Melanie Lynskey Says She Was Told She Wasn’t ‘Beautiful’ And Had To Starve Herself For ‘Coyote Ugly’ Role
04.08.2022 - 15:19
/ etcanada.com
Melanie Lynskey speaks about the pressure she faced to look a certain way in the 2000 flick “Coyote Ugly” in a candid interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
Lynskey starred as lead character Violet Sanford’s (Piper Perabo) best friend Gloria in the movie.
Lynskey and some of her “Yellowjackets” co-stars discuss in the new interview the expectations they faced as young women starting out in the industry.
The actress shares, “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.’ My agents had all that kind of intensity around it, too. I remember when I did ‘Coyote Ugly’… I played the best friend from Jersey.
“But the scrutiny that was on Piper [Perabo], who’s one of the coolest, smartest women, just the way people were talking about her body, talking about her appearance, focusing on what she was eating,” she continues.
READ MORE: Melanie Lynskey Delivers Sweet Speech Thanking Her Husband Jason Ritter And Her Nanny After Critics Choice Awards ‘Yellowjackets’ Win
Lynskey goes on, “All the girls had this regimen they had to go on. It was ridiculous. I was already starving myself and as thin as I could possibly be for this body, and I was still a [size] 4. That was already people putting a lot of Spanx on me in wardrobe fittings and being very disappointed when they saw me, the costume designer being like, ‘Nobody told me there would be girls like you.’
“Really intense feedback about my physicality, my body, people doing my makeup and being like, ‘I’m just going to help you out by giving you a bit more of a jawline and stuff.’ Just the feedback was constantly like, ‘You’re not beautiful.