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 le… - Melanie Lynskey

It's a lot easier to stay under the radar, have people be like, 'You should get more attention, you should have more roles' or whatever. It's weird to have been doing this for 30 years and then all of a sudden [find fame]. I didn't think this would happen. I thought if it was going to happen, it would happen in my 20s. So I'm grateful, and it's really nice to have choices. But it feels vulnerable.

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.

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."