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Road Worriers
Onfilm October 2001
Prior to its premiere at the Auckland Film
Festival, actors Melanie Lynsky and Dean O'Gorman talked about shooting Snakeskin, Gillian Ashurst's NZ road movie.
Given
that you mistook me for someone from Girlfriend magazine[!!!], I guess you're in the middle of the whole media junket thing.
How many have you done so far?
Melanie Lynskey: 80 - no, I don't know, heaps and heaps.
Dean O'Gorman: This is my
first one.
What's the most inane question you've been asked?
ML: Oh it's not really inane - the most common
question is, "So tell me about your character?"
Okay, so what prompted you to take this role?
ML: The character.
[Much laughter from all] I never get asked to do stuff like that and also I wanted to work at home so much and no one was
asking me to come back. And finally someone did, so I was like, "Oh I'll have a look at it." And I loved it and it was so
surprising. I read it from cover to cover; it was like reading a David Lynch movie or something - the kind of thing that I've
always wanted to do.
DO'G: I actually knew Vanessa [Sheldrick, producer] from doing Hercules, and I met up with her at
Sundance - she said she had this film called Snakeskin and, "We're writing a part for you." Then I didn't hear anything about
it so I just assumed she was drunk or something. [laughs] And then the audition came up and yeah, it was a good script, good
fun, and I was unemployed [laughs]. No, my character was a bit of comic relief within the context of quite a perverse story,
so that was nice. And the idea of going down to Methven for six weeks to do a road movie was cool.
Was dealing with
the cold the most trying part of the production?
DO'G: I reckon.
ML: Yeah, it made things really difficult, because
there were moments when I couldn't concentrate. It was awful - you were crying almost.
DO'G: Whimpering [laughs]. We had
like four robes on and then you'd have to take them off and be sitting there in your t-shirt in a convertible.
Did
that mean shooting time was quite limited?
DO'G: No they pretty much shot it as usual.
ML: They didn't care. [laughs]
DO'G:
They didn't give a shit. [laughs] In a way it kind of relaxed you eh, because you weren't thinking about acting, you were
just trying to stay warm.
In terms of your process, how do you stay in moment when you're dealing with distractions
like the cold and crew and so on?
ML: I listen to music - I have a little CD player and I have, like, theme songs when
I'm doing movies. But that's only when I need it. Like all the stuff we were doing in the abattoir - there were all these
people around and it smelt horrible and it was fucking cold and terrible. That was when I needed to just sit in the corner;
I went and sat in the chiller and got really chilled and went a bit nuts and listened to the Foo Fighters. You just block
it out, because it's such an emotional thing listening to a song, especially when you have your own connotations - it can
just take you there right away. I did a whole movie - an independent thing called Foreign Correspondent - when I did nothing
but listen to Nick Cave because I had to be really depressed.
DO'G: I dunno - I used to say I didn't have a process but
I think my process is that I don't have one if you know what I mean. I actually try not to think about anything because I
figure if you're thinking about it, you're not in the moment. I just forget everything so ideas can just come up, which feels
kind of natural. Because a lot of time when you're talking to someone, you do have an agenda but you don't have your words
plotted out, you don't know what you're going to say next. So I kind of just jump and see where I end up. And that's why you
have to have faith in the director to tell you to do it again if you don't get it. So maybe that's my process - I think it's
one of those organic things - such a wanky word, organic, but.
ML: It's hard to stay in it sometimes - like, when you have
to do something difficult and somehow you get to that emotional place, and then you walk up to the set all triumphantly and
[sighs dramatically] you're all fragile and they say, "We won't be ready for another 15 minutes - go and sit over there and
have a coffee".
Was the film shot sequentially?
DO'G: We did really didn't we?
ML: Not absolutely, not
every scene one after the other, but we did follow the general course of the story.
DO'G: Which makes a difference actually
- you do realise how much difference it makes shooting in a linear way.
Do you do prep with your script - breaking down
your scenes, your character's intentions etc?
DO'G: It's not that I don't do any work - you know, learning lines and
stuff. But I think by the time you begin filming you sort of know where your character's coming from and you use that as a
base to kind of play around with it. Scene by scene though I don't really do that.
ML: I do sometimes - like, when we're
filming a scene I'll read the first few scenes before it and the next couple of scenes, 'cos it helps put it into some kind
of context. I love watching rushes, so be aware of what you're doing, because you're never completely sure, especially when
you do go into the moment and it just happens, you can't just step back and go, "Oh, I did it like this."
DO'G: That's
true - if you're actually in the moment everything peripheral kind of disappears. It almost like a good take is one where
you can't really remember.
ML: Yeah, you sort of snap out of it afterwards... So I feel like it does help to have a look
at rushes - it just helps you be aware of what you're doing and how it's progressing.
You didn't have rushes available
on Snakeskin?
ML: No, Gillian [Ashurst, writer/director] was very strict about it.
Have you seen the film now?
ML:
I have.
DO'G: No.
I ran into Oliver Driver [who plays skinhead Speed in the film] the other day and he was saying
it was a bit freaky to be seeing it for the first time at the premiere.
DO'G: It is a bit freaky - I'm a bit nervous
about it actually.
ML: I must admit I was nervous before I saw it. The first thing I ever did - Heavenly Creatures - Peter
[Jackson] would have the rushes every day after work. Everyone would have a few drinks, they'd put the rushes up on the big
screen and everyone would sit there and watch them together, like they were watching a movie. Then afterwards everyone - no
matter who you were - could go up to him and say, "I like take four for this reason". And he'd just talked to everyone about
it and take notes - that's what he informed it on, it was very collaborative. So that's sort of what I was used to, so it
was a weird experience - it was the first time I've worked with someone who wouldn't let me see rushes. I was like, "Why not
- do I look fat? What's happening?"
[laughter]
DO'G: I guess in some respect directors don't want to show you
your work because they would feel it reflects poorly on them if you only see the rush. Because they think, "Oh well, that's
not what the final product will be."
Perhaps it's a matter of trying to avoid actors over-thinking things as well?
ML:
Yeah, it's a cross between those two things, I think. There's a part of them that's, "No I don't want you to be disappointed
by it, it's not what it's going to look like."
Obviously directors have differing directing styles - what was Gillian
Ashurst like?
DO'G: [whispering] Very calm.
ML: Very calm.
DO'G: I really respected her for it.
ML: Yeah.
DO'G:
She was quite direct eh?
ML: Incredibly direct. Like, you were never sort of like, "Umm hold on, what do you mean?" Because
sometimes you have no idea of how to translate what directors are saying.
DO'G: Yeah, I dunno about you, but do you find
if a director says, "More happy", it's better in some ways than, "You're a tree that's floating and you don't know if it's
going to rain" - and you're walking around going, "What the fuck were they talking about?"
ML: Yeah I know, when they crouch
down and it's like, "Here's the thing - you're a" And you're just like, "That's too"
[laughter]
ML: I liked
how she was - she knew exactly what she wanted as well but she never made you feel like you had to perform for her.
DO'G:
And we didn't do many takes either? You trusted the fact that if she took this one then she had what she needed. She had a
background in editing too, didn't she?
ML: She had a background in everything I think.
DO'G: I found you could trust
her easily, which always takes a bit of the neurosis out of it.
That must be a real issue, given directors have
enormous control over your performance with shot selection and so on?
DO'G: You're a very small part, I think - even
if you're a lead you're a little brick in this big pyramid and the control aspect is limited within the context of what you're
doing.
ML: Definitely.
Snakeskin opens on six screens on October 11.
From The Fans - an interview with Melanie Lynskey
- 18/10/01
You recently worked on the film Abandon. Did you
have a good working relationship with your co-stars?
Yes, I did. I wasn't working many days, though, so I didn't get to
know anyone that well. I did know Zooey Deschanel because I worked on Rose Red with [her] sister Emily, who became one of
my dearest friends. My only scenes were with Katie Holmes and Benjamin Bratt. But the thing is, I kind of get into character
on set, I can't really help it, and I was playing this incredibly shy, kind of creepy librarian, so I think Kate Holmes, who
was very nice and very normal, maybe thought that I was a bit of a freak! I never really got to explain that I was acting.
But I love, love, love, the director, Steven Gaghan. He's just the smartest, funniest, coolest man ever. He gave me Terrence
Malick DVDs for a wrap present, and he's putting together the best soundtrack, which he said he loved doing cause it was like
'making a mix tape'.[sic] I want to work with him a million times over. You have described your role in Stephen King's mini-series
Rose Red as 'boring' and 'unchallenging'. Why is this, and would you consider playing such a role again?
Oh! I sound awful!
I didn't mean to sound so ungrateful. Umm... it's hard to explain. I've always played kind of character-y roles; partly because
those are the ones that interest me the most, and partly because a lot of people don't really see me as 'the girl',[sic] who's
sweet and pretty and gets the guy. I guess I kind of played a character like that in Detroit Rock City, but there was a lot
of comedy in that, so it was very easy to play and a lot of fun. The thing I liked about Rose Red was that they wanted me
to play 'that girl'.[sic] And I love to do things I've never done before, and I think that's a good way to choose role; it's
never going to make me famous, but I'll have an interesting career, which is so much more exciting, to me. The char[a]cter
I played (Rachel) was not all that interesting. I wasn't allowed to do anything quirky, or to have an interesting accent.
So the challenge lay in making her as interesting as I could without making her unusual. And that was hard! And[,] yes, boring
at times. But, you know, I had the best time on that job. I made great friends. And I'm so glad that I did the show. Prior
to Heavenly Creatures, Peter Jacskon[sic] was known only for his horror/splatter comedies. Were you or your parents concerned
that you were going to work with New Zealand's gore-meister?
I'd never seen any of his movies! I'd heard of him. But[,]
no, I wasn't worried. I was just so excited. And I was only 15, so I hadn't even read a screenplay before, but when I read
Heavenly Creatures, I just thought My God... this is astonishing. I knew from the start it was something special. And I told
my parents that I loved it, and they talked to Fran Walsh, and to Peter, as well as Jim Booth and his partner Sue Rogers,
and so they understood I'd be in very good hands. I don't think either of them even read the script before I went to go shoot.
They trusted my judgement. Do you keep in touch
with any of the cast or crew from Heavenly Creatures
Well, I'm the only person from the cast and crew who lives in Los
Angeles, so we have to rely on running into each other, or having little get-togethers, whenever anyone's in the same country.
I'm not in constant contact with anyone, but we do catch up when we can, and it's lovely. I saw Sarah Peirse at Cannes, which
was great. She's an incredible woman, just amazing. She and I are both nominated for Best Actress at this year's NZ Film Awards,
which is pretty cool. (Her nomination is for the incredible film Rain). I also see Jed Brophy (John the boarder) all the time
in Wellington. We stand on the street and have conversations that last two hours. I see some crew members a lot. I ran into
Kate a couple of months ago at a restaurant here. It was, and always is, great to see her. I read once that you were a 'Drama
Captain' at school. Was it always your ambition to be an actress?
Yes, an actress or a writer. Or both. I write quite a
lot (poems and short stories), but I get a bit scared to show them to people. I had a couple published in little literary
magazines when I was at university. And I've just written a short story about Boyd Kestner for Pavement magazine. I'm also
meant to be writing a screenplay with my ex-boyfriend, who's an amazing writer, but it must be very frustrating for him because
he has all the good story ideas and I'm like, "then have Emily pop up as another character!" Also, he's in New Zealand, so
that makes it difficult. I'm working on some other things myself. But, you know, I'm very lucky; I'm living one of my dreams,
and how many people get to do that? I still can't believe it when I'm actually on a movie set. I keep thinking that at any
minute someone's going to come in and throw me off it! Are you interested in the other aspects of filmmaking, such as scriptwriting,
directing, or even the technical stuff like editing, cinematography, etc.?
I want my friend Clare to direct one of the
things I'm trying to write. And other people to direct others. I'd like to direct a short, but not a feature. And then I'd
like to be involved in the editing and camerawork - involved, not completely responsible for it! If you could work with any
director, living or dead, who would you choose and why?
Oh that's hard. Probably David Lynch. I just love his films. Acting
in one would be amazing... I love how his actors have to react so naturally to such bizzare things. His films take place in
such a weird realm, this strange world that exists only in his films... it's part America; the most normal America and yet
the weirdest America you've ever seen... but it's connected to this other place... this dreamlike, strange, incredible world...
and I think that would be such an amazing place to be in. I've heard you don't drive. Is it hard getting around LA without
a car?
It's terrible! I've promised my manager I'll learn before the end of the year. I'm just terrified of driving. I
mean, I'd never choose to be in control of heavy machinery! It just doesn't seem natural. Having lived in America for several
years, do you feel you have become slighly more '[A]merican' in the way you talk?
Not really. I still have my accent. Of
course, people at home are always saying I have an American accent, but they're crazy. I do live around a lot of Texans, though,
so I find it hard to stop myself from saying things like 'y'all' and 'anyways'. Are you a fan of The Simpsons? If so, who
is your favourite character and why?
I love The Simpsons, but one day, my friend and I had this ridiculous Simpsons video
marathon, which went on for hours and hours, and I think I just got enough of The Simpsons that day. Enough to last a lifetime!
But my favourite character is that criminal, the one who's always escaping and has that weird, drawly kind of stoner voice.
I also love the mean kid who goes "haah-haah!" What is the best and worst film(s) you have ever seen?
Well, my favourite
films are Mike Leigh's Naked and Noah Baumbach's Kicking and Screaming. Breaking the Waves is also one of the best films I
have ever seen. I love The Double Life Of Veronique, Badlands, Festen, and the French film La Ceremonie. I have weird taste,
though. I just got Dude, Where's My Car? on DVD and I also own a trilogy of Adam Sandler movies. My favourite comedies, though,
are Wet Hot American Summer and Waiting For Guffman. And the worst? Well, Showgirls has to be one of the worst movies I've
seen, but also quite funny! I've only ever walked out of two movies: The Whole Nine Yards, and one other which I can't name,
cause it was a little indie and I feel bad, but God was it awful! Do you always have to audition for a part in a film? Have
you ever been offered a role on the spot?
I get offered stuff. It's not normally good stuff, though. Teen movies, horror
movies. I've never done one. I was offered Cheerleader, and Shooters, of course. Also Foreign Correspondents. Quite often
I get offered tiny parts in good movies. I have been offered good parts in good movies but I've felt like I've played the
same kind of role before (that's usually why they offer the role to you), so I just say no. Sometimes you get asked to do
two things at once and have to choose, which is hard. What has been your favourite role to date?
Alice in Snakeskin. She
was just wild and complicated and so much fun to play. She goes on an amazing journey in the film. I loved that role. I also
loved playing Mousie Julie in Abandon; it was so well written, an amazing oppurtunity. If you were stranded on a desert island
what five things would you take and why?
That's so hard! Can I take people? I would take Conor Oberst. Or my best friend
Dwight; we'd fight like crazy, but at least we wouldn't be bored! I would also take my old suitcase which is full of old love
letters and letters from friends and family. They're such beautiful mementoes, so precious. I'd also take this box I have
at my Mum's house which is full of books (cheating, I know). Would CDs and player...no, that's two things, plus the batteries,
I guess. Well, if I could take CDs I would definitely bring the CD from the Yahoo Fanclub people...I love it, thankyou, you
guys. I listen to it all the time. I'd take the biggest photo album I have, and some Ready Salted Extra Crunchy Kettle Fries.
Could I take a big case of them? I guess no-one's ever going to see me again, so it won't matter if I get really fat. What
are your hopes for the future? Where do you see yourself in ten years' time?
I'd like to be healthy, happy, in love, living
in a tall wooden house in Wellington with 3 dogs called Inspector, Foxy Lady and The Worst Dog...a good career doing work
I love in interesting places with interesting people. I don't want to be really famous, but I'd like to be able to live where
I want and have people bring me over to work. Mostly, I'd like to be living in a peaceful world, where people felt safe and
free. I'd like to have some children. But I wouldn't want to bring them into an unsafe, unhappy world.
Melanie goes to Hollywood
Creme, December 2000
Melanie Lynsky's[sic] acting career began as a
young teenager with humble beginnings. In the sleepy seaside town of New Plymouth she acted, with no formal training, in local
theatre groups. Now at 23, Melanie is based in LA acting alongside big names in equally big budget Hollywood films, such as
the new chick flick Coyote Ugly. Bridget Hope talks to the softly-spoken Melanie (or Mel to her friends) about her road to
success in the cut-throat Hollywood film industry.
It's at the end of a long day for Melanie. She
is currently in Seattle working on a Stephen King mini series that will keep her there until Christmas and whilst she is currently
working in Seattle, auditions for movie roles sees her commuting back and forth to LA where she has her own apartment. Down
the end of the phone line you can barely hear Melanie because of her quiet mouse-like voice. She speaks slowly and with such
sincerity that it seems hard to believe that this sweet young woman ever made the jump overseas in the first place.
"All I ever wanted was to be an actress." she
says, "But I always imagined my career would be living in Wellington and doing theatre. At the time that seemed like a big
career to me."
Melanie's first professional acting role came
when she was just 15 years old in the form of the Peter Jackson film Heavenly Creatures, a New Zealand film set in Christchurch
about a wayward teenager whom, with the help of another girl (played by Kate Winslet) brutally kills her mother. Based on
a true story, the film was set in Christchurch where the actual murder occurred. Melanie received a New Zealand Film and Television
Award for Best Actress for her performance, but at the time had no idea of just how much the film would launch her acting
career. She remembers : "I remember Kate [Winslet] would talk during filming about how good it would be for our careers and
I was like...career? What career?" laughs Melanie.
"Kate had already been acting professionally since
she was a toddler but I was just beginning. I knew that it would be a good film because the script was so amazing but it was
such a shock when it came out and so many people saw it."
Once the media buzz had died down from Heavenly
Creatures, Melanie went back to New Plymouth and returned to normal teenage life, attending high school at New Plymouth Girls
High. She then went on to university studying sporadically for eighteen months. It was at this point that Melanie started
getting itchy feet.
"It had never occurred to me to go to LA or London
or any of those places" says Mel, "But I eventually got agents overseas and I was a bit depressed being at home (New Plymouth).
Then this movie came out of the blue. It was this little independent movie called "Foreign Correspondents" and I went to LA
to do that. Whilst I was there I auditioned for Ever After and have just been in the US ever since."
In the 1998 big budget Hollywood flick Ever After,
Melanie played the supporting role of one of the two "ugly" sisters. She worked alongside Drew Barrymore who played Cinderella
and Angelica Huston who was cast as the evil stepmother. For Melanie it was a monumental experience working with such big
names.
"Drew is SO amazing." gushes Melanie.
Melanie has slowly been working away on films
all over the world since then, although most of her work keeps her in LA. Asked if there is anything about the Hollywood scene
that drives her up the wall, she replies, "There are hundreds of things. The biggest would be the pressure of it all. No matter
how much time you spend trying to make yourself feel good, it's hard to walk into a room of skinny little things for an audition
who spend their whole lives starving themselves. It's hard not to think that you should have to look like that too."
However[,] over the course of time, Melanie's
distinctive look has meant that she has been able to carve out a niche for herself in the industry.
"If you work it out properly then you can get
to an interesting place in your career where you are never typecast and are never too famous, so you can just keep working."
she says.
"I managed to do this by not conforming to any
ideals. Like in this current mini series, I'm playing the pretty girl. A couple of years ago they would have never seen me
[to audition] for this part."
And in the land of the stars, Melanie's competition
for acting roles is often pretty stiff.
"The last role that I came second for was this
massive Adam Sandler movie that took them three weeks to decide. In the end Patricia Arquette got the role. Another movie
Cameron Diaz got. It was a Martin Scorsese film with Leonardo DiCaprio. There's just nothing you can do about that."
Although Melanie is now used to auditioning and
working on big budget Hollywood films, she prefers the smaller independent films.
"I prefer the little films because people are
there for the right reasons." Melanie says. "They are there because they love the project as opposed to making money. In New
Zealand people are just different anyway. In America there are always stars. There are star actors, star directors, star producers.
People do tend to get carried away sometimes." Snakeskin, directed by Jillian[sic] Ashkurst, saw Melanie spend the first part
of this year in New Zealand. Luckily for Melanie, even though she has been living overseas for over fours years now, New Zealand
is still very much home to her. She explains, "People have this idea that once you leave to go overseas you never want to
go back, but I can't wait to come back. I'm only in LA because I have to be. I'm desperate for roles in New Zealand" she pines.
Her wish was granted earlier this year when she returned to New Zealand to play the lead in Snakeskin, her favourite acting
role to date.
"It's probably the one film that I have had the
most freedom with." she says. "The character was very similar to my own and it made it fun to do. It's a movie about a girl
called Alice who's just crazy and wild. She goes out on the road with her best friend Johnny whose[sic] played by Adino Gordon[sic].
They pick up this American hitchhiker called Steph and realise that where they come from is just as mixed up and dark and
exciting as America is," she tells us.
The producers of Snakeskin are planning to screen
the film at a myriad of international film festivals in the bid to get an American distributor for world wide audiences.
Melanie's most recent film to hit the cinemas,
Coyote Ugly is a flashy chick flick about a girl named Violet who travels to New York in pursuit of a career in song writing.
Melanie plays the role of Violet's best friend from New Jersey, Gloria. Although the film has only recently been launched
in New Zealand, Melanie tells us it was filmed this time last year.
"It took forever to finish though." she says.
"The other girls were continually being asked to come back for reshoots. Jerry Bruckheimer (producer) is a total perfectionist
and would test scenes out on audiences. And if his audiences wanted to see more of the bar then he would start up production
and reshoot it all over again."
Asked what it was like for her having to work
with a whole bunch of supermodels, she replies, "It was intimidating but I didn't have many scenes with all those girls. I
was with Piper the whole time and I adore her. But Adam Garcia..." she sighs.
"Oh my God... He's so spunky. I can't believe
how sexy that man is. It was so much fun to hang out with him and Piper. I didn't spend a lot of time with the other girls
but they were all really nice and appeared to be eating all the time too. They would be eating great big steaks." she laughs.
In preparation for her supporting role in Coyote
Ugly, Melanie had to learn a coarse New Jersey accent.
"Initially they wouldn't see me for the part because
they didn't believe that I could do the accent" she says.
But a headstrong Melanie was determined to prove
herself going to extra lenghts to secure the role.
"I got a dialect coach and a whole lot of videos
out like Married to the Mob and then did an audition on videotape, sent it to them and they changed their minds" she says
triumphantly.
Since then Melanie has worked in a number of projects,
making 2000 a busy working year for the budding young actress. And although she is a seasoned movie-premiere and Hollywood
party-goer, the advice she offers for teens wanting to get into acting is as humble and sincere as the girl herself.
"Believe that it's possible."
she encourages. "New Zealander's tend to be a bit down on themselves. You just need to look at some of the rubbish that comes
out of America like films and crappy bands, and see there's a high percentage of good stuff coming out of New Zealand. You
just have to believe that you can take it overseas and be successful. That was the one thing that initially stopped me. I
just used to be afraid."
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