Melanie Lynskey: I'm drawn to the weirdos
PopWrap, 11 Dec 2009
By Jarett Wieselman

Some actresses dig their way into the pleasure center of your brain so deeply it's impossible to extract them. From that point forward every time they appear on screen, a message is sent to your frontal lobe and a smile spreads its way across your face. Such is the case with Melanie Lynskey.

By the time the credits rolled on 1994's "Heavenly Creatures" I felt like I had discovered a diamond wrapped up in that gem of a movie. And while her "Heavenly" co-star Kate Winslet has gone on to be one of the world's biggest stars, Melanie has quietly amassed an equally impressive resume and a loyal fan following.

Thanks to scene stealing roles in "Ever After," "Sweet Home Alabama," "Shattered Glass" and this year's back-to-back-to-back brilliance of "Away We Go," "The Informant" and "Up in the Air," Melanie is one of the most in demand actors when it comes to creating cracker jack supporting women.

And as Melanie tells PopWrap, that's just how she likes it!

PopWrap: Between "Away We Go," "The Informant" and "Up in the Air," it's like the last half of '09 is all about Melanie!
Melanie Lynskey: It is weird -- I filmed them very close together though. I know sometimes actors will say they made their movies far apart, but I just had this crazy year where I was pinching myself over every script.

PW: You had be doing a lot of TV, so where did this renewed interest in big screen roles come from?
Melanie: I was getting frustrated because I wasn't working on things I wanted to be working on. Well, I wasn't really working [laughs] and I started to think, "Oh god, is it me?" So I changed it up and got a really amazing new movie agent who has great taste and got me in the room for all these wonderful projects.

PW: "Up in the Air" was named National Board of Review's Best Picture of the Year and is one of the major Oscar frontrunners -- what attracted you to the role of Julie, George's sister?
Melanie: Well, it's not really the biggest part, but I was so attracted to the scenes I would have with George's character. The depiction of the relationship with your family, how awkward and skewed it can be. How your family can basically be strangers to you. I don't see that too often, so I was really interested in those smaller moments.

PW: You have a knack for honing in on these amazing supporting roles, do you prefer them?
Melanie: I kind of do. Even when I'm reading a script where I'm supposed to be looking at the lead role, I'll find myself gravitating toward some small weirdo in a few scenes instead. I'm very instinctive like that and I love the challenge of not having a lot of time to create someone who feels real. People don't tend to scrutinize the supporting characters as much, so you're allowed to be more interesting.

PW: What are your feelings on the term "character actor?"
Melanie: I like it. I think a lot of actresses are afraid of it and think, "Oh god, that means I'm ugly!" [laughs] But I've never been the ingenue. I've never been the leading lady type. I feel like a character actress -- it's where I'm comfortable.

PW: Despite that, you came out of the gate pretty hard in 1994 with one of my favorite movies, "Heavenly Creatures." What was that experience like?
Melanie: I knew Peter [Jackson, director] from his horror movies in New Zealand, and when Kate auditioned he showed me the tape and said, "This is where you have to be." So imagine seeing a tape of Kate Winslet and being told, "Here's what you have to do." She was this beautiful, professional, successful actress from London and I was very intimidated. But they were so kind to me while making that movie -- they taught me, to this day, everything I know.

PW: And you will forever hold the distinction of being the first actor to share a big screen kiss with Kate Winslet!
Melanie: [laughs] Right! I was watching the Oscars at home in my pajamas and when Kate won, it popped across the screen! I thought that was so funny.

PW: I must admit, I got to witness the "Heavenly Creatures" reunion you two shared at the "Away We Go" premiere back in June!
Melanie: I knew your voice sounded familiar! That was so fun! I hadn't seen her for so long, so it was lovely. We went through such an intense experience together [making that movie] and it was like we still knew each other. I am so proud of her -- everything she does is amazing.

PW: A lot of your films feature strong female leads, which obviously spills over onto the set -- do you like that sense of female empowerment that comes along with it?
Melanie: I do! I love it! Someone like Reese [Witherspoon, "Sweet Home Alabama" co-star] is such an inspiration. Gosh, that was long ago. She was just this tiny little blonde girl who was so in control. So professional. I would watch her every second. She's very impressive. There was not one moment where she wasn't doing something: reading a book, taking care of the kids, prepping the next scene. She's just amazing.

PW: And yet your character is incredibly memorable -- when fans approach you, what role does it tend to be for?
Melanie: It's a bit of everything. Usually I can call it -- if I see someone looking over I can make a good guess. Although sometimes I'm totally surprised. For example, there was this tough-looking security guard at the airport and he's looking at me and goes, "Hey! 'Detroit Rock City,' what's up!" Usually in airports it's "Two and a Half Men" and at bars it's "Sweet Home Alabama."

PW: Just think how much that would increase if you actually had a baby in a bar!
Melanie: [laughs] God forbid!

PW: With a trio of terrific films this year, what would you like to do next?
Melanie: It's funny, I've been a working actress for so long, but I've never been able to pick and choose. Usually I'm just trying to do projects I feel good about, so if I can just continue on this path, I'll be very happy.

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Ash talks to Melanie Lynskey
Moviehole, 10 Dec 2009
By Ashley Hillard

Ashley here. Wow, what a doll Melanie Lynskey is! One of the sweetest, most down-to-earth actresses I've ever sat across from. I've seen her in a few flicks - "Ever After" with Drew Barrymore, "The Informant", and of course, Peter Jackson's "Heavenly Creatures" - but I don't think she's made as quite a big as impression as she does as George Clooney's upbeat sister in the phenomenal ‘'Up in The Air''. It really is a tour-de-force performance. And I was as pleased as punch to discover the New Zealand-born actress was just as sweet in real life as she is in the film. I arranged to have a bit of a chat with Melanie this week. We talk about the film, prankster George Clooney, how she's settled into Los Angeles (having moved from New Zealand), and why she left London.

How did you get involved in "Up in the Air"?

I just got involved by auditioning - I'm an auditioning actor - for Jason [Reitman], and I got the part from that. I was very, very excited!

Could you relate to your character?

I could, the thing I really related to was the depictions of the relationships with the family. I moved away from my home country of New Zealand when I was eighteen...

...Moviehole's an Australian website, so not too far away....

Really!? I didn't know Moviehole was Australian!? That's great! ... But yeah, I moved away when I was eighteen, and I have a little sister - who was four at the time - and we've since become wonderful friends, but the distance, when someone is growing up and you're not there to see it... I related to that aspect of it.

Now, there are two types of women in this movie - the career-oriented woman and the family-first woman. Which are you?

I always thought I'd be a person who put their career first - because I enjoyed my job so much, but also because I was never very good at holding a relationship together. Even back in New Zealand I'd be in-and-out of relationships rather quickly - within a couple of months. But when I met my husband it made me believe that there are people out there who can change your life - be ‘the one'. And I will now put him before anything. We talk everything through together - for instance, I got offered something where I'd have to move to a different town for a few months; before I would've just made the decision on my own, but it's nice to have someone to go over it with.

As an actor do you identify with the ‘'Up in the Air'' mentality - that you're always jetting off somewhere?

Yeah. Definitely. And I hate packing my bag - I hate it so much; I'm really bad at it. Where do you live? Are you a traveller?

I'm from Seattle, but I live here [in Los Angeles] now.

Oh we were talking about Seattle before, and the weather there. I'm from New Zealand and it's like the exact same weather.

It's that rainy there?

Yeah, a-ha. But I love Seattle.

I'm a San Francisco girl - because it's less wet, and you can walk everywhere!

That's true. We go there just to eat sometimes - just to have like a weekend of food.

How do you like L.A?

I like it, but it took me a while - it took me about three years to settle in to it.

Yeah, I've been here for three years too. It does take you a while.

And it's funny, you're so isolated here - everyone is in their own cars and their own houses and there's not a lot of interaction, and that can be kind of alienating at first.

And that's something I liked about "Up in the Air" - the electronic generation, which L.A seems to be mostly populated by, vs. the face-to-face generation.

I hate the telephone - I can't have a conversation on it; I have like a phobia - but I text and email all the time. I can't even order something from a restaurant over the phone - my husband does it. And I also have a fear that I'm going to interrupt someone when they're busy.

That's very considerate!

Yeah... but strange, right?

When did you first move to L.A?

I moved to L.A nine years ago. Before that I was in London for two years. I've been away a long time.

How was London?

It was kind of depressing.

I thought you liked the rain!?

Yeah, but it was freezing there! Truth is, I fell in love with someone and moved there for him. So that was, well... you need a bit more going on than just a boyfriend.

Did you make it work there - career-wise?

I was always coming over here. I worked in London a couple of times but it was mostly here. So when I broke up with the guy I just moved here permanently.

It's great that so much is going on in your home country of New Zealand film wise - the Peter Jackson projects, and so on...

Yeah, and I did Heavenly Creatures with Peter so it's great to see him doing so well... he's like a Super Star now!

Have you kept in touch with Peter?

Yeah, we have actually. My husband and I went to Vegas with him and his wife a couple of months ago. It was so much fun... we went to Cirque de Soleil! It was awesome!

You know they have one at Santa Monica beach now?

No!, I didn't know that! I so want to see it! Peter and his partner Fran [Walsh] saw every single [Cirque de Soleil] show in Vegas - every one!

I'd love to see [Cirque de Soleil's] Love

That was his favourite one - he's a huge Beatles fan.

Have you talked about collaborating with Peter again on anything?

I think that would be more his decision [Laughs]. Maybe I should call him and say, ‘Hey Peter, I have an idea, why don't I star in one of your movies?' I loved working with him - I didn't know at the time how lucky I was; I was just a kid, it was my first film ever - and I'd love to repeat that experience.

Do you have a favourite type of director?

A year ago I worked with Steven Soderbergh [on "The Informant"] and I love the way he works - I think maybe he's my dream director now. He just sets the camera up, has minimal lighting, and just lets it be... it's very spontaneous. He only does like one or two takes. He loves accidents. He loves it when little weird things happen.

Seems very organic

It's very organic - and it's just fun, just fun.

What was your process of getting into this character?

I usually make a little playlist of music for the character - music the character would listen to. My playlist for Julie was just all pop songs - sweet pop songs, because she's so hopeful and optimistic and upbeat. So even in those few scenes where she had to be quite melancholy I tried to keep my energy pretty happy most of the time.

I love that playlist idea! Great way to get you into the mindset!

Yeah! It's interesting to listen to them like a year or two later.

Did Danny [McBride] and George [Clooney] crack you up on set? They're both funny fellows!

Oh my god, they're both so funny! George especially would just go off on some random tangent... he's so funny! And Danny's hilarious - obviously. And both of those guys are so sweet.

Any practical jokes?

No, not on the set [Laughs] I missed out!>

What have you got coming up next?

I have two movies that I hope come out soon - one is a little independent movie, and the other is called Leaves of Grass with Edward Norton.

How was it working with Edward?

He was amazing. He's very serious at work - very businesslike - but after work, when you go and have dinner or something, he's very fun.

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Melanie Lynskey's Not at all 'Up in the Air' About Playing Gay
SheWired.com, 23 Nov 2009
By Lesley Goldberg

Lesbian cinephiles will know Melanie Lynskey instantly from her debut role as Pauline Parker, the teenager who fell hard for Kate Winslet in Heavenly Creatures. The actress who was Winslet’s first on-screen kiss went on to co-star as the uptight fink Hilary in Jamie Babbit’s lesbian fave But I’m a Cheerleader and will soon share the screen in Up in the Air, playing George Clooney’s small-town sister. The native New Zealander recently took time out to talk with SheWired about a the best picture Oscar race, playing gay and Heavenly Creatures.

SheWired: You’ve worked with some incredible directors – Sam Mendes (Away We Go), Peter Jackson (Heavenly Creatures), Clint Eastwood (Flags of Our Fathers), Steven Soderbergh (The Informant!) and now Jason Reitman (Up in the Air, Juno). How have those experiences helped shape your career?

Melanie Lynskey: You just learn so much working with somebody who knows what they’re doing. Each one of those experiences has been so different and so just great. It’s hard to articulate but I feel very fortunate for all of them.

SW: There’s already Oscar talk about Up in the Air. What would being part of the best picture of the year mean to you?

It’s so bizarre. It’s so far outside the world I live in. This last year has been really wonderful but I’m not usually participating in things that people are saying “Oscary” things about; I don’t even feel part of it (laughs); it feels strange to me. I would be so happy for Jason; I think he’s so talented. I found out the other day that he’s only 31, which is incredibly intimidating. But I’d be very happy for him and for everyone involved. I think George is so lovely in the movie and (co-star) Vera Farmiga is incredible, so I hope that people pay attention to that.

SW: What was working with George Clooney like?

It was lovely. He was so warm and kind and good and thoughtful. He’s just somebody who cares a lot about the world and about people. It kind of surprised me how gentle and lovely he was. I don’t know what I was expecting; I think I was expecting some kind of playboy-type or something (laughs). But he’s a really lovely man.

SW: You’ve had some great on-screen love interests: Most recently Danny McBride (Up in the Air) and Matt Damon (The Informant!), this year alone, plus this lady named Kate Winslet as well as Leisha Hailey on The L Word. Who was the best kisser?

(Laughs.) I didn’t really kiss any of them properly! They were just little pecks! I don’t know; it just doesn’t feel like I’ve really kissed any of them, so it’s sort of hard to answer.

SW: You’ve played gay four times — Heavenly Creatures, But I’m a Cheerleader, and the short The Nearly Unadventurous Life of Zoe Cadwaulder and a pair of episodes of The L Word — in your career. Do you specifically look for those parts?

I like those parts. I feel like I’m drawn to those stories because I’m always interested in a story that hasn’t been told a whole lot. And there aren’t enough films about lesbian women, I don’t think. So it’s always interesting to me when I read a script; I guess I’m more willing to see if it’s any good or not, because then I’m like, “OK, I like this, someone wants to tell this story.” So maybe that’s it. I’m not saying to my agent, “Bring me the lesbian roles!” (Laughs.)

SW: How did you become the sort of go-to girl for playing gay? Is it because of Heavenly Creatures?

Oh I’m sure. I think it must have because I know that (writer-director) Jamie Babbit — who made But I’m a Cheerleader — was a big fan of Heavenly Creatures and that’s why she asked me to do But I’m a Cheerleader. Then it sort of started happening from there.

SW:What sort of research did you do to play Pauline?

(Filmmakers) Peter (Jackson) and Fran (Walsh) had done so much research and they had given each of us a huge folder of information, and all her diaries because they were admitted as court evidence — they couldn’t get all of them, but they did get everything that was written in court. And that’s a pretty crazy thing to have, someone’s inner-workings. Typically they (Jackson and Walsh) were very concerned that I look like her so I looked at photos and did everything I could. I was 16 and I’d never acted professionally before so I was like, “Tell me anything!”

SW: Do you feel like having that as your first role and achieving such success out of the gate typecast you so early in your career?

I think part of it had to do with the fact that I was just like a kid who was in high school, so I feel like now I know so much more about the industry and how people work, but at the time — I was talking about this with a friend the other day — but at the time I just didn’t know how to present myself. Kate was very smart about it; she was very much (of the thought) “I look this way in the movie so when we do anything publicly, I have to be very careful to look beautiful and do this and that and get outfits.” She got a publicist and was very smart about presenting herself in a different way, and I was like a little scruff. I went to the Venice Film Festival for the gala premiere of our movie wearing sneakers! I just had no clue. So I think I was in this movie in this very specific kind of character and I wasn’t doing anything to counter-act that. I didn’t have an agent; I didn’t know anything. So I think people were just like, “Well, she was found for this one movie and that’s that.” It took me a while to regroup and think, “OK, if I’m going to do this I need to work out how to do it.” And then I started to work in a lot of diverse projects, but for a while it was hard for me to break out of that.

SW: You just received the Hollywood Spotlight Award from the Hollywood Film Festival. When you were just starting out with Heavenly Creatures, is this something that you thought you’d achieve?

No, my God. When I did Heavenly Creatures I was so amazed that I was even in a movie. I didn’t have any kind of career plan. I wanted to act, but I always thought I’d be doing plays in Wellington. So that was already beyond my wildest dreams. Everything that’s happened to me is already bigger than what I thought would happen to me.

SW: What’s next after Up in the Air?

I don’t know. I’m sort of in this weird position where I’ve done all the stuff that I liked this year so I want to do something else that I like but there’s not an awful lot around. So I’m going to wait for something good.

SW: You have a loyal legion of lesbian fans. What does the support from the lesbian community mean to you?

I feel really, really honored that you say that. I have so many friends that are gay and I think it’s wonderful that people would like me and I hope that I get to do more roles that people respond to. I think it’s awesome.

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The quiet patriot
New Zealand Herald, 10 Nov 2009

You can take the girl out of New Zealand but you can't take the New Zealander out of Melanie Lynskey.

Still holding on to her Kiwi accent for dear life, even if it's now tarnished with American inflections, the 32-year-old star of sitcom Two and Half Men may have her American husband and a thriving career in the United States, but she still calls New Zealand home and misses it like mad. "About once a year I go back to New Plymouth and I wish it was more often," she coos in her sweet Rose-like way, though using her own accent, of course.

"I miss my family so much, especially my grandad. And it's weird to grow up with a particular kind of food and things that are comfortable to you, things that you can't really get here, like the ice cream and Cheezels.

"It's also that whenever I go home, the food is fresher and better. I miss a lot of things. When you step off the airplane in New Zealand and feel the air for the first time it's just such a different quality than in Los Angeles."

Still, Los Angeles is where the work is and Lynskey in fact searched everywhere in the city for a house for herself, her New Jersey-born husband Jimmi Simpson – "he's a character actor like me," she says – and their beloved dog to live in.

"It's a lovely old house on the east side of LA," she enthuses. "I was looking for a place that reminded me of old Victorian New Zealand homes and I found one. It's 109 years old and, for Los Angeles, that's crazy."

We are sitting in a plush hotel suite during the Toronto Film Festival and, while Lynskey is officially promoting her role as Matt Damon's wife in Steven Soderbergh's upcoming The Informant!, she also has a pivotal role as George Clooney's sister in Up in The Air, a strong Oscar contender. Her husband is currently walking the dog and she is taking all the hoopla surrounding her films in her stride.

Soderbergh tells me he's been "watching out for Melanie" since 1994's Heavenly Creatures. The Oscar-winning director cast her in The Informant! above some starrier actresses who wanted the role. "They didn't want to cast a famous person," Lynskey explains, in a typically humble manner. "Steven said he wanted everyone to blend in around Matt. He wanted to create a world. It's the first time in my career that not being famous has worked for me," she says with a laugh.

"Usually that's the reason I'm not getting jobs. That's happened a lot. At the time I was living in New York because my husband was doing a play there. He made a tape in our apartment and Steven just saw the tape and said 'yes'."

Initially she was excited by the idea of working with Damon, who plays an executive at an agriculture corporation during the 1990s who turns Government informant to unveil the company's elaborate price-fixing scheme. "My friends were like, 'Ooooh Matt Damon!' But this is a different Matt Damon. This is chubby Matt Damon with a wig and a moustache," Lynskey giggles.

Was it hard to watch him like that? "It helped, I think, because I was intimidated to begin with and he made me feel so comfortable so quickly. I was lucky that for my first gigantic movie star it was him."

So Charlie Sheen is chopped liver? I tell her I think her sitcom co-star – who happens to be the highest-paid actor on television – is great. Who else sends himself up like that on American television? Lynskey agrees, and says he is her friend. "A lot of the time people ask me about him. I get the feeling they're trying to get dirt on him, so that's nice to hear because he's a good, good person. And he's very honest about what he's been through in his life, about who he is and the mistakes he's made. "When all the stuff was happening with his divorce [from Denise Richards] he came up to me and said, 'Look, a lot of stuff is being printed about me and most of it isn't true. I'd love to sit down with you and tell you what parts are true and what's going on'.

"I said 'Oh my God, you don't have to do that! It's none of my business. I adore you; I know you're not some disgusting person like people are saying you are. I don't want you to feel that you have to explain your private life to me.' I think he was grateful."

After the second season of Two and A Half Men wrapped, the cast members were keen to re-negotiate their contracts as they wanted more money. But not Lynskey. She wanted out. "Everyone thought I'd lost my mind. My agent and my manager said, 'What are you thinking?' But in the second season I wasn't happy because they'd bring me in and I'd have only one line each episode. I knew the show was a gigantic hit and I saw my future stretching out before me just popping up here and there doing something silly.

"I thought it's not good for the character; people are going to get sick of her. I didn't want to be in a position where I'd be doing the job I'd always dreamed of and feeling resentful about it. I just wanted to be able to do other things. I'd done movies previously for my whole career and I just wanted to get out there again."

Lynskey spoke with the show's creator, Chuck Lorre, who naturally wanted to keep nutsy Rose on the show. He agreed to the character having a prominent role in certain episodes. "For the past five years we've followed a system where he'll call three weeks in advance and say, 'Will you be free? We have an episode for you.' So it's a dream job. It's kept the character fresh and the series is now going into its seventh season and it's great."

Now audiences are starting to truly reap the spoils of Lynskey's decision. In Toronto she had roles in three movies, as she also plays Edward Norton's pregnant girlfriend in Leaves of Grass. "I had a prosthetic stomach glued on to me for the whole movie. I've never been pregnant, so I really felt the weight of it."

First for release, from Thursday, is the relationship drama Away We Go, in which she is a happy mum with a brood of kids. "The writing was so new and fresh and I'd never seen characters like that before," she says of the film, which was penned by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida and directed by Sam Mendes.

Mendes, of course, is the husband of Kate Winslet, Lynskey's co-star in Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures, the cinematic gem that was her first movie. Lynskey was 16 when Fran Walsh chose her at a high school casting call to play murderess Pauline Parker two weeks before filming began. "I love that movie, it was such a crazy experience," she says, "but at the time I had no concept of how special it was. I knew I loved the story as it was the type of movie that I loved myself as a teenager. "I loved independent films, interesting films, but I had no idea how great the director was or how fantastic the actor I was working with was.

Kate had been acting since she was 12 and she was poised for the moment. I was in high school and I had this vague dream of being an actor and I was suddenly getting to do this movie. I had no training, I had no confidence." After returning to school and eventually trying to work in New Zealand – "it was difficult to find work [then] but it's changed a bit now" – Lynskey moved to Los Angeles, where her break came in 1998 in Drew Barrymore's Cinderella film Ever After.

In her own quiet way she has been working ever since, though she is still at odds with the concept of celebrity and self-promotion. "I love clothes and dressing up, but I have a hard time with all that. It kind of feels like you're selling yourself a bit. Talking yourself up a lot is something that isn't inherently in the nature of New Zealanders, so I still feel a bit taken aback when people go, 'Oh great, three movies'. You never know, they might hate them. I feel very cautious."

Naturally the tall-poppy treatment that this most unassuming of actors received when she returned to New Plymouth came as a shock. "My husband is always amazed by that. He told a story to my hair and makeup artist today about when we got fish and chips the first time we went to New Zealand, and I paid for it with a credit card.

"Everyone was standoffish in the fish and chips place, and they were waiting for me to leave. I said, 'Don't you need me to sign?' And he said, 'Agghh I didn't ask for an autograph. Who do you think you are?' [Lynskey adopts a gruff male voice]. I was after the credit card receipt! People are kind of expecting you to be some big thing, you know."

Instead, the fish and chip folk should be admiring the New Zealand actress' fierce love of her country and her quiet strength.

"When I first came for auditions in the US someone said I should go in talking like an American, because the New Zealand accent freaks them out. But I can't. "Some actors do do that and I know [fellow Kiwi actor] Martin Henderson talks only in an American accent. I think it's smart business-wise but I just can't. In any case my accent has mellowed a lot. I've lived here for 10 years so it's hard to avoid."

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Kiwi actress Melanie Lynskey turns stoolpigeon and dishes the goss on The Informant
Time Out Doha, 27 Oct 2009
By Gareth Clark

There is something irresistible about Melanie Lynskey as the New Zealand-born actress arranges herself under the gold leaf of Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace, one leg tucked neatly under the other. Her hair is tied in an unfussy ponytail and she has a definite ‘girl next door’ quality. And perhaps rather belatedly in her career, she now finds herself Hollywood’s supporting actress du jour.

She arrives at the Middle East International Film Festival on the back of a three-day stint in Dubai – her cousin lives there. Everyone seems to have a relative in Dubai, I observe – ‘Yes,’ she laughs, ‘it’s cousin city’. By her own admission, she is a little shy and talks in a delicate, rather wispy Kiwi accent, occasionally slipping into an American drawl when imitating others – she does that a fair bit. It’s difficult not to be won over.

She’s here to publicise The Informant, Steven Soderbergh’s comic ‘true story’ – a male Erin Brockovich with a twist. In it, she plays Ginger, the loyal, wide-eyed wife of Matt Damon’s FBI whistleblower, Mark Whitacre, a low level employee who blew the lid off a biotech rates scandal back in the ’90s. History shows they won the case, but Whitacre landed in jail for fraud and tax evasion as his stories unraveled and the question of a certain missing US$9 million arose. But the film leaves it open as to how much his wife knew.

‘I was never able to talk to Ginger,’ Lynskey reveals, ‘the director didn’t want us to. So I had to make a decision. I decided she had no idea what was going on. She was trusting, she was the kind of wife who thinks her job is to stay in the house and take care of the kids and the family even though some things didn’t necessarily add up a lot of the time. She wasn’t asking too many questions.’

Lynskey plays the doting housewife pitch perfect, right down to the hairspray bouffant. Mrs Whitacre stayed with her husband, even after he was exposed. Melanie wouldn’t have been as understanding, she says. ‘God no. I’m not quite as forgiving as her.’ There would be thrown objects? ‘There would definitely be an angry side,’ she confirms. When she did finally meet Ginger at the premiere, she was terrified she’d be the one on the receiving end, but the pair actually got on, she says.

Lynskey is quick to praise Soderbergh, but he is a director who tends to divide audiences. Surprisingly Melanie agrees. ‘He doesn’t make it easy for people,’ she says. ‘He likes to experiment.’ Actors love him, critics less so. ‘It’s an interesting thing,’ she muses. ‘I’ve learnt when working with him that he isn’t worried about the outcome.’ Surely a comment to send a shiver down any studio exec’s spine. ‘Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and he’s the first to admit it,’ she says. The Informant works, largely because of the cast and largely because Soderbergh is willing to experiment.

So what is next for Lynskey? ‘It’s been really nice working on things that are good,’ she laughs. Yes, crap is never fun. There is a feeling that she has never quite filled her potential as an actress. Back in 1994, the then 16-year-old starred alongside an unknown Kate Winslet in Peter Jackson’s cult classic Heavenly Creatures. At the time she was still at school when casting coaches scoured New Plymouth for – in her words – ‘a dumpy little New Zealand girl’ to play real life teen murderess Pauline Parker. It was a critical hit, but didn’t launch her career in the same way that it did Winslet’s. Only recently has she slipped back into the limelight.

It’s the great acting dilemma: to play a supporting role in a great film or star in something lousy. ‘I’ve done it,’ she confesses to the latter. ‘It’s horrible to go to a premiere of something and go, “Oh, I’m in this?”’ I’ve always wondered if actors are ever tempted to slink out of the auditorium. ‘No, you’ve got to stick it out,’ she bemoans. ‘I suppose it’s the good thing about being a supporting actor. It never really falls onto your shoulders.’

For the moment, there is no question of slinking anywhere. The Informant is just one of a number of big films for her. Next comes Jason Reitman’s Juno follow-up, Up In The Air (out Feb), starring George Clooney. She gushes over the talented ‘younger’ Reitman and claims ladies man Clooney is actually rather shy, but the quiet Kiwi is finally hot property again. So has her time finally come? She goes quiet on questions of lead roles. ‘I don’t know. Maybe sometime,’ comes the barely audible squeak. We hope soon.

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Damon film ‘a highlight’
The National, 12 Oct 2009
By Melanie Swan

Having already worked with some of Hollywood’s leading men, the actress Melanie Lynskey paid tribute to two more at the UAE premiere of her latest film last night.

Lynskey, who plays the devoted wife of Mark Whitacre, a corporate executive-turned FBI source in The Informant!, said acting with Matt Damon, who plays the lead character, was one of her career highlights. “I loved working with Matt,” she said. “He is the sweetest man and a great actor.”

She was just as impressed by Steven Soderbergh, the film’s director, who has referred to Lynskey as “the new Carole Lombard”, comparing her with the much-acclaimed 1930s screen actress.

“If I could work with him for the rest of my life, I would,” said Lynskey, 32. “He’s so spontaneous and smart.”

Lynskey arrived in Abu Dhabi only hours before the packed gala screening at the Emirates Palace hotel, part of the Middle East International Film Festival.

The New Zealander, on her first trip to the Middle East, spent her first three days touring Dubai. Her cousin, an expatriate resident, acted as a tour guide on outings that included a boat ride and visit to a spice souk.

Wearing a floor length, canary yellow gown, Lynskey said she had not yet had a chance to explore the capital. “It seems wonderful so far,” she said.

Lynskey has also completed filming on Leaves Of Grass with Edward Norton. Later this year will see the release of a starring role in Up In the Air, alongside George Clooney.

She is also recognisable for playing Rose, the sweet neighbour who stalks Charlie Sheen’s bachelor character on the Emmy Award-winning television series Two and a Half Men.

Lynskey made her name at 16, when she played a teenage murderess in Peter Jackson’s 1994 feature Heavenly Creatures, opposite Kate Winslet.

She has appeared in supporting roles in several other high-profile films, including Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers.

The Informant! is Soderbergh’s adaptation of Kurt Eichenwald’s book, which depicts the true story of former Archer Daniels Midland employee Whitacre.

Whitacre, a compulsive liar, was the first person involved in a price-fixing cartel to voluntarily give information to the FBI, believing that he would get a promotion for blowing the lead on the corruption.

Soderbergh, who directed Clooney’s Ocean’s series, adds comedy to the story. Whitacre’s wife, Ginger, stands by her husband and never questions his increasingly erratic behaviour. Lynskey, who has met the woman, said: “Ginger is just a very supportive woman, even until this day.”

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Lynskey’s career takes off with 'Air,' 'Informant'
Boston Herald, 18 Sept 2009
By Stephen Schaefer

Melanie Lynskey, renowned as Charlie Sheen’s one-night-stand-turned-stalker in the TV sitcom “Two and a Half Men,” is set for a profile surge thanks to two fall films. In today’s “The Informant!” she plays Matt Damon’s understanding wife and stars opposite George Clooney in November’s “Up in the Air.”

It’s the kind of exposure that once would have had Lynskey, 32, really rattled.

“I’m terrified of all of it. I don’t like the idea of being a famous person,” she said last week in Toronto, where both movies screened at the film festival. “I don’t like trying to sell myself. Or go to fancy parties.”

But thanks to therapy, the New Zealand native has accepted who she is and what she does.

“I’m awkward and shy when I’m myself. That’s why I love playing a part; I don’t feel myself there anymore. That’s why I love doing accents. I love getting out of myself.”

So, what was it like working with Damon and Clooney, two of the Sexiest Men Alive?

“It’s a funny thing,” she said. “They joke about it a lot. But beyond that they’re attractive, they’re two of the most giving actors I’ve worked with, hanging out with everyone and not making a big deal about themselves.”

Lynskey smiled, “They’re good examples for some other people.”

Portraying Damon’s wife in “The Informant!” Lynskey considered what Ginger knew about her husband’s crimes. “The way I was playing it she didn’t allow herself to understand. I’m sure she had some questions. She isn’t an idiot by any stretch of imagination, she’s a smart woman, but she loves him so much.”

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Kate Winslet makes Melanie Lynskey cry
USA Today, 17 Sept 2009
By Donna Freydkin and Susan Wloszczyna

Melanie Lynskey made her movie debut in 1994 opposite future Oscar winner Kate Winslet in the teen murder saga Heavenly Creatures. The two plot to kill Lynskey's mother in the film after she tries to break up their friendship. It was directed by future Oscar winner Peter Jackson. So, what thinketh Lynskey when she looks back on her breakthrough role?

"I look like such a child. I look like my little brother with a wig on. To be part of that was so amazing, but it's also like, where do you go from here?" she said in Toronto while promoting her comedy The Informant!. "It's not easy. I'm doing the best I can. No one was beating down my door. It's not like I stepped away from a life of glitz and glamour. I was really young and everyone said to get on with my life."

Get on with it she did, going to college and working steadily in movies and TV. And she finally reconnected with Winslet while shooting Away We Go, directed by her husband Sam Mendes.

"We were super-close for a few years. She got so famous and busy and we lost touch completely. It was really nice to catch up with her. I hadn't seen her since she had children. How amazing. I'm so proud of her," says Lynskey. "I'm going to cry thinking about it. I cried so much when she won the Oscar. She's had that dream for herself -- I've never met anyone more focused or more ambitious. I adore her and I respect her so much."

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Melanie Lynskey, Toronto's triple threat
Los Angeles Times, 15 Sept 2009
By Mark Olsen

When it comes to New Zealand-born actress Melanie Lynskey, it seems that audiences have never quite grasped the thread of her career, starting with her big-screen debut as a murderously besotted teenager in Peter Jackson's 1994 film "Heavenly Creatures" -- Lynskey was plucked straight from her high school classroom for the part -- up to her recurring role as a kooky neighbor on the hit CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men."

"People don't even connect them all really, like, 'Oh, that's you? And that's you too?' " she said.

But that all could change this fall. At this year's Toronto International Film Festival she has roles in three of the festival's most talked-about movies: Jason Reitman's "Up in the Air," Tim Blake Nelson's "Leaves of Grass" and Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant!"

The roles are small but pivotal. In "The Informant!" she plays the incredulous, loving wife who stands by her corporate whistle-blowing husband (Matt Damon) even as it becomes increasingly clear that he's in over his head. For "Up in the Air," she plays the sister of George Clooney's troubled corporate hatchet man, her upcoming wedding (to a character played by Danny McBride) causing him to reevaluate his priorities. Her character in "Leaves of Grass" is married to one of two brothers (both played by Edward Norton) and she persuades her husband to try to stop dealing drugs and go straight.

After taking some time after "Heavenly Creatures" to finish high school and give college a try, she eventually moved to Los Angeles in 2000. Since then she's had a string of supporting roles in such films as "Coyote Ugly," "Sweet Home Alabama," "Shattered Glass" and "Flags of Our Fathers" that have kept her working but not always noticed.

"When I tell people I cast Melanie Lynskey," said "Up in the Air's" Reitman, "they ask, 'Who?' and then I say she's the girl from 'Heavenly Creatures' and they go, 'Oh, my God, yes.' "

Soderbergh has also had his eye on Lynskey since that breakout performance and was happy to add her to his ensemble cast for "The Informant!," a film that keeps audiences off-balance with its narrative sleight-of-hand and oddball tone.

"She is so watchable," Soderbergh said. "You never quite know what you're going to get, you just know it was going to be good. Her rhythms are really unusual, like her cadence and her reaction times to things, and the way she sort of lays out a sentence. It's just really, really interesting."

For Lynskey, the key to her role in "The Informant!" was the internal decision as to whether her character knew what her husband -- a white-collar agribusiness executive -- was really up to when he starts working with the FBI to help expose a price-fixing conspiracy. Soderbergh acknowledged the question as essential as well, but admitted the two of them never discussed it directly, as he left the choice up to Lynskey.

"It was easy for me to decide," she said. "I felt she didn't know anything about it. And I hope that comes across in the movie, all I get is what he's telling me. It's filtered through him."

Her off-kilter screen presence, at once dreamy but grounded, gives her an uncanny ability to disappear into a role, which is what helped land the parts in her other two Toronto-bound films. Her particular knack for adopting American accents -- Reitman says she is the first non- American actor he has cast in one of his films for a role as an American -- has also been a plus.

Recalled "Leaves of Grass" director Tim Blake Nelson: "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."

In addition to her trio of films in Toronto, Lynskey recently shot an episode for the upcoming season of the cable TV show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." She was also seen earlier in the year in Sam Mendes' "Away We Go," with John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, in which she performed what may be the most genuinely heartbreaking and emotional pole-dance ever in a film.

With her current run at the Toronto Film Festival and her onscreen mix of innocence and knowingness, sadness and hopefulness, it is likely that audiences may finally put together whatever became of that girl who did more than just hold her own opposite Kate Winslet in "Heavenly Creatures."

"Her eyes remind me of Ellen Page's eyes," Reitman said, comparing Lynskey to the star of his previous film, "Juno." "They seem constantly joyful and constantly on the verge of tears."

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Lynskey hits big time with roles opposite Clooney, Damon
Metro Canada, 15 Sept 2009
By Phil Brown

Melanie Lynskey may not be someone whose name you instantly recognize, but if you’re planning on tackling The Toronto International Film Festival, you’re going to run into her quite a bit.

The actress is appearing in three films at this year’s fest, including Leaves Of Grass, Up In The Air, and The Informant. The unassuming and charming New Zealand native got her start as a teenager with a difficult lead role in Peter Jackson’s award-winning Heavenly Creatures and has been working steadily ever since.

“I always wanted to be an actor, but I’m from a small town in New Zealand, so I didn’t know anyone who’d ever become one and it didn’t seem possible,” Lynskey told Metro.

“But (Peter Jackson) came around to my high school when I was 15 and was looking for normal girls to play the role. It’s more than I ever hoped for that could actually make it my career, because it was my dream ever since I was a child.”

Last year was a big one for Lynskey as she got to work with some pretty impressive directors including Sam Mendes, Jason Reitman, Steven Soderbergh, and Tim Blake Nelson.

Though Lynskey was pleased with the collaborations with her directors, she did notice the difference in their working styles.

“There was a lot of rehearsal and discussion with Tim on Leaves Of Grass, but then Steven Soderbergh was totally hands off and didn’t give a lot of notes,” Lynskey said. “He’s happy with whatever spontaneous thing that happens on set because he likes the performances to be very natural.”

As for Juno and Up In The Air director Jason Reitman, Lynskey noted that the young filmmaker was just as professional as the veterans.

Lynskey also got to work alongside some megastar actors including George Clooney on Up In The Air and Matt Damon on The Informant.

“I was so terrified,” revealed Lynskey. “I’m not the kind of actress who plays Matt Damon’s wife. I’m normally the best friend. Luckily he’s the nicest person ever to walk the face of the earth and a very generous actor. He made me feel very comfortable right away.”

Lynskey has made over 30 appearances in film and television over the last 15 years, but seems to have found a comfortable home now in comedy and should only continue to gain ground in Hollywood after this string of high profile performances.

Comedy is something the actress says she’s always enjoyed and is grateful to have found a home and recognition in the genre.

“It’s funny because I remember at the wrap party for Heavenly Creatures, someone said to me ‘you should really do comedy.’ At the time I thought ‘Thanks a lot. You’ve just been working on a dramatic movie with me for three months.’”

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Lynskey a darling at festival
24 Hours Vancouver, 11 Sept 2009
By Tanya Enberg

Whether she's playing a lovable stalker, a vengeful '50s schoolgirl, or the kind of woman who'd bring her baby to a bar, a sweetness emerges whenever actress Melanie Lynskey appears on the screen.

Indeed, since first being discovered at age 15 and cast in the Peter Jackson film, Heavenly Creatures (1994), starring alongside Kate Winslet, the Los Angeles-based, New Zealand born talent has garnered an eclectic mix of roles.

"I guess I was a pretty intense teen," Lynskey says of her big-screen debut.

Interestingly, it wasn't the love scene between Lynskey and Winslet that rattled her nerves.

"It wasn't really a big deal," says Lynskey.

"My mother brought us up to believe you could be gay, you could be straight, who knows until you try it?"

What was a big deal, however, was meeting Winslet for the first time.

"That was very intimidating," Lynskey admits.

Fast forward to 2009, and Lynskey is proving to be a darling at this year's Toronto International Film Festival with three films in the roster, including Up in the Air with George Clooney; Leaves of Grass, starring Edward Norton; and her most formidable offering, The Informant, in which she plays the female lead opposite Matt Damon.

According to Lynskey, Damon is the kind of actor who proves "you can be in great movies, be a normal person and be nice to people."

It's no surprise that Lynskey holds an appreciation for kind people. She herself is gracious, soft-spoken, and, well, normal.

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LA-based actress as Kiwi as
Otago Daily Times, 8 November 2008
By Mark Orton

In preparation for chatting with one of New Zealand's most successful actresses, I turned to that well-known research tool, Google.

It appears that no matter how famous Melanie Lynskey gets and how many high-profile roles she lands, most interviewers are only interested in finding out what it was like working with Kate Winslet on Heavenly Creatures.

"I understand it, being the lead and the first thing I did," Lynskey says from a hotel room in Vancouver where she is visiting her husband, Jimmi Simpson, who is working there.

"It's kind of an easy story for people, you know - one's a superstar [Kate Winslet] . . . and the other one isn't. Every time someone comes with the Kate Winslet question I think it's lazy journalism."

So with that behind us, how is the weather in Vancouver? "It's rainy, but I don't mind that," Lynskey says, "it reminds me of home."

Lynskey is particularly enthusiastic when talking about her infrequent trips down under, the most recent of which was to play the part of solo mother Jess in Show of Hands, which opens this week.

Written and directed by London-based Kiwi Anthony McCarten, Show of Hands takes place against the backdrop of Mt Taranaki.

Having not worked in New Zealand since 2001's Snakeskin, Lynskey loved the experience of filming in her home town, but it wasn't the only reason she pursued the role.

"My decision to do Show of Hands wasn't based on the location. If it was a bad film then I wouldn't have done it. But working at home certainly made it interesting, I love the movie so much.

"It was very strange working in New Plymouth because I haven't lived there for any substantial period of time since my teens, and it was funny to be back at home again, but it was great to see my family, and the people of New Plymouth were very supportive of what we were doing."

Show of Hands, originally written as a novel by McCarten, is based on a real contest staged in Lower Hutt.

One contestant outlasted the competition by keeping their hand attached to a car for a world-record five days to win it. Contests of this ilk are common enough in New Zealand, but Lynskey was unfamiliar with the concept before she was sent the script.

"I had never heard of competitions like that before, but then I saw a documentary about a similar contest in Texas and that fascinated me. Honestly, it is such a good story, very simple and compelling, and when I read the script I couldn't put it down. I became very invested in the character that I played."

And it's a good thing that Lynskey persevered. Alongside a veritable roll-call of local acting talent, fitting in a little small-budget film in New Zealand is not all that easy these days.

"I'm lucky now I that have a great agent, and she is amazing at keeping me in touch with what's happening in New Zealand. It's a really interesting industry and it's not all about making your money back," Lynskey says.

Working at home has its lighter side as well. Given a helping hand from Venture Taranaki, the film production was enticed to shift location from Wellington to New Plymouth.

The price of this decision would leave Lynskey with very fond memories for the quirkiness of the local process.

"There was this one time when I was filming this scene where I was crying. I had this shot set up, this beautiful shot, and I had been preparing myself to cry with a tear ready to roll when the camera comes around the corner, and then just before the camera arrives I hear this voice . . . [with an accentuated Kiwi accent] 'they're filming a movie, it's a scene from the movie . . . is that Melanie Lynskey?' It was this sweet little New Plymouth lady.

"She was very excited."

Securing a part in a low-budget Kiwi feature is one thing, but Lynskey is under no illusions about how fortunate she has been to work with some of the best in the business.

"I guess the next thing that will screen in New Zealand is The Informant that I have just finished working on. It was so much fun making that film. Stephen Soderbergh (Traffic) was great and Matt Damon was super-nice, we played it like a comedy."

Despite casually dropping names and mentioning being on set with the likes of Edward Norton, Tim Blake Nelson, and Susan Sarandon (Leaves of Grass), Lynskey is amazingly grounded and refreshingly Kiwi, right down to her fiercely protected accent.

"Thank you for saying that, by the way. So often I will talk to journalists from New Zealand and then I'll read the interview and they'll say she speaks with a heavy American accent. I take it very seriously. I'm very proud of where I come from.

"You now, I've lived here for 10 years and some sounds have changed, but people still ask me every day where I come from. Oh my God, every audition I go on, every person I meet, when they find out I'm from New Zealand, all they want to talk about is Flight of the Conchords."

Aside from catching up with fellow Kiwi actors Dean O'Gorman and Craig Hall in Los Angeles, buying Kiwi music online and checking out Kiwi films when flying Air New Zealand, Lynskey has also developed a taste for New Zealand wine, readily available from Victors, her local deli.

Working in an industry noted for its left-wing sympathies (Sean Penn, for instance), I venture that Obama was the popular choice among Los Angeles-based thespians.

"Yes, that's exactly right. Though, I was working with someone recently on a set in the South, and we were talking about the election, and you know, she was kind of an older woman and she said she wasn't going to vote for Obama because she didn't want ships full of terrorists pulling up on the shores.

"I was really taken aback, I just said 'if you are worried about your national security, Barack Obama is going to unite the international community better than John McCain'."

The global financial meltdown is also affecting the entertainment industry.

"It's so quiet right now, it's really scary," Lynskey says.

"People aren't making movies and we are just getting over the writers' strike. There is also a rumour that there will be an actors' strike, so there is all sorts of other turmoil . . . But I have been really lucky, I made three movies last year, so I can't really complain."

So aside from Show of Hands, we can expect to see plenty of the talented, charming, and refreshingly down-to-earth Lynskey on our screens in 2009.

Perhaps it's time to ask Kate Winslet: "What was it like to work with Melanie Lynskey?"

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Sparks still fly as co-stars connect
Taranaki Daily News, 5 November 2008
By Matt Rilkoff

They are both happily married, both earn a good living pretending to be in love with someone else and a year ago spent a month trying to make people believe they were in love with each other.

Such is life for actors Melanie Lynskey and Craig Hall, stars of the Anthony McCarten film Show Of Hands which premiered in New Plymouth last night.

The feature length comedy was shot in New Plymouth during November last year in what Hall described as a period of hard and fast work.

The Outrageous Fortune star and object of the character Pascalle West's affections, very nearly missed the chance to bask in Taranaki sunlight because he was simply too good looking.

"You were too handsome, like Tom Cruise. Anthony said you wouldn't work because no one would ever believe we would go out together," says Lynskey, the gorgeous Two And A Half Men star who hails from New Plymouth.

"No he didn't," says Hall, who may genuinely believe that, although you never can tell with actors.

For example, just a few days ago rumours abounded Lynskey was seven months up the duff yet she is now as trim as a lamb cutlet.

"I've just finished a movie - Leaves Of Grass - in Louisiana where I was playing opposite Edward Norton and I had a huge prosthetic belly strapped to me because I was supposed to be pregnant. It was very weird."

Just as A-lister Edward Norton was very serious, so was Hall during the filming last year.

The Auckland actor apparently had a habit of reading acting books in between takes, the theatrical equivalent of a mathematician memorising Pi to 56,000 numerals.

"That used to make me feel lazy," says Lynskey. "And that used to make me annoyed at him which he got annoyed about and that annoyed me. But that only happened once or twice."

The pair are two of New Zealand's acting success stories with a few notes to throw around. Not that this means they have.

Hall embarrassingly admits he drives a Nissan Bluebird, a car more associated with sense than sexiness. Lynskey drives an Acura in Los Angeles, where she now lives.

"I use a motorbike though," says Hall, quickly trying to escape the tarnish his Bluebird admission could cause his image.

"A Triumph Bonneville. When I was holding the car for the movie, that was what I was imagining."

The actor selflessly attributes this acting technique to one of the books he so annoyingly read on set last year.

"Michael Chekhov On Acting," says the swatty Hall.

Lynskey stays quiet.

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Heavenly actress loves Kiwi life
Sunday News, 13 July 2008
By Ellen Irvine

Melanie Lynskey played one of New Zealand's most infamous teen killers, Pauline Parker, in home-grown hit movie Heavenly Creatures.

But the star actress says she may quit the madness of Hollywood to raise a family in the Kiwi lifestyle.

Los Angeles-based Melanie recently returned to her home town of New Plymouth to film Show of Hands, based on a contest where the person who keeps their hand on a car longest wins it.

"I wanted to come home and work but not just to do any old thing," she told Sunday News.

"I was waiting and waiting and this came up. It's so good, I'm really happy. It's a good movie."

The taste of home renewed her appetite to settle here with American actor husband Jimmi Simpson (Seraphim Falls, My Name Is Earl).

"We have this dream that we will be able to go back and forth and have a house in New Zealand," Melanie said.

"The childhood that I had, and the childhood that people can still have in New Zealand, is so different to what it's like over here."

Melanie, 31, has followed Heavenly Creatures with lead roles in The Frighteners, Coyote Ugly and Flags of Our Fathers.

She is currently filming The Informant with Matt Damon.

But Melanie has no desire to live the star lifestyle.

"I'm not going to be a movie star. I'm a character actor. Imagine if you were someone really famous. I'd go crazy! I would hate to deal with all that stuff that people deal with," she said.

"Sometimes I see Katie Holmes and Paris Hilton or someone and they are followed by a team of photographers.

"Oh my God I would hate that."

Melanie has also made her mark on the small screen, playing stalker-neighbour Rose in hit American sitcom Two And A Half Men.

She quit the show two years ago to do another TV series.

But when that got canned, the producers of Two and a Half Men immediately tried to woo her back.

"They called the day my show got cancelled. It was very nice of them. Now I'm coming back on the show now and again," she said.

"I feel good about it because I still have a contract where I can come and go and they let me out for other things. It's kind of on my terms. I'm really lucky."

While Melanie's co-star Charlie Sheen is constantly in the headlines due to his bitter breakup with ex-wife Denise Richards, Melanie has only good things to say about her co-star.

"Charlie is very, very professional and he's great to work with," she said.

"Beyond that, he's the nicest person. He's really completely lovely.

"He does so many good things for people. I have so much respect for him as a person."

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Don’t you dare stare
Los Angeles Times, 11 Feb 2007
By Choire Sicha

Melanie Lynskey is not yet 30, and she's about to get married to an actor. The New Zealander has played Charlie Sheen's stalker, Rose, on "Two and a Half Men" since 2003, but on Monday night's episode ... well, no spoilers about how it all unfolds, please. She's appeared in "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Shattered Glass," made her debut in 1994 in Peter Jackson's "Heavenly Creatures," and now spends her days shooting green-screen for Tim Minear and Ben Queen's upcoming road-race series, "Drive," which will debut April 15.

You say you want to live in New York – why don’t ya, then?
My fiance is from the East Coast and he lived in New York for five years. And when we moved to Los Angeles, he decided he never wants to leave. And I thought, “Oh, but I’ve never done it.”

Speaking of the young fellow, Mr. Jimmi Simpson, you’ve been engaged for a long time.
But we’re getting married in April. We just had a lot of planning. We’re getting married in New Zealand and we had a lot of organizing to do. He’s in San Diego right now doing this Aaron Sorkin play [“The Farnsworth Invention”], so he’s going to be gone up till two weeks before we get married. It’s kind of romantic but it’s kind of sad.

“Coyote Ugly” and “The Cherry Orchard” are back to back on your IMDB page. It’s the greatest juxtaposition ever.
Oh, my gosh. That’s exactly how I filmed them as well. It was about as different as you could get from one thing to another. “The Cherry Orchard,” we were in Bulgaria and the director was this beautiful old Greek man, he’d done theater for 20 years, and I was working with Alan Bates and Charlotte Rampling. Then I was in New York doing “Coyote Ugly” with this really cool guy – who was a commercial director, so it was very fast and Jerry Bruckheimery, and a lot of cleavage going on and it was very strange.

And then there was “Two and a Half Men” – and that locker-room dialogue.
It’s about men and written by men. Sometimes at the table read I felt like I was an old lady – sitting next to Angus, the little boy [costar Angus T. Jones, who plays Jake Harper, is now 13], thinking, “Should he be hearing this?” But he’s at an age when he’s hearing much worse at school.

I’ve seen exactly 15 seconds of previews for ‘Drive’ – the Fox midseason replacement about a long, mysterious road-race with a multimillion-dollar prize – and I’m stoked for it.
I had such a great situation in “Two and a Half Men.” I could come and go and do movies. They were amazing with me. I was really thinking I would never leave. It just seemed like if I was going to go in a new direction, it would be where I was going to go.

And how do you feel about leaving the show?
I didn’t know what I thought – “Oh they’re going to push me off the deck, or kill me, or something.” It’s good to leave with everyone feeling nice about each other. Then I can come back as well.

You’re maybe second in the competition – behind “House M.D.’s” Hugh Laurie – for best American accent on TV.
That’s lovely. His American accent is great. But I love his British accent. It’s so charming. I wish he could talk like that all the time.

Are there big secret Los Angeles Australian and New Zealander parties?
There are, actually – they’re organized by the government. Around the Oscars, they organize a thing where the New Zealanders come together. And there’s one for the Australians too. But the Australians crash the New Zealand one. They’re a lot rowdier but it makes the party much more interesting because they all come from criminals. We’re from peaceful Scottish people. Uh, well, some of us.

You’re probably really into acting.
I hate when people look at me! I hate having my picture taken. I don’t like being the center of attention. It makes me anxious. People think most actresses are desperate to be looked at. Apparently you’re in the wrong business. I think a lot of actors are like that.

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Melanie Lynskey knows how to accentuate positive
Chicago Tribune, 19 April 2006
By Luaine Lee

At 15 Melanie Lynskey had already caused a stir as an actress. She had co-starred with Kate Winslet as the hysteric teenager who plots her mother's death in Peter Jackson's first big movie, 'Heavenly Creatures,' shot in her native New Zealand.

But when she arrived at 17 to perform in America, the welcome mat was yanked out from under her.

'The first audition I ever did, the casting director said, `I don't know why you're here. You're never going to work in America. You don't look right. You don't have the right kind of personality. I don't even know if you can do an American accent. Maybe you can try England.'

'Other people were nice but that's the first thing I ever heard when I came here. It made me more determined,' she says, smiling.

Now people know Lynskey as the kooky Rose, Charlie Sheen's 'American' neighbor, who has a mad crush on him on CBS' 'Two and a Half Men.'

Few would realize, listening to Rose prattle on, that Lynskey has a thick New Zealand accent. 'Charlie Sheen didn't know I was from New Zealand until the second episode,' says Lynskey, over breakfast in a diner here.

'He had no idea. Then he was so confused as to why I was talking like this. He thought it was some pretentious thing I was doing. I was too shy to talk to him when I was in the pilot.'

Lynskey has been plagued all her life with unremitting timidity. When she was a kid, she says, 'I didn't have friends. I just read books and sat by myself. When I discovered acting I was able to be so much more comfortable because it was like you slip into someone else's skin and you can be outgoing -- it's so much easier for me to do that than be myself.'

There are two kinds of actors, Lynskey says. 'There's the entertainers who like to be around people and like to make everyone happy, and there are other people who are introverted and go inside characters,' she says.

Lynskey is the oldest of five children; her dad is an orthopedic surgeon, her mom a real estate agent. Because she was the first-born her parents always trusted her decisions, even when she determined to come to America fresh out of high school.

'I came for the first time and did the meetings and the whole thing and obviously -- I wasn't driving -- and I was so afraid and really didn't like it at all. Then I went home. Then when I came back again I said, `If I'm going to do this, I'm going to really make a go of it.''

Between 17 and 19 she didn't act at all, but waitressed and attended university in Wellington. Shortly after she arrived in Los Angeles the second time, she was cast in the Cinderella story 'Ever After' with Drew Barrymore, in which she played one of the wicked stepsisters. 'But I turned out nice,' she adds in her soft, Kiwi accent.

When she auditioned for the role on 'Two and a Half Men,' the description of the character was cryptic. 'It said something like `beautiful but unbalanced.' . . . I came up with something kinda weird and I said, `They're either going to like it or not.'

'I thought it would be funny if she was really sweet and proper but saying crazy things. They really responded. I was surprised. I thought that was nice. Then they wanted to see me again and it happened very easily.'

At that point it was easy, but it wasn't always. After 'Heavenly Creatures' Lynskey continued to try for film roles, but nothing came through. Finally, she auditioned for New Zealand director Gaylene Preston, who stopped her midsentence.

'She said, `If you're going to do it you have to come into it believing in yourself and knowing what you can bring in the room. You don't have to be wildly confident about yourself but you just have to come in with a little bit more than this. List everything you feel you don't have and change it. And then come back again.' It was the greatest thing anyone ever did for me,' Lynskey says.

'I wrote that list and came back and went through it one by one. I'm still shy but it really helped me. It didn't feel so impossible.'

She toned up her shallow voice with voice lessons, studied stage acting and trimmed down. She was in a bad relationship and ended that. 'It was pretty amazing. And after that was when I started working, when I decided to come over here after I did that. It took a couple of months. I was really determined. I went back and auditioned for her again -- but the movie never got made.'

Lynskey, 28, is engaged to actor Jimmi Simpson, whom she met when they co-starred in 'Stephen King's Rose Red,' which filmed in Seattle. Even though she couldn't drive (she just recently got her license), her agent always arranged a rental car on location, hoping it would encourage her to learn to drive, she says.

When Simpson heard about the driverless car, he offered to chauffeur her around of Seattle. That road trip never ended.

'Meeting Jimmi made me a lot more settled and responsible,' says Lynskey, her dark hair pulled off her round, Cupid face. 'I felt kind of rootless, traveled all over the place. I never thought I'd be the kind of person who would have a home and be married and do things like that. I thought maybe I'd be married, like, six times or something. Now it'll be only once.'

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Upfront: MELANIE LYNSKEY
New Zealand Listener, Jan 2006
By Sarah Barnett

After being plucked from New Plymouth Girls High in fairytale fashion, and cast as the matricidal lead in Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures, Melanie Lynskey, now 28, had a four-year wait before her next role. Now in the hit US sitcom Two and a Half Men as Rose, Charlie Sheen's sweet stalker, Lynskey has considerably lengthened her CV, and proven her chops where you'd least expect. Read reviews of some of the less well-received movies in which she has appeared (Coyote Ugly, Sweet Home Alabama), and you'll no doubt find the phrase, "The one exception is Lynskey ..." Her most recent movies are Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers and the indie Park, both due out this year.

You wanted to be an actor from a young age, yet your discovery was almost out of the blue.
I had the whole thing planned out. I looked at what other successful actors had done, like Katie Wolfe, who was from New Plymouth, and said, "Well, there's what Katie Wolfe did. She did this, then she did this, and now she's an actor." So I had the plan there, and then it just exploded. Now, everything that has happened has not been anything like I imagined, but it's been wonderful.

How was working with Clint Eastwood?
It was amazing. I had a drink with him and two other actors one night, and he was just telling us stories for two hours, and I was sitting there thinking, "If this turns out to be the worst movie in the world, and it's an embarrassment, it'll be totally worth it to have had this time." It was so great.

Do you still find yourself in situations like that, thinking, "How did I get here?"
Oh my God! Of course. It's such a miracle. Every time I get a job - I'm such a pessimist - I just always think, "All right, I'm going to get fired."

Do you prefer movies or TV?
My whole life in acting has been doing movies, so I'm used to moving on and doing a different character after three months. So, doing this TV show has been amazing, because I really love this character and to get to stay with her and do this for such a long time - you sort of feel like you're building a history. I like that a lot.

Why is a stalker such a lovable character?
I don't know. I think it's amazing that they've done that. I think it has a lot to do with how great Charlie is - his responses are always the perfect mix of "oh my God!" and affection.

Have you had stalkers of your own?
I did a long time ago. Before this ever happened, I had a weird stalker, but he seems to have gone away.

He wasn't as adorable as Rose?
No, not at all.

Martin Sheen was a guest on the show.
It was crazy. He was playing my father, so I was supposed to be really comfortable with him, and I was so terrified. Badlands is one of my favourite movies of all time, and I was just like, "Oh my God, I can't believe - I'm not good enough to be doing this, it's too crazy!" But he said that Rose is his favourite character, so he was happy to be my dad. He was so sweet.

How's life in LA?
I really love it. I have a nice group of friends and I love my little house.

Is it a fancy TV star's house with famous neighbours and a pool?
No! All my neighbours are Mexican families, and I chose it because it looks like a little house you'd see in Grey Lynn or something. It's a little old Victorian, and it has a pohutukawa out the front - I just was like, "Oh my God, I can't believe it!" I just had my garden done with only New Zealand plants. So I have flax and ferns and all sorts of things. It's great.

Do you act as a halfway house for other Kiwi actors showing up over there with their sleeping bags?
Yes! In summer, it was like we were taking bookings for a hotel. People would call up and say, "Oh, so what's June 16th to the 21st looking like?" and I'd be like, "Well, the main room's taken, but you can have the day bed in the study."

Are you looking for projects back here?
I always am. I was thinking about doing a play back home, but it just wasn't going to work out with my schedule for other things, but I'd love it. Any excuse to come back.

Is there a chance you could work with Peter Jackson again?
I think I would have to ask. He has his choice of every actor in the universe. But obviously I would love to. He's amazing. Obviously, he's a great director. He's a good man.

You've recently made Park with Billy Baldwin.
I really loved it. It was scary because I had to be naked, and that was terrifying. It's this scene where we're nudists with other people - a girl called Annie who looks like a supermodel - so that was a little bit challenging for my self-esteem. I went to the gym so I could feel good about myself, but I feel a little bit responsible: someone's saying, "Be naked in this movie looking the way you look", so I'd rather do that so if anyone sees the movie they can think, "Okay, she can do that and she's comfortable." It's always disappointing to me when you see an actress in a movie and she's obviously starved herself, and I would like to do something more positive. But it's scary.

Do you get nervous about your family and friends watching it?
Oh, I hadn't really thought about it.

Sorry.
Somehow, I hadn't really thought about it - but, yes! Maybe I'll tell my dad not to go.