film / tv / substack / social media / lists / web / celeb / pajiba love / misc / about / cbr
film / tv / substack / web / celeb

GettyImages-1396387906.jpg

Melanie Lynskey Rips into Body Positivity Critics in a Fiery Twitter Thread

By Dustin Rowles | Social Media | February 9, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | Social Media | February 9, 2023 |


GettyImages-1396387906.jpg

Every year, I put Melanie Lynskey on my Pajiba freebies list, and every year, you all disappoint me. This year, I made her my FYC, and I was pleased to see that she nearly landed in the Pajiba 10 (she was 12th or 13th). Maybe next year what she’s doing for body positivity will put her over the top. If not that, at least our readers will appreciate the way she tore into Adrianne Curry, the winner of the first season of America’s Top Model and former spouse of Christopher “Peter Brady” Knight, for being an absolute jackass to Lynskey and her Last of Us character on Twitter. This was a very sweet way of saying, “Go f**k yourself, Adrianne.”

After working up that head of steam, Lynskey — my favorite actress not named Regina — let loose a wonderful rant in a passionate Twitter thread.

“The thing that excited me most about doing #TheLastOfUs is that my casting suggested the possibility of a future in which people start listening to the person with the best ideas. Not the coolest or the toughest person. The organizer. The person who knows where everything is. The person who is doing the planning. The person who can multitask. The one who’s decisive. Women, and especially women in leadership positions, are scrutinized incessantly. Her voice is too shrill. Her voice is too quiet. She pays too much attention to how she looks. She doesn’t pay enough attention to how she looks. She’s too angry. She’s not angry enough.

I was excited at the idea of playing a woman who had, in a desperate and tragic time, jumped into a role she had never planned on having and nobody else had planned on her having, and then she actually got sh*t done. I wanted her to look like she should have a notepad on her at all times. I wanted her to be feminine, and soft-voiced, and all the things that we’ve been told are “weak”. Because honestly, f*ck that. I understand that some people are mad that I’m not the typical casting for this role. That’s thrilling to me.

Other than the moments after action is called, when you feel like you’re actually in someone else’s body, the most exciting part of my job is subverting expectations. I’m so grateful to [Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann] for creating a truly new character. Someone I have never seen before. And for trusting me with her. And for letting me be on THE MOST AMAZING SHOW. And I’m also grateful because the love and support I receive from you all is so overwhelming and powerful — I feel like we are a community and I feel very seen and loved. Ok rant over and thank you all so very much.”

Lynskey is the best, and in her 40s, she’s landing the best roles of her career. As she should be. She can currently be seen on The Last of Us, the second season of Showtime’s Yellowjackets, which will arrive in March, and you can also see her in Hulu’s true-crime limited series, Candy opposite Jessica Biel.

Adrianne Curry, meanwhile, can be seen in nothing and nowhere except Twitter, where she’s busy retweeting Libs of Tiktok and a bunch of transphobic stuff.