Melanie Lynskey could read this story. The “Yellow Vests” star is a fan of TV, and she’s also a fan of writing and criticizing on TV. And that includes reading the press about her own shows — and herself. “I like [film and TV] so much criticism,” she told the Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast. “And it would make me sad not to be able to read it. You need to put your ego aside for a minute and say to yourself, “it doesn’t matter what I read about myself.” When it’s someone you really like to read and they’re writing about something you’ve spent six months working on, it’s hard for me not to.
Lynskey says the reviews aren’t always great, but they’re usually accurate, even in these cases. “They were always right,” she says. “I know when something hasn’t been so good. So I was never like, ‘this isn’t fair.’ I never really had that feeling.
With one exception: when critics brought up physical appearance “where I feel like I don’t know if that necessarily matters.” But other than that, I always agreed!
In this episode, Lynskey discusses the twists and turns of Season 2 of Showtime’s hit drama, as well as her convoluted villainy turn in HBO’s breakout “The Last of Us.” She also talks about how personal the story of her young self’s pregnancy was to her own life, and how much she knows or doesn’t know the trajectory of her character, Shauna. She also shares what it’s been like for so many fans to ‘deliver her marriage to Jason Ritter (as evidenced by a recent viral video of the couple on ‘The Drew Barrymore Show’) – and she learns, live on the podcast, about the news that her former “Two and a Half Men” co-star Charlie Sheen and her boss Chuck Lorre made up.
Listen below!
On “Yellowjackets,” Lynskey’s character Shauna is a woman who, 25 years after surviving a plane crash, is still reeling from what happened and hasn’t been able to fully film. The series jumps back and forth between the aftermath of the accident, when members of a high school girl soccer team fend for themselves in the desert; and today, when they are still marked as adults.
In flashbacks, Sophie Nélisse plays teenager Shauna, who has faced an unexpected pregnancy. In the series finale, young Shauna loses the baby. For Lynskey, the story was deeply personal, and upon joining the show for the first time in Season 1, Lynskey said she wasn’t ready to ask series creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson what eventually comes pregnancy.
“I’ve spoken about it publicly so many times, but in the first episode, I had just had a pregnancy loss in my own life and I couldn’t talk about it,” she says. “I couldn’t ask [the show’s creators] what happened. I had a weird wall on this. But the character of the first season too. It was just something that wasn’t discussed in my timeline. And then this season, I think I had enough distance to say to myself, okay, I can start getting into it. At the same time, older Shawna also allows herself to remember and feel it.
Discussing the sixth episode of Season 2, “Who,” Lynskey says, “When I read that script, I cried. It was so heartbreaking. I knew Sophie would do a great job, and then seeing it… Just her little face, there’s so much going on in her face all the time, and how freely she feels the emotion. I know Sophie sometimes doubts herself because she’s like, ‘Oh, “I’m not tortured. I’m not curled up in a ball on the corner, trying to get to a place. And I’m like, ‘you have a gift, where you can just be in front of a camera and the emotion comes out of you. And you don’t have to try and fight to get there. It’s just natural.
Lynskey says the producers are open to talking about things that might personally trigger someone. “And they also always make sure they have a writer on set, which these writers usually do on an unpaid basis. This is part of the purpose of the writers’ strike. But they are there to do the work with us and help us in the moment to change things if we need them, or just to answer questions. It’s invaluable to have a writer there.
As “Yellowjackets” progresses, Lynskey says she’s in on it – and she has no idea where it’s going either. “I’m past what they told me now,” she says. “Before signing up, I had a lot of questions. And then they answered these questions. And now I try not to be boring, so I don’t ask them too many questions. But I’m really curious. I don’t know what Season 3 will be like. I’m nervous. I’m excited. There are also so many people on our show, and so many characters. So following all the different stories is also a lot of fun for me.
As for her guest spot on HBO’s “The Last of Us,” as evil revolutionary leader Kathleen, Lynskey says she relished the brutal way her character dies. “He wasn’t a good person. But I liked it about the writing that they took their time and revealed things like they didn’t instantly show how she came to power. They didn’t not immediately shown their own story. It’s just this person doing horrible things, and you don’t know why they’re responsible or why they’re ordering these things. And then it just kind of unfolds. Craig (Mazin) is so bright.
Ritter made an uncredited appearance, under heavy makeup, as a “clicker” zombie in one of his episodes. The pair have become a fan-favorite Hollywood duo, which Lynskey says is surreal. “It’s very strange to have a spotlight on your relationship,” she says. “But we also love each other very much and we love each other.”
Meanwhile, Lynskey hadn’t heard of Sheen and Lorre burying the hatchet. (Sheen, of course, was fired from “Two and a Half Men” after he launched a tirade against Lorre, CBS, the show and others.) “Last time I texted Charlie, he seemed to be in such a good place, like an honestly good place,” Lynskey says. “I’m still hoping for the best for both of them. Honestly. I think it’s amazing.
If a “Two and a Half Men” reunion was in the cards, would it? “I mean, I would guest star if they wanted to,” she says. “There were times on this show that were so fun. And I really like live sitcoms. There’s nothing quite like the energy, especially when people know the show and love it.
Also in this episode, on the Awards Circuit Roundtable, we check out the impact of the writers’ strike on the FYC Emmy season, as well as the flurry of last-minute category changes as the Emmy submission deadline arrived this week.
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, produced by Michael Schneider, is your one-stop-shop for lively conversations about the best in film and TV. Each week, “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives; discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines; and much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you download podcasts. New episodes released every week.