Making her mark in LA

New Plymouth-born actress Melanie Lynskey, 32, talks to the Wall Street Journal about being a working actor in Hollywood, her big break in Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures and about Up in the Air co-star George Clooney. Lynskey said the bulk of questions she’s been asked in relation to the film were about the A-lister. She recalled one particularly bizarre interview where the questioner wouldn’t let up. “He kept asking me over and over again to tell him something the public didn’t already know about George, and I was like, no way you crazy old man. It was must be awful to be a famous person.” We’d have to quibble a bit with Lynskey there, over her fame level. Though not in the same stardom stratosphere as Clooney, she’s been making her mark in Hollywood, with solid performances in three films last year — Up in the Air, The Informant! and Away We Go — and two more — Leaves of Grass and Helena from the Wedding — playing at the South by Southwest Festival (SWSX) later this week. Lynskey was 15 when she landed her first professional acting role as murderer Pauline Parker opposite British actress Kate Winslet.