Melanie Jayne Lynskey is a New Zealand-born actress, best known for playing Rose on Two
and a Half Men, and a variety of characters in films such as Happy Christmas, The Perks
of Being a Wallflower, Hello I Must Be Going, Win Win, Up in the Air, The Informant!, Away
We Go, Flags of Our Fathers, Shattered Glass, Sweet Home Alabama, Coyote Ugly, Ever After
and Heavenly Creatures.
Lynskey describes herself as a character actress.
Early life Lynskey was born in New Plymouth, New Zealand.
She attended New Plymouth Girls' High School, graduating in 1996.
She then studied theatre and English literature at Victoria University of Wellington.
Career 1994–2002
Lynskey made her feature film debut at age 16, starring as Pauline Parker in Heavenly
Creatures, which was inspired by the infamous Parker–Hulme murder case.
The film – directed by Peter Jackson and co-starring Kate Winslet – was released
to widespread acclaim in 1994, with Richard Corliss of TIME describing Lynskey as "perfect...
fearless in embodying teenage hysteria."
Heavenly Creatures won Jackson an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay,
and is now considered a cult film.
Lynskey was named Best Actress at the 1995 New Zealand Film and TV Awards for her performance.
Lynskey's next big role came in 1998, when she was cast opposite Drew Barrymore in Ever
After, a re-imagining of the Cinderella story.
This was followed by significant parts in Detroit Rock City, But I'm a Cheerleader,
The Cherry Orchard, Shooters and Coyote Ugly, as well as the independent feature Snakeskin,
for which she received her second nomination for Best Actress at the New Zealand Film and
TV Awards.
In 2002, she appeared alongside Reese Witherspoon in the romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama,
co-starred with Katie Holmes in Abandon and made her television debut in Rose Red, a miniseries
penned by Stephen King.
2003–present In Shattered Glass, a 2003 drama depicting
the rise and fall of journalist Stephen Glass, Lynskey played a writer for The New Republic.
Based on a true story, the film received unanimous praise and several award nominations.
Later that year, she landed the part of Rose – Charlie Harper's deranged but incredibly
charming neighbor – on the CBS comedy series Two and a Half Men, which fast became one
of the most popular sitcoms on American television.
Despite leaving the main cast in 2005 to concentrate on film work, Lynskey continues to make guest
appearances on the show, with her character having recently set her sights on Walden.
In 2006, she played the wife of Rene Gagnon in Clint Eastwood's acclaimed World War II
drama Flags of Our Fathers, and returned to New Zealand in late 2007 to a starring role
in Show of Hands, which premiered at the 2008 Montreal Film Festival and earned Lynskey
a nomination for Best Actress at the Qantas Television Awards.
More recently, she garnered praise for her performance in Sam Mendes' bittersweet dramedy
Away We Go, playing a seemingly happy adoptive parent who hides a secret heartache.
Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe wrote, "Lynskey dramatizes sadness and dysfunction with quiet,
moving physicality...
It's the best performance in the movie."
She also played the female lead – opposite Matt Damon – in Steven Soderbergh's The
Informant!, based on the bizarre true story of FBI whistleblower Mark Whitacre.
The film premiered at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, and Lynskey's portrayal of
Whitacre's wife, Ginger, was described as "sterling" by The Independent.
Soderbergh told the Los Angeles Times, "She is so watchable, you never quite know what
you're going to get, you just know it's going to be good.
Her rhythms are really unusual, like her cadence and her reaction times to things, and the
way she sort of lays out a sentence.
It's just really, really interesting."
Lynskey's 2009 films also included Leaves of Grass, in which she co-starred with Edward
Norton, and Jason Reitman's Academy Award-nominated Up in the Air, in which she played Julie,
the younger sister of George Clooney's character.
In October that year, she was presented with a Spotlight Award by the Hollywood Film Festival.
In 2011, Lynskey's performance in the critically acclaimed Win Win brought the actress some
of her best reviews to date, with TIME commenting, "[she] was wonderful in Away We Go, The Informant!
and Up in the Air...
In Win Win she gives a very different kind of performance and is even better."
The following year, she appeared in Focus Features' comedy Seeking a Friend for the
End of the World with Steve Carell, and had a key role in the film adaptation of Stephen
Chbosky's novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower, playing the mentally disturbed aunt of main
character Charlie.
It was the independent drama Hello I Must Be Going, however, which gave Lynskey her
most significant role of 2012.
Her portrayal of Amy, a dispirited 30-something who finds herself having to move back in with
her parents, was described as "exquisite" by Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times.
"Lynskey inhabits the role so completely that she becomes someone we root for unreservedly,"
wrote Turan.
Also hailed "a master class in acting", the performance earned her a nomination for Breakthrough
Actor at the 2012 Gotham Awards.
Recent projects have included principal roles in Teddy Bears, Joe Swanberg's Happy Christmas,
and the directional debuts of Simon Helberg and Angus MacLachlan.
She'll next appear as part of the main ensemble of HBO's Togetherness, and alongside Elijah
Wood in the animated miniseries Over the Garden Wall.
Personal life In 2001, Lynskey met American actor Jimmi
Simpson during the filming of Rose Red, in which they both appeared.
They became engaged in 2005 and married on 14 April 2007, in a chapel on Lake Hayes,
near Queenstown, New Zealand.
Also in attendance was her friend Emily Deschanel, who was one of her bridesmaids.
Lynskey filed for divorce from Simpson on 25 September 2012, citing irreconcilable differences.
The divorce was finalised on 23 May 2014.
She currently resides in Los Angeles.
Filmography Television
References
External links Melanie Lynskey at the Internet Movie Database
Melanie Lynskey on Twitter