Fans are getting riled up about Season 2 of Yellowjackets, Showtime's hit series about a group of young women getting lost in the Ontario wilderness. A TV show that looks at the darker sides of the everyday woman, there is one actress in particular that shines in her role.
Quiet, shy, and a touch self-doubting, New Zealand-born actress Melanie Lynskey was born to play the role of a psychologically troubled woman. With her magical ability to capture the sinister inner lives of seemingly innocent and mild-tempered women, her portrayals in film and television have been able to break down stereotypical depictions of women we are so accustomed to seeing on screen. So much so, she's made a name for herself in Hollywood for doing exactly that.
But that's only half the story for Lynskey. Now a successful actress in many high-profile projects, the road to this point was long and arduous, reminiscent of an Eddie Cantor quote: “It takes 20 years to make an overnight success." Facing a problematic industry obsessed with typecasting, Lynskey's career is the epitome of grit; working tirelessly to get more interesting roles, she has been able to push the boundaries of what it means to represent women in television. From her presence in the real world to her presence on screen, Lynskey challenges the state of Hollywood and raises the bar on narrative quality.
Heavenly Creatures and Devilish Women
Lynskey got a taste for playing ferocious, quiet women early on. Her first big break was at the age of 15 when, by sheer luck, director Peter Jackson came to her school for auditions for his upcoming film Heavenly Creatures. Playing across from Kate Winslet, the pair portrayed teenagers bonded by their secret, sinister desires. The experience proved fruitful as Lynskey caught the acting bug, and by her college years, she headed to California to pursue an acting career, driven to be a part of stories that demonstrated complicated women.
And yet, while Lynskey proved herself more than capable to play these kinds of complicated women, Hollywood had other plans for her. In an industry more concerned with beauty than talent, she found casting directors and development teams couldn’t see past her physical appearance. With a kind face and rounder features, Lynskey didn't have the body expected for lead roles. At a mere size 6—smaller than the US average—it was unheard of to put someone of her body size and shape at the forefront. So instead, she was continually cast in supporting roles—the sassy sister or supportive best friend—as well as forced into The Fat Friend trope: self-hating, constantly crying, and always eating. If the film industry is anything like sports, it feels like Lynskey was relegated to the bench for no fault of her own, but because of a particularly overly-pompous referee.
While these roles weren't the spiritually convoluted and imperfect characters Lynskey had set out to tackle when she started her career, she certainly proved herself as a capable comedy actor. In 2003, she landed the role of Rose in Two and a Half Men, a one-night stand turned neighbor of Charlie Sheen's character. Rose’s strange charisma and stalker tendencies made her character a cult favorite for viewers. While she never received an Emmy nomination for her role, she was certainly a contender.
“I never expected it, but people were really into [Rose]. Sometimes on a taping night, Charlie Sheen and I would like cry in the middle of a scene because of the response we got from the audience. It was really moving to see how much people were into the story.”
–Lynskey on Two and a Half Men
Leaving Two and A Half Men
With a ten-year contract in a wildly popular prime-time series, you could argue Melanie Lynskey made it as an actress. And yet, Two years into Two and a Half Men, Lynskey did something bold; she asked to get out of her contract with CBS, moving from a cast member into a recurring character, so she could pursue other roles.
Leaving such a stable, successful show for uncertainty and no job prospect was viewed as insane. To try and get out of a contract early could have destroyed her relationships with TV developers. But this is why Lynskey is such an impressive woman; in an industry where actors, particularly women, are expected to work hard and never ask for too much, she went against cultural pressures to pursue more authentic roles. In this way, Lynskey embodied the same bravery she captures in the characters she plays; heading into difficult situations straight on. With the help of producer Chuck Lorre, Lynskey was able to get out of her contract and maintain a position on the show that allowed her to survive financially.
Breaking Into New Roles
Lynskey’s decision to jump into uncertainty proved to be the right decision; the actress finally got the opportunity to play the three-dimensional characters she'd started her career yearning for. She landed multiple movies including I Don’t Feel Comfortable Anymore, as well as a lead role in HBO’s comedy-drama series Togetherness. Following four friends as they move through a messy but funny adulthood, Lynskey plays Michelle, a passionate woman disappointed by her marriage. Michelle is an unapologetic character, open about herself and her insecurities.
Through this role, Lynskey was able to break many of the expectations around the representation of women on screen, specifically on the topic of sex. Her storyline includes many romantic and sex scenes, not typical for someone of her body shape at the time. Rather than falling prey to typical depictions of women in sexual encounters—either hyper-sexualized or prudish—Lynskey portrays Michelle as someone who fully embraces herself and her desires. Not only does she demonstrate what a woman comfortable in her own skin looks like, but proves just how sexy that can be.
Yellowjackets and Candy
By the tale end of Togetherness, Lynskey received the script for a role she had been looking for, perhaps her entire career. As the creators of Yellowjackets put it: “a high concept that would suck people in and use it to disguise our story about f*cked up women.”
Lynskey plays grown-up Shauna, an everyday homemaker who is, because of her experiences in the wild, a lethal weapon. To say Shauna is a complicated woman is an understatement. At times, Shauna is a fearless woman. At other times, much of her strength is buried under layers of trauma, shame, and guilt that she refuses to face. Her struggle between these two states makes her manipulative and impulsive; someone who thinks about hurting you in her mind but is afraid to bother you in reality, until she emotionally erupts.
A quiet person in real life, Lynskey often deals with anger issues which made her perfect for the role of Shauna. Receiving the script for Yellowjackets, she realized her own anger has to be unearthed in order to get at the core of Shauna's struggles. Tapping into her own complex emotions, Lynskey flips expectations of what a female killer is; with her innocent look and homely aesthetic, she is not a femme fatale, but something so much more real and unsettling.
Lynskey had another opportunity to play a quiet and unsettling woman with her role as Betty Gore in Candy. A fictional rendering of the real Texas housewife Candy Montgomery who killed her friend and neighbor, Betty Gore, Lynskey captures all the internal frustration of Gore leading up to her death. Once again, her own shyness and tendency towards self-doubt became an asset for her character. Through her own insecurity about taking on the role, worried that she wouldn't do the real-life woman justice in her performance, she was able to capture Gore's self-doubt in her life and marriage.
Kathleen and The Last of Us
By 2022, Lynskey's prominence was well-known in the film industry. So when Craig Mazin and Neil Druckermann were looking for an actress to fill the role of the leader of the Kansas City QZ in Last of Us, Lynskey was the perfect candidate. In the role, Lynskey paints the portrait of Kathleen, a ferocious yet tortured woman who, after the murder of her beloved and saintlike brother, seeks retribution on those involved in his death. Turning to violence and mass murder to get things done, Kathleen is open about not being a good person. Disinterested in questions of morality, she shoots enemies and tells her henchmen “burn the bodies. It’s faster.”
Kathleen's character is unique to the sci-fi genre. Where most apocalyptic fictions tend to hyper-sexualize women, Lynskey brings a version of Kathleen that is much more authentic. Her gentle presence and quiet gestures tell you that, while Kathleen is now violent, her origins are not—had the world not ended, she would have likely been an everyday woman like a mother or a school teacher. She fell into the role of a killer by chance, and now, because of her intense grief combined with her cold-blooded tunnel vision, Kathleen has grown into an effective and merciless leader.
While many were enthralled by this newer take on the post-apocalyptic woman, not everyone was thrilled. Model Adrianne Curry tweeted on Feb 8th that Lynskey “wasn't a great fit for the Last of Us role of Kathleen. Her body says life of luxury, not post-apocalyptic warlord. Where is [the Terminator actress] Linda Hamilton when you need her?” Already accustomed to fatshaming through her career, Lynskey's response captured the energy she brings to all of her characters: “I’m playing a person who meticulously planned & executed an overthrow of FEDRA. I am supposed to be SMART, ma’am. I don’t need to be muscly. That’s what henchmen are for.” Vowing to "never [play] a woman who was apologizing for her body," Lynskey pushes viewer expectations of what women look like on screen.
What's Next for Melanie Lynskey?
With her steadfast courage, impressive portfolio, and envy-inducing acting abilities, Lynskey’s career is just beginning. With Season 2 of Yellowjackets out now, she is set to star in the upcoming film adaptation of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, the true story of tale Sokolov, a Jewish prisoner who is given the job of tattooing identification numbers on fellow prisoners’ arms in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp during World War II. After this, Lynskey has expressed interest in returning to leading roles in comedies.
Ultimately, Melanie Lynskey's work is able to get at these unspoken truths about women. Whether she continues in her dramatic roles or finally lands a lead in a rom-com, she will continue to defy expectations in the industry, making some pretty stellar films and TV shows along the way.