‘The most amazing thing I’ve been part of’
Melanie Lynskey is absolutely killing it in Hollywood – but that certainly doesn’t make her a killer!
After starring in last year’s critically acclaimed
Yellowjackets and Candy (and picking up a Critic’s Choice Award and Emmy nominations along the way), the New
Plymouth native has returned to television screens with her role as Kathleen, the leader of a rebel group, on the hit zombie video game-turned-TV series, The Last of Us.
But in a wide-ranging Stuff interview with Lyric Waiwiri-Smith today (which does contain some spoilers so mind how you go if you’re yet to watch past episode two) she says there’s no way she could live up to Kathleen’s tough image and would never be able to survive a zombie apocalypse.
‘‘I just think I absolutely wouldn’t,’’ she says. ‘‘Every day, I forget something that I need. Every time [I go away] I have a car to pick me up to go to the airport and the driver’s like, ‘‘you got everything? You got your passport?’’, and I’m like, ‘‘f..., I don’t!’’ I can’t imagine how I would get through it! I think I’d probably be one of the first to go.’’
The revelation that Lynskey was going to appear in The Last of Us was greeted with delight by her fans – but it turns out she was fan-girling over the show too – Tweeting that the muchdiscussed episode three was the ‘‘masterpiece to end all masterpieces’’.
In today’s interview, she jokes with Waiwiri-Smith that it was tough knowing her character was going to turn up in episode four with expectations so high.
‘‘I’m like, ‘why am I in episode four? Could I not just be in five and six?’ Having said that, I think the episodes I’m in are so amazing and episode five gets so crazy, and I’m super proud. I watched all five [episodes] in quick succession and I love every episode, I want to keep watching. It’s not like it felt like a let-down, but [episode three] was just so good!’’
The Last of Us is set in a postapocalyptic world, where flesheating zombies roam the streets and a few survivors struggle to live out their lives. And Lynskey says the sets helped her really get into Kathleen’s character.
‘‘I think I had an idea that there would maybe be a couple of house fronts and everything would be [computer generated imagery] . . . you’re literally walking into this world, it’s meticulous. You feel like you’re in this world that has overrun, and it’s ended, and it’s a very spooky feeling. The imaginative work I had to do was so minimal . . . It’s the hugest, most amazing thing I’ve ever been a part of.’’
Lynskey – who’s based in the US – also tells Stuff she’s trying to keep in touch with her Kiwi roots – especially when it comes to raising her daughter.
‘‘It’s something I’m really working on. I’m trying to teach her numbers, colours, things like that – she’s four, so she knows every colour in Mā ori which is nice. Her name, Kahikatea, is such a strong name, and she had a difficult birth. She feels like a little survivor, and I wanted her to have a name that felt really strong and connected, and female and powerful. She really owns it, she’s really proud of her name.’’