Melanie Lynskey: Harvey Weinstein chose Kate Winslet over me

In 1994, Melanie Lynskey hoped to get Harvey Weinstein’s attention.

After Heavenly Creatures premiered at the 1994 Venice Film Festival and won the Silver Lion, Lynskey recalled that Miramax producer Weinstein was “dismissive” about her performance, preferring instead to focus on co-star Kate Winslet have.

“People were so excited about the film and very nice to us,” Lynskey told Vulture. “Harvey Weinstein was so excited to see Kate. He introduced her to people like, “This is the next big thing.” To me, he was just like, “Hi.” It was so off-putting.”

Lynskey added, “I thought I did a bad job. I’m not the kind of person these people are looking for.”

Even when Heavenly Creatures director Peter Jackson first met newcomer Lynskey, he showed her Winslet’s audition tape and said, “That’s a professional actress that we cast from England and you must be that good.”

“I mean, it was so intimidating,” Lynskey recalled.

The Yellowjackets star revealed that doing press for Heavenly Creatures was “overwhelming,” especially with “big sister” Winslet, who is “very confident and good at this stuff.”

“Every step I took I went, oh, I’m not… good at that,” Lynskey said. “So many agents wanted to sign Kate. She got scripts, she got film offers; it was so exciting to see that. I was proud of her because she wanted it so badly and didn’t question if it would happen to her.”

Lynskey continued, “But after Venice there was nothing [for me]. No, ‘Would you be interested in this part or I’m an agent wanting to represent you.’ I kept being reminded that I wasn’t what you needed to be.”

28 years later, Lynskey is a front-runner for an Emmys nomination for her scene-stealing role as Shauna on the Showtime series Yellowjackets. Lynskey previously told IndieWire that, much like Heavenly Creatures, the series focuses on the “weird bit” of being a young girl.

“None of them were 2D girls,” Lynskey explained during IndieWire’s “Consider This FYC” brunch earlier this month. “They were all very complex. And I had never seen teenage girls written like that.”

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