Melanie Lynskey Quotes

I said to [my] agency, I have a real problem being a size six — which is what I was at the time — and playing a chubby friend. I hate that these roles exist. I think it's damaging. It's weird for little girls to watch this movie and be like, 'Oh, she's supposed to be the fat one.'

People I hadn't heard from in years were getting in touch with me. I started to do some interviews, and then what I was saying in the interviews, people were paying attention to. It was a really hard, odd place to be for me. I was like, 'Oh, gosh, I've got to start watching myself, because I have no filter.'

I was friends with Brittany Murphy, and the way she viewed herself was always really heartbreaking to me — the things she felt she had to change to be a successful actor. She was perfect just as she was, but people were trying to cast her as, like, 'the fat one,' because when she was a very young teenager, her cheeks were a little bit round. People tell you that you're a particular thing, and it's very hard to fight back against.

When I read a script for the first time, I have to have something instinctive happen where I feel like that character is there somewhere. I have to hear a person, I have to feel them inside me in a way.

I made a movie last year [which] cost $50,000. I'm willing to do stuff like that. I basically worked for free. Whereas other people have requirements.

It's good in New Zealand to be humble; it's good to be a quieter person. And then you get to this place where everyone wants you to be brash and confident, and I just was like, 'I don't know how to do that!'

I started calling myself a character actor in interviews when I was really young because I think it was reclaiming the term or something. I think I just was like, "That's what I am."

I am quite shy sometimes. I do have some social anxiety. I am soft-spoken. But I'm quite ferocious. I think to be labeled as someone who is a pushover has been the hardest thing to get out of in terms of my personal and professional life.

Matt Damon said something to me that I really have lived by ever since ... "At the end of your career, when someone looks over your filmography, all they remember is if the movie was good or not. They're not saying, "Oh, he got [to] play that crazy character!" Or, "Oh, all those people were in that movie." He says "all people know is if the movie was good or not," and all that has to do with whether the script is any good; so, if you consistently choose good scripts — whether you're in three scenes or every scene — you're going to build a very strong résumé.

The first audition I ever did [in America], the casting director said, "I don't know why you're here. You're never going to work [here]. 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." ... It made me more determined.

I was picking my luggage up, and I turned around and there she was. She looked like this vision. I said, 'Oh my God, you look like a movie star!' I was so in awe of her. And she had head shots! I'd never seen such a thing. She had these black-and-white photos with her hair blown back. And I said, 'What do you do with them?' And she said, 'Send them to fans.'

I'm someone who cares very deeply about critics and what critics think. So I'm on Rotten Tomatoes, reading every single review. Like, I care, you know, I respect these people.

I knew I had to get out and start building up something else.

When I first came [to America], I watched a lot of movies. I couldn't afford a dialect coach. And so I just watched everything I could. I tried to learn a lot of different accents. And I'm an introvert, I'm an observer.

I always wanted to be an actor, but I had this whole plan to go to a good drama school and do it that way. I wasn't trying to get into movies; someone came to my high school and auditioned some girls, so it was a complete accident.