not outright mimicry.

When did you fall in love with acting?

I was so shy as a kid. We moved a lot. My dad was a doctor, but when I was born, he was a medical student. So we had no money and we were just moving depending on where he was doing a residency or studying. So I was always the new kid. We had to live in London for a year. I saw at that school that they were doing a play. I was six years old. I don’t know what possessed me, but I just had a feeling like, ‘I should do that.’ I got a tiny part. There was something about being on stage and feeling the freedom of not being myself for a minute. Suddenly I was like, ‘I can be confident, I can do anything.’

‘HEAVENLY CREATURES CHANGED MY LIFE FOREVER’

You landed your first film role in Heavenly Creatures when you were 15, at an audition at your high school. What was that experience like?

It was crazy. At the time, I thought it would be a good thing to put on my resume for drama school. I was like, ‘I can say I auditioned for a movie.’ I don’t know why they would care about that. But I loved acting, it was all I wanted to do. Everybody said, ‘That’s not a real job. Don’t be crazy.’ It feels like a dream, when I look back on it. The audition itself was such a fun experience and then the rest of it was just… I mean, I could cry.

How did working on Heavenly Creatures shape you as an actor?

It’s almost impossible to think who I would be and if I would be doing this for a living [without it]. It was an incredibly lucky break. Career-wise, it changed my life forever. They had people helping me learn the process of acting in a way that wasn’t like a huge shock to my system. They weren’t just like, ‘Go in there and cry.’ I had people teaching me techniques to come out of it after you’ve been crying all day [and] techniques to go into ways to build anger up in your body.

And then just getting to work with Peter, and seeing what he did every day. Obviously, I was working with Kate Winslet, who’s one of the greatest actors of any generation ever. Having that from your very first co-star, who you’re enmeshed with and working with, it’s a high bar.

How did you feel about the different opportunities offered to you and Winslet after the success of Heavenly Creatures? Her career exploded whereas you went back to school and took a slower path to acting…

Yeah, it wasn’t a surprise to me. Everybody was very cautious. Like, ‘Don’t get carried [away]. It’s not gonna be like now you’re a movie star.’ It’s New Zealand, people are pretty practical. I thought, ‘This may never happen again.’ I just tried to enjoy every moment of it. Kate already was on a trajectory that was so far beyond my little high-school-play self.

This was my first professional job. She had to explain to me what a headshot was. She was living by herself in London, doing all this television. When you meet her, she radiates star quality. I don’t think the same can be said for myself, not to do a comparison.

So it just felt natural, her progression. I remember I called her the morning she was nominated for an Oscar and she was so overwhelmed and so sweet. She was just quietly crying and [was] like, ‘I can’t believe it.’ I was like, ‘No, this is what is supposed to happen. This is the most normal thing in the world, for you to be nominated for an Oscar.’

Then you dropped out of university…

I was like, ‘I’ve never been happier than when I was doing that movie. What if it could happen again?’ Then I started chipping away, trying to climb up a ladder that already was a little inaccessible. By that point it had been shifted across the other side of the valley. I was like, ‘Where’s that ladder?’ There was a lot of hard work. But eventually, when I started working again, it was just so joyful.

What was it like working on 1998’s Ever After with Drew Barrymore?

So fun. We were living in the South of France together. We would all host dinner parties, have pot lucks, drink a lot of great wine and have dance parties. I learned something really big from her. I was so concerned at that time with appearing like I knew everything. So I would pretend that I understood things when I didn’t. People would reference some camera thing and I’d be like, ‘Oh, of course.’ Drew would ask questions. She never stopped asking questions. It was so bold and smart. I was like, ‘OK, that’s the way to go about it.’ Being confident enough to be like, ‘Can you explain it to me?’ From that point on, I didn’t try to pretend I had all the answers any more.

But I’m aCheerleader, Jamie Babbit’s 1999 comedy, was ahead of the times when it came to queer representation on film. Did it feel like you were part of something groundbreaking when you were making it?

No [laughs]. I don’t think you can ever have that kind of perspective. You can feel a chemistry sometimes when you’re working; you can feel when something is coming together in a way that is right and making sense. I felt like it was going to be good. And we were having so much fun when we were making it.

Was 2012 indie drama Hello I Must Be Going a turning point in your career?

I knew what it meant to me to get to play that part. I didn’t know if anybody would see it. But I needed to do that movie. I did a staged reading of it and when the reading was over, I was like, ‘If somebody else does this movie, I’m gonna be in bed for a year, I’m not gonna recover.’ I didn’t realise until we started filming that I literally didn’t have a scene off. It’s like running a marathon. You just get into it. I loved that whole experience.

You’re a big fan of dream work. Can you tell us how you use that to get into your roles?

It’s really a way of accessing your unconscious so that the deepest parts of yourself are more available to you. You ask yourself for dreams for specific roles. Things will come up in the dream that you can sift and work through. But over time you get little tricks for getting into an unconscious part of yourself while you’re at work. You learn actively how to do that on a busy set. You learn to be able to drop into yourself and take the time for yourself in a way that is quite easy and accessible. It’s just been life-changing. I’ve never done any other kind of acting training, so I don’t have much to compare it to. But for me, it works so well.

You’ve described yourself as a ‘shy person’ who doesn’t have a ‘big resonant voice’. Did acting help you develop your voice?

Yeah, I definitely think it helped me. I feel really lucky to have found an outlet at such a young age where I can process my emotions and learn to have more of a voice. I remember years ago, a therapist said to me, ‘I wish you could advocate for yourself like you can advocate for your characters.’ Because I can be quite bossy at work. If I don’t think something is right instinctively, I’ll fight back. I’ll say, ‘Let’s work on this.’ I always try to be collaborative with everyone. I don’t want to be a dick about it.

But in real life [it] used to be a lot easier for me to be pushed around. I would feel, ‘This isn’t right. I don’t want this.’ But I couldn’t speak up for myself. I’ve gotten a lot better about doing that. It’s partly acting and working and partly my husband, [actor Jason Ritter, who] has been great.

What do you enjoy the most about playing Shauna in Yellowjackets?

When I read a script, every episode there’s something I’m terrified of and also excited about. Something where I’m like, ‘Oh my God, really?’ But then it’s so fun to actually do it. There’s so much within that character. She’s so different from me. She’s such an interesting, repressed person to play, who has so much of an undercurrent, where you don’t quite know what’s happening beneath. I feel in every scene, there’s this bubbling brook in my head and in my heart that could spill out.

‘EVERY EPISODE THERE’S SOMETHING I ’M TERRIFIED OF ’

What’s happening with Season 3?

I don’t know. I’m going to an event that some of the showrunners are going to be at. My agent was like, ‘Ask when Season 3 starts!’ I’m like, ‘OK.’ I do want to know. I’m really curious. I don’t know what the plan is. I have full trust at this point. So we’ll just see what happens.

What do you remember the most about the shoot for The Last of Us, in which you played revolutionary leader Kathleen Coghlan?

I remember just how meticulous the set design was. I’ve never in my life been part of a project that felt so overwhelming. Like the cul-de-sac we were shooting in, you could have shot in any one of those houses. The level of detail was so incredible. I was stunned by it. It really felt like being put down in the middle of the video game. All of the zombies rushing at me were circus performers and stunt performers who had been training for five weeks to get the sequence right.

You are very good at portraying the rage within your characters on screen. Why do you think you are drawn to those kinds of roles?

You know, for a long time, I was not good at it. I remember, on Hello I Must be Going, there were a couple of moments where I had to be really enraged and they were the hardest moments of the shoot.

Then, when I broke up with my first husband, I did a lot of very intensive therapy. There was this one day where the therapist had me use a rubber baseball bat to hit this big brick.

I was afraid, even at work, that I would start to feel angry and I would never stop feeling angry. I think a lot of women probably have this feeling. We are so used to being like, ‘It’s OK. Let me just push that down.’ I started crying. It was this incredibly cathartic moment. It was the beginning of me understanding that it is something that I have control over and an important part of being ahuman being. Women are just not encouraged to show it.

So then I found myself after that drawn to women who were letting themselves feel it. I just felt this freedom suddenly within myself to play with the rage that I had, knowing that I wouldn’t try to burn the studio down [laughs].

You’ve spent a lot of your career in supporting roles and became a lead actor later in life. Were you frustrated at the time or happy not to have the limelight on you?

I was very happy not to have the limelight on me. It’s not something I’ve ever looked for. My ideal situation as an actor is being able to work consistently and be challenged and excited. But then also go to Home Depot –that’s where I went yesterday –freely, which I can still do. Honestly, I had a big, long stretch where, yes, I was finishing high school and university, but I wasn’t working. So every job I was immensely grateful for, and also had this feeling in the back of my mind, which has still not gone away, ‘Is this going to be my last job? Is this it? Is it over now?’ So I was just trying to enjoy it in case it was the last job that ever happened. There’s something about coming in as a supporting character –it’s a lot easier than carrying something, there’s a lot less pressure.

‘I WAS TRYING TO ENJOY [EVERY JOB] IN CASE IT WAS THE L AST ’

Do you feel like the film industry has turned its back on you when it comes to lead roles compared to TV, which hasn’t?

Before Yellowjackets, I was getting so many interesting lead roles in independent movies. So to me, that’s the most interesting place to work, with the most freedom. I never had an idea of myself as being the lead in studio movies. That’s never happened for me. I don’t know what the requirements are [laughs]. But that’s not something that I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s coming any day now.’ I felt really satisfied with the work I was getting.

Are there any roles that you’ve missed out on that you’re still sad about?

One of the greatest feelings as an actor is to see the movie that you didn’t get and realise, ‘Oh, that was not my job.’ I remember I was up for Junebug [2005 comedy drama directed by Phil Morrison]. I wanted that movie so badly. It was such a beautiful script. I was just devastated. When I saw Amy Adams in that movie, it was like a weight was lifted from my shoulders. I was like, ‘That was never my job to cry about. It was always hers.’ Of course there are things you’re disappointed about. But usually that’s the thing that happens, where you see someone just absolutely kill it.

You wrote a very touching tribute to Julian Sands, your Rose Red co-star who died last year. What’s your favourite memory of working with him?

What a lovely guy. I think just hanging out in my trailer while I listened to rap music, and seeing Julian Sands sitting on the floor. It was an interesting one because there were a lot of special effects happening. We did not have a ton to do as actors. It was a long shoot. There was just so much giggling and hanging out and sitting in my trailer chatting.

What was it like having a recurring role in Two and aHalf Men between 2003 and 2015? That’s a long period of time.

I was incredibly grateful for it. It wasn’t like the amounts of money that Charlie [Sheen] was making, or any of the men on the show. It was a modest amount. But it was enough for me. If I did three episodes of the show, I could pay my mortgage for the year and my bills. So it freed me up to be able to do all the independent movies that I did, which was the way my career [was] really built. I got [TV drama series] Togetherness because Jay Duplass saw Hello I Must Be Going and then from Togetherness, everything changed. So I was incredibly grateful to the show for giving me financial freedom and letting me have that contract where I could come and go.

And performing in front of a live audience must have been fun…

It’s like the biggest rush of adrenaline. I’ve never done theatre other than in high school, so that’s the only time I’ve gotten to have moments like that and it feels incredible. I understand why people want to do plays all the time.

You’ve worked with filmmakers like Sam Mendes, Clint Eastwood and Steven Soderbergh. Which director has taught you the most?

I think my favourite director of everyone I’ve worked with was Steven Soderbergh. It was so loose. It just felt like anything was possible. It felt like we had all the time in the world, but it moved very quickly. He had so much trust in what we were doing, and you just feel like you’re capable of anything in those moments.

What role would you like to play that you haven’t yet?

There are people that I want to work with. I don’t ever have ideas of a particular kind of role that I want to do. When I read it, I know instinctively. But yeah, there’s a collection of actors in my head. Brian Tyree Henry, everybody knows he’s my favourite actor. Sam Rockwell, I would love to work with. Murray Bartlett is a big one. J. Smith-Cameron and I saw each other at Fashion Week. She was like, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to do something together?’ I was like, ‘Yes!’ Greta Lee had one scene in Hello I Must Be Going and I became obsessed with her after that. To work with Greta [again] would be [amazing].

In your obituary, which film or television show would you most like to be remembered for?

I want every actor to answer this question. Like, what would Cate Blanchett say? I feel like I’m kind of torn between like Togetherness, Hello I Must Be Going, I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore and Yellowjackets. [I’ll] pick Togetherness. Sorry, Yellowjackets. It was a combination of all the things I love the most in acting –there was a lot of improv, a lot of freedom.

I loved that character. I loved getting to work with Amanda Peet. Jay and Mark are geniuses. Because it was cancelled so abruptly, I never got the chance to see it to its completion. So there’s still a little part of my heart that’s yearning.

MELANIE LYNSKEY LINE READING

‘THE NEXT TIME I WRITE IN THIS DIARY, MOTHER WILL BE DEAD. HOW ODD... YET HOW PLEASING’

PAULINE PARKER HEAVENLY CREATURES

‘[I want] for people not to be assholes’

RUTH I DON’T FEEL AT HOME IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE

‘HAVE YOU EVER PEELED THE SKIN OFF A HUMAN CORPSE? IT’S NOT AS EASY AS YOU MIGHT THINK’

SHAUNA YELLOWJACKETS