'Two and a Half' stalker still around - and funny
DM News, 26 July 2005
By Scott D. Pierce

BEVERLEY HILLS, Calif. - When "Two and a Half Men" premiered two years ago, it hardly seemed possible that Rose, the character played by Melanie Lynskey, could remain part of the cast for long.

After all, Rose was stalking Charlie (Charlie Sheen). After a one-night stand, she was obsessed with the guy, often sneaking into his house. And she's his neighbor.

But as the hit sitcom prepares to enter its third season, Rose and Lynskey are still there, still very much a part of the ensemble, still very funny.

Is Rose crazy?

"No, of course not," Lynskey said. "She's perfectly sane. It's like she lives in her own little funny category. Everything she does comes out of such pure intentions in such a well-meaning way."

Creator/executive producer Chuck Lorre describes Rose as "a character of unconditional love. It's just it doesn't have any boundaries, unfortunately."

Rose does some nutty stuff, and there have been some surprises along the way. Not only is she independently wealthy but she's extremely bright - she had graduate degrees in psychology.

But she's still sort of nutty.

"She can do anything. I never get letters where people say, 'Oh, your character's so crazy,' ", Lynskey said. "When I see people on the street, everyone just says, 'She's so sweet and so adorable.' "

While stalking wouldn't seem an obvious source of humor, Rose isn't an obvious stalker. She's harmless and has become a friend, of sorts, to both Charlie and his brother, Alan (Jon Cryer).

"There's no sort of menace or anything. There's nothing frightening about her," Lynskey said. "So it sort of makes her a little bit less crazy. It's like she just doesn't know what's wrong about it."

Rose seems like a bright, charming, weird American girl. Even though Lynskey herself is a New Zealander who's affecting an American accent.

"She came in and introduced herself in her normal speaking voice and then did a perfect American accent," Lorre said.

"The voice is helpful because it's so different to me," Lynskey said. "There's kind of, like, a demeanor rather than a phrase. There's sort of a brightness and happiness, which is sort of a little bit wrong in most situations. And the costumes are also another thing....I put them on and it's not me anymore."

"There's really a wide realm of what's possible with that character," Lynskey said. "I feel so lucky just to get this crazy, wonderful dialogue and not knowing what she's going to come up with. It's fun."

Even after two seasons on one of TV's top-rated shows, she's not exactly a household name in America. But Lynskey is no novice - at the age of 16, she starred in the award-winning film "Heavenly Creatures."

"She was just staggeringly good," Lorre said. "We laughed so much when she auditioned for the part. But she also brought a gentleness to this character that was not necessarily on the page and took it far beyond where we anticipated. That's a gift. I mean, I think you're looking at a whole cast of actors who bring far more to the parts than originally envisioned, which is why the show is successful. Melanie did the same thing. She made the part genuinely lovable and wonderful."

---

Heavenly Creature
Lucire, June 2005

With a regular sitcom, CBS's Two and a Half Men, her star has officially risen. Melanie Lynskey is now one of New Zealand's best known exports. She talks exclusively to Lucire about fame, home, and compares the New Zealand way to the American one.

Melanie Lynskey is known to most New Zealanders for her role in Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures in 1994. To American readers, and no doubt many in Europe listening to her dubbed, she's Rose, the neighbour, on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men, starring Charlie Sheen.

Lynskey has been acting for over a decade and it was expected that Heavenly Creatures would propel her on to the world stage. While her role was critically acclaimed, Lynskey had to work particularly hard - an automatic acceptance into the major leagues of acting didn't come after her first major role. But success soon followed because of her determination: her big-screen credits include Foreign Correspondents, Ever After, Coyote Ugly and Sweet Home Alabama. Despite a regular TV series, she has continued her silver-screen career, with Say Uncle her most recent film.

Now with an American green card and a regular, high-profile role on network television, Lucire spoke to Lynskey in Los Angeles.

After Heavenly Creatures, your next film was Foreign Correspondents. What did it feel like when you got the offer? Did it feel like a break away from New Zealand?
I had been auditioning for quite a bit from New Zealand (on videotape) for different projects and had gone over to Los Angeles for callbacks and auditions and so on. So it was nice to be able to go to America knowing I had a job there to go to. I felt a bit more purposeful.

But it was really when I got Ever After that I had that feeling of, 'Oh, people trust me to be in their movie, and maybe I could actually do this for a living.' Plus we filmed it on location in the south of France, so that was really a break from New Zealand. Not that I wanted to get away from New Zealand, but I wasn't doing very much there, I felt unhappy and aimless because I wanted to be working. So it was wonderful to go and be busy and work with an experienced director and cast.

Did you ever confront "tall poppy syndrome" at home, and can this be contrasted with your experience in the United States?
People at home are a bit weirder when they recognize you. Like in America, when I get recognized, people come up and say, 'Oh, I liked you in' such-and-such. At home they just kind of stare at me, unless I go out to a bar or something, then everyone's drunk and they come up and say whatever they want, like 'You're skinny in real life but you looked fat in Sweet Home Alabama.' Um, thank you? It's kind of funny.

As far as tall poppy syndrome, when I was still at school it was a bit difficult. People assumed I thought I was the greatest thing ever. And at home I get a lot of people being very standoffish, thinking I'm going to be rude, so they might as well be rude first.

When I got to America I was a typical New Zealander, always trying to downplay things, which is not how people operate here at all. I would be in a meeting getting compliments and I would deflect them and be embarrassed and say, 'Oh, no, I wasn't that good,' or 'Oh, it was so long ago," and people would be confused. It took me a long time to be able to just say, 'Thank you,' without being terrified my head was going to explode with arrogance.

There are some of the locals there who are getting the roles that you would be suited for. Yet as you know, most of these actresses are just regular folks. Is it their promotion? And did you have to actively promote there?
I don't have a publicist. I do think it's important, if you want to be in the public eye, to have someone like that working for you to get you out there. Where the problem is for me is that I don't like the idea of promoting myself to try and get famous, because that is not a goal I have for myself.

I don't mind at all promoting things that I am in, I like doing it in fact. For Snakeskin (2001) I did all the press in New Zealand, pretty much, and I had fun, because I loved the movie and I wanted people to know about it. And if someone asks me to do press "just because", then why not? Like, this photo shoot was really fun.

It's just the thought of going out, trying to wrangle interviews, and having someone try to get me into places, on talk shows and whatever that makes me really uncomfortable.

The only good thing about being famous is the freedom to choose from a wider range of films. (And the free clothes!) I have lost roles because of not being famous. The money people don't consider me a guaranteed investment, and that is upsetting when you really care about a project. I get a bit sick of being the director's choice and then having the money people say no to me.

I don't like the idea of being famous. I like my life so much and I like the privacy I have, but I do want to be able to do those films, so it's tricky. If I end up in a movie that I feature in a lot and I want people to know about it, then I'll go and talk about it. But I'm not going to go to a bunch of parties and try to get photographed. I don't want to be one of those girls on the red carpet at every premiere pushing myself into the spotlight. It just isn't me.

I've worked very hard to get where I am in a way that feels right for me, and I want to continue being true to myself. It's so weird to me how many people in this world think that being famous is the greatest thing that can happen in life. I really think fame can do bad things to people, and create a kind of scary, insular world that isn't very healthy to live in. I'm very grateful for the life that I have. I think I'm extremely lucky.

So you'd live a more balanced lifestyle than some of your contemporaries, e.g. Drew Barrymore. Would this be fair?
I think it's very hard for people to be hugely famous, and live a normal, balanced life. For me, I'm fine, because no one's looking, so I can just do what I want. I find my happiness in my friendships and in my relationship and in feeling good within myself, and enjoying my work. I don't live that kind of Hollywood life so there's no danger of me getting caught up in it.

It is interesting to see how people behave though. There are definitely celebrities who just surround themselves with sycophants and no one who would ever dare to disagree with them. [They] don't have a true friend or a real relationship in the world, and obviously that's not a balanced life. Then there are people like Reese Witherspoon, who is a very normal woman who is incredibly talented and works really hard and has a family she absolutely loves - but is also a superstar. She is completely inspiring to me. She got to where she is by working really hard and always being amazing, and gradually people started to notice. I have a lot of respect for her on every level. She lives her life as a mother and a wife and an actor, as a real person, not as a celebrity.

I think that's the difference. If you start believing you're special and live in that insular Hollywood world, you can really become a horrible person. Celebrities can't help the fact that people are going to stare at them when they go out and paparazzi [are] going to be around, but they are in charge of themselves and who they surround themselves with. If you have a strong structure of people who really know you, you're not going to go too crazy. Transient things like fame and that type of attention are not going to be your real source of happiness.

You asked about Drew, and the people she spends her time with are close friends who really care about her as a person. She doesn't have a crazy unbalanced life. One thing I really admire about her is that she is so gracious to everyone she meets. She does have a weird life, having always been famous, but she handles it so well. I've gone out with her and she constantly has people coming up to her, and she is always so kind to everyone. She must get sick of it, but I never saw her show it.

You now have a green card and a house in Los Angeles. What were those moments like, knowing that they kind of separate you a little from home?
Kind of amazing and kind of sad. It felt great to be finally settled here, after having spent so long really struggling and not knowing if I was going to be able to stay here or not. And I do love LA and my life here. And I love my house. But, you know, since I was little I always imagined living in Wellington, so it did feel a bit weird buying my first house, but not there. Then I guess my life is different to what I imagined.

While your film roles have been excellent, I feel your television work has really upped your profile to mainstream audiences. Anything you'd do with this newfound fame?
Well, I don't feel very famous. I get more fan mail now, and it's all from men, but that's about all that's changed. If I ever felt like I was in a position where people wanted to listen to what I had to say, I think I would try to emulate my friend Kathy Najimy, who is so inspiring. She speaks out on behalf of every underprivileged person and animal you could think of, and she's always raising money for different charities, and using the fact that she has a public profile to be the voice for people who aren't being heard. I could only hope to try and do some of the good that she does.

What are your beauty essentials?
I love beauty products. I have crazily sensitive skin, so when I find a product that doesn't make my face all red, it's very exciting. My skin is also dry, and I never thought I would find a scrub for it, but Caudalie has an amazing exfoliant for sensitive skin. I use Shiseido Bio-Performance moisturiser and eye cream. At night I use the AEsop Fabulous Face Oil. I like the smell of vanilla and rose so for body lotion I use Dr Hauschka's Rose Oil or Ecco Bella vanilla lotion, both of which you get at health food stores. I also like Kiehl's rose lotion, and their coconut one in summer.

I've never had any clue what to do with my hair. I get my hair cut about once a year and put it in a pony tail most of the time, but my hairdresser on Two and a Half Men has a great line called Prawduct, which is all natural. For the first time in my life, I like how my hair looks when it's down. You can just spritz some stuff in and go. His products smell good too which is very important!

I love make-up and I have boxes and boxes of it. My new best friend is Benefit: they have a great mascara called Bad Gal Lash and I love all their glowy shimmery highlighting stuff. I love NARS and use their amazing eyeshadows as liners, too. I have been faithful to my MAC pressed powder for years, as well as Clinique's Soft Finish foundation, which I truly believe is the best base ever for dry skin.

What do you miss the most about home?
The air feels different in New Zealand, cleaner and crisper. I notice it the minute I step off the plane. I miss my friends and family. I miss Zambesi, Karen Walker and Helen Cherry. I miss good lattes. Wellington. Hearing New Zealand music on the radio. I miss New Zealand summers, being at a house by a lovely beach somewhere, drinking good New Zealand wine and having Kapiti cheese.

---

Slice of Heaven
Sunday Star-Times, 15 August 2004
By Megan Nicol Reed

"Always the bridesmaid, never the bride . . . " It's the story of Melanie Lynskey's decade-long career. First she got to watch from the sidelines as her Heavenly Creatures co-star Kate Winslet rose to Titanic-sized heights, then she got to play Drew Barrymore's ugly stepsister in the Hollywood remake of Cinderella fairytale Ever After. And in Coyote Ugly and Sweet Home Alabama, she played the small-town, homely best friend to Piper Perabo and Reese Witherspoon's sexy leads.

But the former New Plymouth girl is satisfied with her lot. In fact, she seems down-right chuffed. Her role in TV2's new sitcom Two and a Half Men, starring Charlie Sheen, means a regular pay cheque; she's recently bought a house in Los Angeles with her actor boyfriend Jimmi Simpson, who she met on the set of Stephen King mini-series Rose Red, and the couple have got themselves a dog.

Lynskey, who has only just received a green card, auditioned for three TV shows and says she is absolutely thrilled to be doing Two and a Half Men, which by the end of its first season in the US, was being touted as America's number one comedy. How did she choose between the roles?

"Well, actually, this was the only one I got," she laughs.

Apart from playing the leading lady in the Kiwi-made road movie Snakeskin, Lynskey hasn't bagged any big roles since Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh discovered her as a school girl and cast her as mother-killer Pauline in Heavenly Creatures. Hollywood has been kinder to her than most and while her output hasn't been stellar, it has been consistent. But the movie business is not getting any easier, says the 27-year-old.

"I was working, but not at a level where I was being offered a lot of prime roles. The sort of roles I usually tried for were going to really famous actresses. I found myself losing stuff to Rene Zellwegger and Cameron Diaz. It just started to feel like I wanted a part I could do more with."

Her character Rose was initially intended to be a guest-starring role, but when the show's pilot was picked up by the network, the producers asked her to stay. Rose is the "attractive, offbeat neighbour" of Charlie (played by Sheen). The pair had a brief fling and now he can't get rid of her. According to Lynskey, who despite four years in LA is refreshingly un-fabulous, Rose is a stalker.

Sheen plays an advertising jingle writer with a Malibu mansion, a flash car in the garage and an endless supply of gorgeous women in his bed. But when his neurotic brother turns up on his doorstep with his 10-year-old son after his wife decides she might be a lesbian, Charlie's playboy lifestyle is turned on its head. What follows is a predictable clash of personalities, tempered with drizzles of cynicism (albeit American-style) and a dollop of schmaltz. The odd clever one-liner and Lynskey's quirkiness keep it watchable; Rose constantly peering through Charlie's door is the sort of running gag which endows sitcoms with cult status.

Lynskey puts the show's success down to Sheen. "I think people really love Charlie. There's an enormous amount of goodwill towards him."

And what does she think of the great star? "We got on terribly. I can't stand him."

Oh? My muck-raking ears prick up. "No, he's great. He's really quiet and shy and sweet."

Surely those stories in the gossip mags about his partying days being over aren't true? This, after all, is the man whose drug-fuelled downward spiral was rivalled only by Robert Downey jnr's excess.

"I didn't know what to expect. They say people are reformed, but are they ever? But no, he's totally into his wife and baby."

Lynskey, who answers the phone with a certified American drawl but veers towards a Kiwi twang over the course of our conversation, says she tries to get home on a regular basis. But coming from the anonymity of LA, these days home can feel a little bit weird.

"People stare at me and I think there must be something wrong with how I'm dressed."

She had always imagined if she bought a house it would be in Wellington, but when she found the house of her dreams, a little old Victorian place, she couldn't resist. In an area of LA called Echo Park, it sounds more quaint than flash. To the whir of a police helicopter flying overhead, Lynskey describes it as being "in the 'hood.' " On her way inside to escape the noise, she knocks over an empty bottle of wine.

It's a long way from New Plymouth.

"I think if somebody had come up to me then and told me this is what your life is going to be like, I never would have believed them."

---

'Two and a Half Men' Are Plenty for Lynskey
Zap2it.com, 17 April 2004
By Jay Bobbin

The focus is on the fellows on Two and a Half Men, but women are often around, too.

One of the most consistent is charmingly obsessed neighbour Rose, played by Melanie Lynskey on the Monday-night CBS sitcom, the latest People's Choice Award winner for favorite new comedy series.

Rose's brief liasion with committed bachelor Charlie (Charlie Sheen) was much more to her, which is why she turns up continually at the house she shares with his divorced brother, Alan (Jon Cryer), and Alan's young son, Jake (Angus T. Jones). Ever an optimist, Rose hopes for another chance with Charlie; she doesn't even mind him using her as a convenient decoy to ward off other women.

Rose has yet another rival for Charlie's attention coming in May, as Heather Locklear (formerly Sheen's leading lady on Spin City) guest stars as Alan's attorney. She spends a night with Charlie, then wants him at her beck and call. It's an arrangement Charlie chafes under, leaving Alan worried about the possible impact the situation may have on him and Jake.

After making a big splash a decade ago in her first movie, the critically praised Heavenly Creatures (which also gave Kate Winslet international prominence), New Zealand native Melanie Lynskey worked steadily in movies from Ever After and Coyote Ugly to Sweet Home Alabama and Shattered Glass. She says she began considering U.S. TV series work last year because "on a practical level, I'd just gotten my green card. Before that, the time between being cast for a show and starting work on it was too quick to even get a work visa, so doing a TV show wasn't even an option.

"When I finally got my green card, I thought, 'Well, maybe I'll just see what's happening.' Last pilot season, I read some scripts but didn't go out for anything until I read Two and a Half Men. It made me laugh, and it was kind of perfect at the time because Rose was just a guest-starring role. There was no commitment whatsoever, so I thought it would be fun to go in and play this crazy woman once. It also would give me a taste of what it was like to do a sitcom. Then, when the show got picked up, the part was well received and the producers asked me to be a regular.

Their plan to make Rose more than a one-note joke has worked, much to Lynskey's relief. "I've been getting a lot of fan mail," she says, "so people seem to be responding. Sometimes, I'll read one of the scripts and wonder, 'Is this more creepy than funny?' In one show, Charlie wakes up in the middle of the night and I'm in bed with him. If that happened to me, I would be horrified. Chuck [Lorre, co-creator and co-executive producer of the series] always tells me, 'Just play it really sweet as if you're completely right. Then no one can blame you.' "

Indeed, Lynskey evokes a sweet demeanor on Two and a Half Men, matched with a lilting voice not far removed from Megan Mullally's on Will & Grace. Lynskey's American accent on the show belies her overseas roots, which are evident in regular conversation with her. She reveals Sheen didn't realize her background until they were making the show's second episode. "He turned around and said, 'What's this, uh, voice? What are you doing?' I said, 'I'm just talking.' Then he said, 'Hmmm. Is that some kind of actor-y thing?' "

Lynskey still enjoys being with Sheen, Cryer and the other series regulars as much as she did at first. "I can remember thinking while we were making the pilot, 'It can be this easy?' They don't have any egos, and it was just fun. I thought it would be a nice place to be." It's also a highly successful place, since Two and a Half Men is this season's third-highest-rated comedy (right behind its lead-in, Everybody Loves Raymond, with Friends topping the list.) "It seems funny to me that it's all worked so well," Lynskey says. "I have so much respect for the people who do this. It's so hard to keep the energy up and to make people laugh."

Peter Jackson, the fellow New Zealander who directed the Lord of the Rings trilogy, gave Lynskey her big break by casting her as a murder-minded girl in Heavenly Creatures. She reflects, "I don't know what I would be doing today otherwise. I always wanted to be an actress, but to be in Heavenly Creatures at the age of 15 literally changed my life. It took a long time to get other jobs, because the character I played in that movie isn't someone you'd look at and automatically think, 'I can imagine her in my movie.'

"Also, I had no idea how to navigate Hollywood or the acting profession or anything like that. I finished high school and went to university and figured I'd come back and have another look later."

With that taken care of, Lynskey still retains solid connections from her earlier days. "Everyone who won Oscars for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King also worked on Heavenly Creatures," she reports. "I was crying my eyes out that night."

---

Melanie Lynskey: Finding Her Place
Staples, Oct/Nov 2003
By Gemma Gracewood

Days before an early morning conversation with Melanie Lynskey, I caught a Sky Movies screening of Heavenly Creatures. I hadn't watch it in years, preparing for this interview instead by renting the laughable Coyote Ugly, the odd Sweet Home Alabama, and the 70's teen romp Detroit Rock City.

But as I flicked randomly through channels, there they were: Lynskey and Winslet. Parker and Hulme. Still two of the most incredible, compelling debut performances in film. Lynskey's Pauline Parker is pouty, determined, at times downright scary. Dark shadows appear beneath her eyes as quickly as a rosy glow across her cheeks vanishes. She switches from hysteria to calculating stillness in seconds. She's gorgeous, she's ugly, passionate and brutal. She's a 16-year-old murderer, after all, and Lynskey played it perfectly.

She deserves to be what she is: one of New Zealand's most internationally successful actors. In the deacde since her Heavenly Creatures debut, she has played side-kick, saucy temptress, ugly sister, wacko library girl, quirky cop and best friend alongside such Hollywood recognisables as Drew Barrymore, Reese Witherspoon, Katie Holmes and that girl from Coyote Ugly. In fifteen films, she's made out in a church confessional, murdered her mother, met cowboy violence on South Island back-roads and perfected a New Jersey accent. And she has infused each role with her dark-eyed beauty, eccentric humour and minxy intelligence.

Right now, Lynskey is ensconded in her first full-time job, the television sitcom Two and a Half Men. In it, Charlie Sheen plays Charlie Harper, a self-absorbed bachelor and advertising jingle-writer, whose life is upturned when his soon-to-be-divorced younger brother Alan (played by Jon Cryer, Pretty in Pink's superb Ducky) moves in with his ten-year-old son. This is big news: not only is Melanie acting alongside two of the best of the 1980s teen-movie generation (who could forget Charlie Sheen's pash with Jennifer Grey in Ferris Bueller's Day Off?), the sitcom is also one of the most heavily promoted releases on the CBS network's fall schedule.

Lynskey plays Charlie Sheen's ex-girlfriend in the new sitcom. She has a gorgeous wardrobe and a slew of hilarious lines as her "beautiful but unstable" character refuses to believe she and Charlie have broken up. "He can't get rid of her," Lynskey laughs. "In the first episode, she's trying to get into his house. She gets in and wanders around it, trying on his clothes. She's crazy. I laughed so much when I read the script. I mean, it's a sitcom so it's gotta be funny, but they're not always, are they? This one is funny."

It's very early on a mid-winter morning in Wellington and I'm sitting next to the heater with a fresh pot of tea. Miles away at midday, Melanie Lynskey is relaxing at home in the year-round warmth of Los Angeles, explaining how she finally made her break into full-time television. Until now, she'd been working in the United States on a perormer's visa, so her small screen work was limited to a Stephen King mini-series and a few episodes of The Shield. Finally, her Green Card came through, meaning she could enter the annual television "pilot season"--the best chance an actor has of landing a decent role in a new TV series. And on her first pilot season, she landed one.

Film is still a priority though. She'll soon be onscreen in Shattered Glass, with a to-die-for cast that includes Hayden "Anakin" Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, Chloe Sevigny and Hank Azaria. It tells the true story of Stephen Glass (Christensen), a prolific and popular young Washington, DC reporter who excelled in writing flashy pieces for prestigious publications such as The New Republic, George, Rolling Stone and Harpers.

Based on Buzz Bissinger's Vanity Fair article, the film explores how Glass managed to fool everyone around him--it is believed that he made up 27 of the 41 articles he wrote for the New Republic, not to mention several of his freelance pieces for those other magazines.

Lynskey plays Glass' envious, hard-working office mate, who excels at writing dry policy pieces. "To prepare for the character, the director asked me to research and write an article about farm subsidies, which was really fun! I'm proud of myself for finding out about farm subsidies! It wasn't a great article, but you get the idea of my character. She's great friends with Hayden's character, but she's jealous of him. She wasn't to be the one writing the glossy articles."

Shattered Glass is a timely film, given the recent trouble that other American publications--including the venerable and venerated New York Times--have had with writers fabricating stories. In a clever piece of casting, the Times' most recent embarassment, Jayson Blair, is reportedly reviewing Shattered Glass for Esquire. And Stephen Glass? He has completed a law degree and written a "fictional novel" about a young reporter who, ahem, invented most of his stories.

It seems you can't do anything wrong in the States, and if you do, it is possible to use it to your advantage, to reinvent yourself and get back on that celebrity horse. It's a second-chance kinda nation, and in a roundabout way, Melanie Lynskey has benefited from that come-back attitude.

She was discovered just weeks before principal shooting began on Heavenly Creatures, during screenwriter Fran Walsh's epic search through lower-North Island classrooms for a Pauline Parker to play opposite Kate Winslet's Juliet Hulme. The rapid critical and Oscar-nominated success of Heavenly Creatures saw Lynskey set her sights higher than the stage career in Wellington she'd been preparing for. But it wasn't a snap.

Much has been written about her first venture to Hollywood. About how Kate Winslet went from strength to strength while Lynskey faced a townful of young, confident, competitive beauties and high-tailed it home after just six weeks, enrolling at university and dealing with a growing depression, whereupon director Gaylene Preston got a hold of her and told her to do what she needed to do to make herself a stronger person, and get back out there again. Which she did, landing a role as the not-so-ugly stepsister to Drew Barrymore's Cinderella in Ever After.

But in those glossy articles, it sounds too easy. I want the details, I ask Lynskey. On a practical level, how does one go about sorting oneself out?

It wasn't easy, she acknowledges. "The thing is, you can't say to somebody who is depressed, 'snap out of it'. It's easy to feel very overwhelmed and and unable to deal with the smallest thing. Everything seems daunting. So Gaylene just told me 'write a list of everything you think is stopping you'. And I did. It was just incredible. And then she said to work through each of those things one by one. And I did."

To actually write the list and tick each item off--get fit, take voice lessons and so on--was both Lynskey's challenge and her triumph. She still reminds herself of that list, every day. "I am obsessive about writing lists! I'm always making lists of goals and never feel like I've done enough. My boyfriend is always telling me that I have, he's always telling me to appreciate what I've done."

That's not to say that the depression has permanently lifted. It revisited her in force more recently, leading Lynskey to do a whole heap of work on learning not to be so hard on herself, learning to be happy with what she's got. She's reluctant to reveal to a New Zealand audience that her healing process has involved sessions with a holistic doctor, because it "sounds so LA".

"I feel so embarassed. I sound like such a fake! I felt like it was so wanky and self-obsessed of me. But I was depressed and crying all the time, just feeling really sad. You know, when you're depressed, you really need a lot of energy to even get out of bed in the morning. It's horrible.

"Actually making the appointment with him was more important than the actual session. It was me making the decision with myself, like, okay I wanna do something."

The doctor discussed diet issues with her. She has cut out sugar and white flour, doesn't drink coffee, and doesn't drink alcohol--except for wine. He gave her some acupuncture and "weird light therapy". She's not sure if that worked, "but he gave me some very good advice. Whenever I feel like I'm starting to get depressed, he has given me some things to use, so that it doesn't feel like an unstoppable force coming down on me. I can control it now.

"A lot of the emotional stuff can freak you out, but you want to hold on to it, you want to protect it because it's part of your art and part of who you are. I know for myself, I've had horrible problems with depression, I've had all kinds of emotional issues. And I've thought 'you can use this'. But then sometimes you just have to let go of the art. You realise you're playing the 'best friend' in some Hollywood movie, so there's no need to torture yourself!

"I think I understand that feeling because now I'm truly happy for the first time in ten years. I just don't want all that drama all the time. It's so funny to be happy all the time. It's crazy. I wake up, and want to be awake!"

Home is a one-bedroom apartment near Hollywood Boulevard, in a Los Angeles neighborhood that's moving quickly from run-down to cool. She shares the place with Mouse--her chihuahua-daschund cross--and her "beautiful" boyfriend Jimmi Simpson, also an actor. They met on the set of the aforementioned Stephen King mini-series, Rose Red. He's a quirky fellow who has also featured in Amy Heckerling's film Loser and episodes of the Keifer Sutherland series 24.

Lynskey has filled her apartment with New Zealand art, mainly from her other home, Taranaki. She has works by assemblage artist Dale Copeland, including a piece involving sardines and a handkerchief. She has beautiful works by New Plymouth artist and friend Sarah Sampson, a glittery, velveteen map of New Zealand, and stacks of New Zealand music.

The Spanish-style apartment building with polished floors is ten thousand miles away from the tall, wooden Wellington villa that she dreams of one day owning, but it's home.

She guiltily confesses that the feeling of having two lives--one in New Zealand, another in the States--is starting to dissipate. "On my last trip home to New Zealand, it felt like I was missing 'home'! It sounds disloyal to say, but its because my boyfriend is here, my dog, my work is here, a lot of my friends are here.

"All my friends used to live in Wellington. Now they are all over New Zealand and the world. I think when there used to be that group, I felt like I was part of it. That I was the one thing missing from that place."

Years in Los Angeles have also helped her to fit in, to learn to speak American. It's not a case of having the right accent. Rather, it's a way of speaking with a purpose. "Americans are so competitive. When I first got here I was meek and shy and you have to be forceful." Not just at auditions, but in everyday life. Dinner party conversation in America may as well be an Olympic event. "So often in conversation, people have prepared stories," Lynskey laughs. "It's kind of like on American talk shows--they have a set format, and set anecdotes. It feels so artificial to me."

Though she has found that she is more independent than she ever thought she would be in Los Angeles, she also observes having lost a certain way of life. "When I was living in Wellington, people are just so relaxed there. You can walk around everywhere, make impromptu plans, people call you from restaurants to say 'come on down'. It's so relaxed. You can see people all the time and have very accessible friendships. Here, you have to make a lunch date with one of your closest friends for the following week. People don't pop over or drop in."

She has introduced a bit of her Wellington way of life to her LA friends, though. "Now that I've been out here a while, I think because I'm more relaxed about things, I have friends calling to see if they can pop round--but even then they call ahead to say 'Is it still okay if I drop by?'! "

And New Zealand drops by. One of her four siblings has just been through for a ten-day visit--she entertained him by sending him to see friends of hers who were staying in flash hotels so that he could check out the fancy swimming pools. And Goodshirt passed through on their way to the South by Southwest musical festival in Austin, Texas earlier this year. "Passing through" is a bit of a misnomer: the entire band, plus manager and roadie, spent a week in her one-bedroom apartment. It's just as well Melanie, Jimmi and their friends are such huge fans.

"[Lead singer] Rodney Fisher has been one of my best friends since we were ten when he gave me a samle vial of purfume from his mother's pharmacy. I'm so proud of them, they're doing really well. Rodney sent me and my boyfriend the demo songs from their next album, and it's the best CD I've heard in my life." You heard it here first.

Lynskey usually stocks up on New Zealand music and art on her visits home. She thinks a best friend's wedding on Waiheke Island will be her next chance to catch up on the latest music, and she asks what's good at the moment. I recommend a few local websites where she can not only listen to the latest sounds from home, but buy them too. "Can you do that?!" Later, she emails to say that she spent all night on Smokecds.com--"I don't know how I ever lived without it!"

Being a full-time CBS employee provides a good income for an actress used to doing one or two movies per year. Is she squirrelling it away or drinking champagne? A bit of both. "I go out for dinner a lot. I buy a lot of shoes. I mean, I live in a one bedroom apartment, I can't think about buying a house in LA, but I put money away so that one day I could buy a house in Wellington."

Which reminds me of a story in the Evening Post a few years back: "Heavenly Creature Wants Wellington House". An odd little story, which didn't find much out. Yes, she wanted to buy a house, but couldn't afford one. Yes, she had been dating a Wellington man, but declined to name him.

"I know. There was this one period where I was home for a while and there was an article about me every week. It's so weird! My god! The things they were writing about me. There was this one time when I was 'sighted' in a restaurant with my 'new beau', apparently, and his glass of wine blew over the people next to us, and I was like "Oh my god, I'm sorry", and then it's in the newspaper?"

She recalls there was a fascination with exposing who her boyfriend was. They named one Wellingtonian, but alas for the media, that relationship was already over. They called another ex-boyfriend, Scarfies director Robert Sarkies. "They were like 'You're the boyfriend!' And he was like 'No! Too late!' Robert loves stuff like that, like he was playing a game with them. And he called me up and said 'They've found me! They think it's me!' Oh my god, how ridiculous. Why me?"

But it's the only time she's really been bothered by the media--New Zealand or otherwise--and she was more embarassed than annoyed. The internet is different, of course. She has her fan-sites, mostly deferential. "My dad went and did a Google search on me once and said 'Oh, you know Mel, there are some, um, websites claiming to have, um, naked pictures of you. And I checked them out, and they're not. I thought you'd like to know that."

This low key fandom-at-a-distance may change. Word on the street is that Two and a Half Men could be big. With many of the long-running shows--ER, Friends, The West Wing--coming to an end, networks are desperate to get new shows off the ground. And television, being more accessible, creates seemingly more accessible stars. But Lynskey doesn't appear to have a palpable lust for fame, more a sense that this is her job and she's going to make the best run of it, for as long as she can.

She will have some time off to make films, and she's always keen to work in New Zealand. The girl whose dream once extended only as far as Wellington's theatre scene would love to be invited down to do a play (although the thought of being on stage is secretly "terrifying").

Occasionally she puts pen to paper. "I used to write poetry a lot, but I haven't written any for a while because I'm too happy! It's like there's nothing to talk about. My boyfriend is amazing, my dog is beautiful, I'm working."

For now, Melanie Lynskey is relishing being that more satisfying of things--a full-time actor.

---

E! Online's Sizzlin' 16 of 2003 - Melanie Lynskey
Jan 2003
By Rhonda Richford

Melanie Lynskey is suffering from a little crisis of confidence.

"If I ever get time off work and don't know what's coming up next, I get really nervous and think, Oh well, it's probably over."

We doubt it.

Ever since arriving in the States two years ago, the native New Zealander has been working nonstop. Lynskey played Drew Barrymore's not-so-evil stepsister in Ever After, screamed her way through the Stephen King miniseries Rose Red, creeped out Katie Holmes in Abandon and helped Reese Witherspoon reconnect with her southern roots in Sweet Home Alabama.

While still in high school, Lynskey was plucked from drama class to audition for Peter Jackson's indie feature Heavenly Creatures. She won raves for her performance as a teen who schemes to kill her mother. And while the naturally shy Lynskey enjoyed playing such a dark character, she has selected a variety of roles since.

"I always try to do something really different from the last thing. After Abandon, where I was this creepy girl, I just wanted to play someone happy, and then Sweet Home Alabama came along, which was perfect."

Lynskey currently appears in the indie drama Snakeskin, which follows a free-spirited young woman on a road trip across New Zealand. Next up, she guest stars on The Shield as a seemingly quiet woman involved in some friendly neighborhood torture rituals. And this fall, she costars--alongside former sizzler Hayden Christensen--in Shattered Glass, as a reporter jealous of her dishonest colleague's success.

But even as her Glass character longs for fame, Lynskey remains grounded. "I always thought I'd be in New Zealand doing theater. Everything I've done is greater than my greatest dreams."

---

Interview at "Abandon" premiere
14 October 2002
By Rebecca Murray

Can you tell me a little bit about your character in Abandon?
My character is kind of creepy. She's a kind of creepy librarian who sneaks up on Katie Holmes all the time.

What makes her creepy?
She just kind of watches everyone. She doesn't have any friends. She works in the library and she sort of watches and listens and gets information.

What does she do with the information?
I can't really say (laughing). I don't want to ruin it. She may or may not do anything with the information.

Did you have a college experience of your own?
I did. I went to a college for a year and a half and then I got this movie, Ever After, and I dropped out.

How did your own college experience affect the way you played this character?
I think that my character feels so alienated. Whenever you go into a big environment full of people your own age, most of them are cooler or funnier or prettier than you - or you feel like it at least. I think that I was able to relate a little bit in terms of not really knowing where you are going to fit in.

Did you do any librarian research?
Not really. I remembered some girls I knew who worked in the library. It was like, "Oh, I'll be one of those girls."

What was it like working with first-time director Stephen Gaghan, who was also the writer?
It's my favorite thing to do. First of all, writer/directors - and also first-time directors - are so excited. They are not like, "We're just doing it for the money." They really want to be there and they really want to get the best performance they can. Stephen was amazing.

Did you ever feel like you couldn't make suggestions or change anything because the director was also the writer?
Most writer/directors are actually better about it than just directors are because directors say, "I don't know if the writer would like that." It's better to have the person there who will say, "Yeah, okay, that will be fine."

How difficult is it for you to do an American accent?
It's really easy to do an American accent because in New Zealand, we hear it so much on television.

Was the Southern accent in Sweet Home Alabama more difficult to master?
That was hard because there are some sounds that sound like the New Zealand accent so it's harder when it's a little bit closer to you.

---

Melanie Lynskey: On the Verge
Venice, October 2002
By David Beebe

Memo to Hollywood: Get ready to witness Melanie Lynskey's transition from up-and-comer to a bona-fide star. The 25-year-old actress is about to pop, big time, like that last kernel in the popper. Ms. Lynskey brings an impressive resume as well, filled with big names, movies, and television credits, plus she's got an accent to die for. To top it all off, she's smart, beautiful, funny, and carries herself as a squared-away normal girl who has a job she truly loves.

Born in New Plymouth, New Zealand, Lynskey always knew she wanted to be an actress and could never imagine herself doing anything else that would make her as happy. In high school she performed in plays and studied acting. She was planning to continue her education at college, then go on to theater, and then work her way up the ladder from there. But, unbeknownst to her, there was a different plan afoot. Realizing every actor's dream, Lynskey was hand-picked in high school by Frances Walsh and Peter Jackson to play the lead in Heavenly Creatures. But in spite of giving a critically acclaimed performance, Lynskey's film career didn't get off the ground until three years later, when she re-emerged in the 1998 re-telling of the Cinderella story, Ever After. Since then, she's been working non-stop and has managed to show her wide range of acting skills by taking on completely different roles in every project.

Included among her credits are Detroit Rock City (1999), But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), Coyote Ugly (2000), Snakeskin (2001), and Stephen King's TV mini-series Rose Red (2002). This month, Lynskey can be seen on the big screen again in two completely different parts: in the dramatic thriller Abandon as the mousy library assistant with a secret to tell; and as a good ol' country girl in the romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama. She also just finished filming Shattered Glass, the true story of fraudulent Washington, D.C. journalist Stephen Glass.

During a well deserved break, Lynskey sat down with Venice Magazine to talk about her career so far, what she thinks about Hollywood, and the best advice she's ever received.

Venice: Congratulations on your role in Sweet Home Alabama. Are you starting to get recognized as "that girl in the bar with a baby?"
Yeah, I guess. It's happening a lot lately because the trailer has been on television fifty times a day showing me holding a baby in the bar. I feel very awkward when I get recognized. I'm not comfortable with it yet.

Have you had interesting run-ins with fans yet?
The funniest thing that happened is when I was in Montreal and this girl came up to me and said, "Has anyone ever told you that you look like Melanie Lynskey? She was in so and so movies.' It's such a weird experience to be recognized sometimes. Most people think they know you somehow, went to school with you, or that I'm a friend of someone they know.

You're originally from New Zealand. Is the 'celebrity' thing big there?
There isn't really much of a 'celebrity' concept there. People are famous, but no one is really bothered by it. People just live their lives there.

What's the acting community like there?
I love New Zealand so much but there's nowhere to go as an actor. There's no sense of working up to something. The most famous actors in New Zealand do movies, television, theater and commercials. There's just not enough work to be an established film actor.

What's been your observation of American actors?
Well, young American actors are very strange. There seems to be a lot of people who have grown up believing or just knowing that they would be acting for a living compared to those that can't believe that they're actually doing it. I still can't believe that I've done everything I've done. People always want to be Jennifer Lopez or superstars. I've never had a 'this is where I want to be' sort of plan. I just feel lucky every time I work.

What was it like working with Reese Witherspoon in Sweet Home Alabama?
She amazes me. Between takes when everyone is just sort of hanging around she's always reading a book, talking to her daughter, or on the phone organizing something. There's not a moment of the day that she's not doing anything. She's like superwoman.

Abandon is also coming out this month. What was that like for you?
Oh, it was fun. I haven't seen it yet though. I had a lot of scenes with Katie Holmes where I'm sneaking up on her in the library.

What was it like working with Katie and Charlie Hunnam?
Katie was a sweetheart. She's really great. I didn't have any scenes with Charlie, so I never actually met him on the set, but I finally did meet him about a year and a half later.

Tell us about Snakeskin, another movie you did.
It's my favourite movie I've done. I was doing Coyote Ugly when I got sent the script. It was the movie of my dreams. It's this very dark movie, set in New Zealand, and I play this girl who is very confident. It was the type of role that no one expected me to play. So it was the perfect thing to do.

Before Snakeskin, you were in But I'm a Cheerleader in a completely different type of role. How did that come to you?
It just sort of randomly happened. I worked with Natasha Lyonne in Detroit Rock City and she was doing But I'm a Cheerleader. She said I should be in the movie with her and I ended up getting the part so I worked with Natasha twice in a row which was amazing. She is great.

Your first role was in Heavenly Creatures while you were still in high school. What was that like?
Making that movie was great. They actually auditioned lots of people for my role but just didn't feel comfortable with any of them. So a few weeks before they started filming, they scouted for actors and they came to my high school. Since I was always doing plays, I auditioned for it. Peter Jackson and Kate Winslet were so good to me.

You just finished filming Shattered Glass. What can you share about that?
It's this independent movie and Hayden Christensen plays a reporter who works for the New Republic magazine. I'm not sure what I'm allowed to say about it. It's a true story anyway.

What was it like working with Hayden?
He's very sweet. I think he's amazing in it. I'd never seen him in anything. I just saw Life as a House the other day. He's very committed, very good, and I was really impressed. There are lots of good people in it.

You also did a television mini-series as well.
Yes, I did Stephen King's Rose Red. It was fun. I met my boyfriend there. He's a sweetheart. I don't know how to drive so he had to bring me to this interview. I really have to learn how to drive. I feel so guilty having him drive me everywhere.

Have you ever driven?
Well, Snakeskin was a road movie and I waited until they offered it to me to tell them that I didn't know how to drive. So I had to have some driving lessons. I just have a terrible phobia about it.

Would you want to do more television work?
Yes, if it was a good show. If it was Six Feet Under, life would be complete. I love that show.

How do you choose what projects you want to be involved with?
When I read a script, I just get a feeling from it. I don't have that much freedom in my career, but the little bit that I do have, I usually choose things as a reaction to each [project]. If I do something dramatic, then I'll want to do a comedy after.

Is your family in New Zealand?
Yes, they are. I have three little brothers and one little sister.

What do your siblings think of your acting career?
My little sister is very proud of me. She and her friends watch the movies and talk about them. My brothers are just 'whatever' about it. If I can introduce them to some hot New Zealand soap opera actresses, then they're happy.

What's the best piece of advice you've gotten about your acting career?
I was 17 in New Zealand when my talent manager found me. She said, "If there is anything else you can imagine being happy doing, you should do it." I feel like that is really good advice. I feel that you really have to want to be an actor to do it. People who get into it just to be a movie star won't be happy. You have to really love the work.