Melanie Lynskey Quotes

I once auditioned to play Janis Joplin and I still sometimes wake up in a cold sweat thinking that there's a tape of me auditioning to play Janis Joplin out there somewhere... so mortifying. It was when I was younger, and was auditioning for everything, so there were roles that I would go for that didn't resonate with me, in my soul, and that was torturous. I mean I wish Janis Joplin was in me, but she really isn't.

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.

Honestly, doing three or four episodes a year [of Two and a Half Men] enabled me to pay my mortgage and do independent films.

Every time someone comes with the Kate Winslet question I think it's lazy journalism.

I have this sort of weird thing where people know me from one [project] and then think I've never worked again. And they'll say, "Do you ever think about acting? Do you think about acting again?"

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.

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.

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 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.'