Melanie Lynskey Was Horribly Body-Shamed While Filming Coyote Ugly: 'I Was Already Starving Myself'
Melanie Lynskey has dealt with nasty body shaming for years!
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter published on Wednesday, the actress opened up about the brutal behind-the-scenes experience of filming the 2000 movie Coyote Ugly. She played “the best friend from Jersey,” AKA Gloria, in the film, but her time on set was not all it was cracked up to be. The female stars were all put on a “regimen,” and despite severely restricting her diet, she was still deemed too big for the role! Melanie shared:
“I was already starving myself and as thin as I could possibly be for this body, and I was still a four.”
Her body was a constant point of contention, especially when various costume designers or hair and makeup people would point out her so-called flaws, she noted:
“That was already people putting a lot of Spanx on me in wardrobe fittings and being very disappointed when they saw me, the costume designer being like, ‘Nobody told me there would be girls like you.’”
Geez. That’s so rude! And at size four?! So ridiculous!!! Terrible comments like these were coming from just about everyone, she insisted:
“Really intense feedback about my physicality, my body, people doing my makeup and being like, ‘I’m just going to help you out by giving you a bit more of a jawline and stuff.’”
The backlash took a massive toll on her, the now-45-year-old continued:
“Just the feedback was constantly like, ‘You’re not beautiful. You’re not beautiful.’ In your early 20s, so much of it is about beauty, and how people respond to you, and do people want to f**k you? Do people think you’re their best friend? Even the best friend thing, I started to be like, ‘I don’t want to do that too many times.’”
Melanie wasn’t the only one experiencing this kind of intense scrutiny. The New Zealand-born star recalled witnessing leading lady Piper Perabo face backlash for her body, as well, adding:
“The scrutiny that was on Piper , who’s one of the coolest, smartest women, just the way people were talking about her body, talking about her appearance, focusing on what she was eating. All the girls had this regimen they had to go on. It was ridiculous.”
And to think, 22 years later and Melanie is STILL dealing with this same s**t!! Back in January, the performer told Rolling Stone that a member of the Yellowjackets‘ production team asked her ahead of filming the hit series:
“What do you plan to do? I’m sure the producers will give you a trainer. They’d love to help you with this.”
Ugh. So uncalled for. And have y’all seen her? She’s gorgeous and her body does not need fixing! Especially not at the request of some production employee!!
Jason Ritter’s wife continued to face negativity as the show premiered and viewers found an issue with her interpretation of adult Shauna, who is very confident in her sexuality and never discusses her weight. Both things were important to the Showtime star, she explained:
“I did find it important that this character is just comfortable and sexual and not thinking or talking about it, because I want women to be able to to watch it and be like, ‘Wow, she looks like me and nobody’s saying she’s the fat one.’ That representation is important.”
100% agree!
She even clapped back at haters publicly on Twitter, writing:
“The story of my life since Yellowjackets premiered. Most egregious are the ‘I care about her health!’ people…bitch you don’t see me on my Peleton! You don’t see me running through the park with my child. Skinny does not always equal healthy.”
Love that she’s continuing to fight for less body-shaming on-screen, but the fact that she’s had to fight this battle behind the scenes for decades is so disheartening! This needs to stop!! Thoughts?!
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