The Examined Life of Melanie Lynskey

In series like Yellowjackets, New Plymouth-born actor Melanie Lynskey specialises in revealing the turbulent emotions of women who seem innocuous and mild on the surface, Alexis Soloski writes in a profile piece for The New York Times.

Lynskey, 45, melds these incongruities into a single, terrifying personality. “One of her magic tricks is the common everywoman quality, how unassuming she is,” Juliette Lewis, a Yellowjackets co-star, said of Lynskey’s performance. “Yet she’ll be savage in her behaviour.”

It’s a funny irony that only through playing undervalued and overlooked women has Lynskey finally proved her worth to the culture at large, Soloski writes. And she has shown why none of us should turn our backs on women like these. That nice lady? She might be holding a knife.

Original article by Alexis Soloski, The New York Times, March 14, 2023.

Photo by Philip Cheung.