Melanie Lynskey says the body shaming on the Yellowjackets set was just one person, one time
“It's been made out to be a cultural thing, but it was literally one time,” Melanie Lynskey says of comments made by a member of Yellowjackets' production team
Aux News Melanie Lynskey
As far as major life problems go, losing weight is pretty low on Yellowjackets protagonist Shauna Shipman’s list. Between trying to cover up the murder of her mysterious lover, grappling with the indescribable trauma of surviving for 18 months in the wilderness, and just trying to be a good mom, there’s simply not enough time in the day for physical insecurities to take precedence. But according to Melanie Lynskey—who plays adult Shauna on the Showtime thriller—that doesn’t mean a member of the Yellowjackets production team didn’t passive-aggressively comment on her weight even so.
“They were asking me, ‘What do you plan to do? I’m sure the producers will get you a trainer,” Lynskey told Rolling Stone in January. “’They’d love to help you with this.’”
Since January, that brief quip has drawn some serious (and fair) ire from Lynskey’s dedicated fan base. But as the actor tells The Independent’s Annabel Nugent in a new interview, there’s slightly more to the story.
“I feel like sometimes it’s been made out to be a cultural thing, but it was literally one time,” she says of the comment, which Lynskey attributes to a singular individual on the production team. (The fact that similar comments didn’t become a pattern may or may not have to do with how Lynskey’s co-stars Tawny Cypress, Christina Ricci, and Juliette Lewis rallied behind her—Lewis specifically wrote a letter to producers on Lynskey’s behalf.)
After the incident, Lynskey says she received an email from Yellowjackets co-creator and executive producer Ashley Lyle, a message Lynskey won’t soon forget.
“I’m going to keep it forever,” Lynskey says of Lyle’s email. “Ashley said how proud she was to have created a show where there is a regular-sized woman who is in a love triangle with two hot guys. She said that if she had seen something like this when she was a teenager, it would have changed the trajectory of her life. She said that they love me, and they love what I look like.”
Yellowjackets airs live on Showtime Sunday nights at 9:00 P.M. E.T.
60 Comments
Yellowjackets is an exciting show & I appreciate how it seems to have confirmed the fantastic Melanie Lynskey as an A-List TV leading lady. As has been true since her debut in Heavenly Creatures, she is mesmerizing, and for all her being soft spoken and (usually) sweet, something about her eyes and stillness suggests hidden depths and darkness. As much as I pull for Shauna I am increasingly scared of her.
Have you been watching season 2 of Yellowjackets? I don’t want to spoil anything. But Lynskey’s performance in a scene at an auto chop shop is incredible and, to your point, highlights the savagery that is just beneath the surface of Shauna. I agree, I think she’s the scariest character.
She was a guest star in an episode of The Shield, and there’s a great moment where her character just turns on a dime and reveals this depth of depravity in a small moment. It’s pretty good.
Oooh, I remember that episode. Marcy Lindhoff was vicious. Ice cold. Her scenes with Dutch were great.
Yes I’m watching Yellowjackets s2, last night just rewatched the most recent episode where Shauna was not quite as scary but after that episode at the garage in particular I find myself doing the equivalent of backing away from Shauna in fear … while still wanting to support her
I’ve long been thinking Shauna’s gonna end up killing at least one of the other survivors before the show ends.
I’m surprised there’s no mention of her role in The Last Of Us with that also being recent and high profile.
And likewise her role on Last of Us had some weird blowback with assholes criticizing her as having the wrong body type for the part
Yeesh, even 20 years into the apocalypse people aren’t allowed to look normal. Psychos.
true but it was kind of balled up with criticism of the show for not showing her be this great leader, only showing her totally fucking up, that seemed shitty
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Melanie Lynskey is hot as heck and anyone suggesting otherwise can go pound sand.
Oh please. Anyone who doesn’t find her hot just has a different opinion than you. They are certainly not wrong for having it.
Can I still pound sand? I like sand.
I especially love sand that is coarse and gets everywhere.
This is why Kinja is so vile.This quality response was not reported to me, I had to scroll down.
Just make sure you’re not on the set of Barry.
I’ll allow it.
Sand Paper Sally?
I believe you were told to “go pound sand”.
“Anyone who doesn’t find her hot just has a different opinion than you.”Correct – up and to the point where they start yelling and shaming her for not looking like what THEY want. Those folks can go pound sand (which is likely the only pounding happening for those shut-ins anyway).Also – more Melanie Lynskey in all the things – she fits MY opinion of hot, and there are few enough like her on TV as it is!
Agreed. No need to body shame or anything like that. If I didn’t find her attractive, I wouldn’t feel the need to broadcast anyway or try to tear her down. I don’t know why anyone would feel the need for that.
Yes they are
https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=what+is+exaggeration+for+comedic+affect%3F
What about jokes that aren’t funny?
EXAGGERATION IS NOT A JOKE, IT IS A COMEDIC DEVICE.OBVIOUSLY NOW THAT I HAVE SHOUTED THIS OVERXPLANATION, IT HAS BECOME FUNNY. I CAN HEAR YOU LAUGHING.
Yes, this is brilliant. I see the light. Over explaining things I already know is cool.
It’s great that you definitely get the point of not objectifying people.
Man. I wish we really could once and for all divorce beauty standards from “who I’d like to fuck” standards. Everyone confused saying this person or that person is beautiful with a statement about who you should find fuckable. And THAT is the problem. Think of it this way: sunsets are beautiful. But rarely does anyone feel the need to yell they want to fuck one.Because it tiresome as fuck to hear about who is or isn’t fuckable when the qualities of who you want to fuck is totally mutable and subjective and doesn’t really matter to anyone but the individual who wants to do the fucking. Like Linksy is a lovely person. She is very conventionally pretty. But I do not want to fuck her. And I resent having to even say that because nobody cares. Least of all Linskey.
It can go the other way, too. There are definitely people who are perhaps not conventionally attractive, but I would definitely accept just about any proposition they made to me, if I was single. The first fabulous lady that comes to mind is Carrie Brownstein, though she’s actually pretty cute, but her talent moves her up to “hall pass” level. Not that it matters, I think my wife is more her type. 🤣
Beatrice the Bluebird!Love her in everything she does.
Over the Garden Wall is perfection & Beatrice really is one of her best roles
eyeroll
Man, whoever looks at Melanie Lynskey and thinks “ew, gross,” doesn’t deserve nice things
Love all these idiots coming by to objectify her while totally getting the entire point of the anecdote.
NGL, I tuned into Two and Half Men for Melanie and nothing else. She was the lady who held my interest, not the floozy of the week Charlie was talking up.
So someone softly hurt someone else’s feelings once? Hard-hitting stuff!
Yeah she is very average looking.
“Ashley said how proud she was to have created a show where there is a regular-sized woman who is in a love triangle with two hot guys. She said that if she had seen something like this when she was a teenager, it would have changed the trajectory of her life. She said that they love me, and they love what I look like.” Man, what a sweet and supportive letter. And it’s true—if I had seen more role models like that on TV as a kid I think my self-esteem would have been better, and I wasn’t even a chubby kid, but in the 80s literally everyone on TV was SO THIN, it just seemed like some kind of impossible echelon I would never be a part of. The only chubby female characters I can remember was Natalie from Facts of Life and later Delta Burke when she started to gain weight on Designing Women…and just speaking as a kid who watched probably too much tv in the 80s, the only young character I remember seeing who had remotely my body type was Janet Jackson when she was on Different Strokes. Not fat, but definitely thicker than most of the young girls/tweens/young teens cast on sitcoms at the time.
Also, just a shout out to Melanie Lynskey for being awesome. One thing that really did shape my development as a teen was Heavenly Creatures. I had a VHS copy of it that I watched to death.
Certainly no one should have looked at the body shapes of 80s actors for inspiration. Those people were all on cocaine.
…really, really, really good cocaine. back before they started mixing the ka-ka in.Had an old timer talking about how you could stay higher off cocaine in the 70’s and 80’s then the 90’s and 00’s, didn’t feel the need to ask how through his scientific studies ahd bneem,
Cocaine is a hell of a drug.
Personally, I’m shocked a 1 time soft as hell comment was turned into fodder for the masses to eat each other over (there’s a pun in there, somewhere I think).
I love what she looks like, too.
“…there’s simply not enough time in the day for physical insecurities to take precedence.”Wow. Physical insecurities are destroying people’s lives, especially the lives of young women.
Maybe they should try stabbing a guy and then doing a really bad job of covering it up. Could be fun.
thats a bad take and you should feel bad
I’m curious how ozempic and wegovy are going to affect the body positivity movement? Especially after it goes generic. Will people turn on each other because they feel betrayed that someone lost weight with a drug they couldn’t afford?
Just gonna say: If Melanie Lynskey made me meet her in a motel room, yelled at me, and told me to go in the bathroom and jerk off into a condom, I wouldn’t need the toothpaste.
But what if she told you that you weren’t allowed to think about her
Obviously gonna lie about that part. C’mon. I’m not made of stone.
I’ll be in my bunk
Now add in Christina Hendricks and Rachel Bloom to that whole situation, and I would prefer never to leave that room again.
Sending thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.
She is a good actress but let’s be honest, she’s as big as a pickup truck. A really large one.
It’s always the fat fucks who say this.
Why are you posting gifs of yourself loser?
wait, so the creator told h her “you’re a regular woman in a love triangle with two hot guys” and somehow…we’re all taking that as a “compliment”?Am I missing something? I know I’m a 45 yr old man, but, um, I don’t quite see the kind postive side of that statement?Am I just, like, really missing something here?