Speaker 1: I'm Katie Kuric and this is Next Question. We've been
Speaker 1: through a lot over the past few years, and with
Speaker 1: all the bad stuff happening, it can be hard to
Speaker 1: figure out how to bounce back, regroup and live better.
Speaker 1: That's why this season of Next Question is all about resilience.
Speaker 1: Think of it as a kind of survival guide to
Speaker 1: navigating this crazy world we're living in. And by the way,
Speaker 1: if you want to get smarter every morning with a
Speaker 1: breakdown of the top news stories and fascinating takes on
Speaker 1: health and wellness and pop culture, sign up for our
Speaker 1: daily newsletter, wake Up Call by going to Katiecurik dot com.
Speaker 1: Melanie Lensky is having a moment, and she's making it
Speaker 1: her own. She's been appearing on film and TV for
Speaker 1: almost thirty years, capturing the dark side of some very
Speaker 1: complicated characters. I know what to do about Mother. We
Speaker 1: don't want to go to too much trouble, some sort
Speaker 1: of accident. That's Melanie at sixteen, playing opposite Kate Winslet
Speaker 1: in Heavenly Creatures. It was the film debut for both
Speaker 1: of them, and it was obvious that this schoolgirl from
Speaker 1: New Zealand had a knack for something, and almost thirty
Speaker 1: years later she was the merciless warlord and the last
Speaker 1: of us. It has to stop. It has to stop now,
Speaker 1: you mean now that you're in the cell, But before
Speaker 1: people dying was okay, when you were safe and protected
Speaker 1: and ratting on your neighbors. To Pedra, they put a
Speaker 1: gun to my head. Here have I satisfied the necessary
Speaker 1: conditions for you to talk? See what I mean? Hey,
Speaker 1: wouldn't you want her in charge during a zombie apocalypse?
Speaker 1: And now Melanie is getting tons of buzz as Shawna
Speaker 1: in the runaway showtime hit Yellowjackets. Please state your name
Speaker 1: for the record, Shawna, Shawna Sadeki, miss A DECKI do
Speaker 1: you understand your rights as I have explained them to you? Yes?
Speaker 1: I do. Why did you kill Adam Martin? What I
Speaker 1: didn't didn't? What I didn't murder Adam? Whoever? I didn't
Speaker 1: murder anyone. But the ride hasn't always been a smooth one.
Speaker 1: She doesn't fit into a neat package of conventional Hollywood
Speaker 1: beauty standards, and now well she's done apologizing for it.
Speaker 1: In fact, if there's one thing she's learned after all
Speaker 1: these years, it's that light's too short to worry about
Speaker 1: unachievable goals. It just feels like such a waste of
Speaker 1: time to me. Clearly, the perspective she's gained has only
Speaker 1: made her stronger. Her skyrocketing career as a testament to that.
Speaker 1: And if there's one thing we can all learn from Melanie,
Speaker 1: it's that it's time to embrace our power, love the
Speaker 1: bodies we're in, and stop apologizing. Are you battling cancer?
Speaker 1: I'm passionate about raising awareness about early detection, and it's
Speaker 1: also critical to understand all treatment options, especially their impact
Speaker 1: on survival and quality of life. View Ray has reinvented
Speaker 1: cancer treatment with Meridian MRI guided radiation therapy. We're nearly
Speaker 1: eighty percent of patient's complete treatment and as few as
Speaker 1: five sessions, often with little or no side effects. Innovation
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Speaker 1: Locate a Meridian at feway dot com. Now let's get
Speaker 1: to it, Melanie Lynskey, I'm so excited to talk to you.
Speaker 1: I'm such a huge fan. I'm such a fan of yours.
Speaker 1: I can't believe you even know who I am. It's
Speaker 1: astonishing to me. So thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: You know, I marvel at the ability of actors from
Speaker 1: all over the world to perfect accents, and particularly when
Speaker 1: they sound so American. Was it hard for you initially? Oh,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. Well, I mean, in New Zealand,
Speaker 1: we grew up with a lot of British television and
Speaker 1: American television, so I was used to the accent. I think,
Speaker 1: when it's something you grow up hearing. You know, it's
Speaker 1: hard to be an American and do a New Zealand
Speaker 1: accent because it's not familiar, right, But I was so
Speaker 1: used to it. And then I just studied. I watched
Speaker 1: movies and talked back to the movies and yeah, so
Speaker 1: that's how I learned. And did you know from a
Speaker 1: very early age you wanted to be an actor, because
Speaker 1: I know you're a little girl growing up in New Plymouth,
Speaker 1: New Zealand. Yes, And how did this spark your imagination
Speaker 1: and the idea that this was a possible career for you?
Speaker 1: You know, I was so shy as a child. I
Speaker 1: was like painfully, painfully shy, and at some point, I
Speaker 1: don't know what compelled me. I auditioned for a play
Speaker 1: and I felt this enormous freedom and having lines to
Speaker 1: say and getting to be on a stage kind of
Speaker 1: inhabiting someone else's body. All my self consciousness went away.
Speaker 1: I wasn't worried about what am I doing with my hands,
Speaker 1: or what do I look like? Or how's everyone responding
Speaker 1: to me? And I was about sex. And then I
Speaker 1: just got addicted, like truly addicted. I was doing plays
Speaker 1: at church, doing plays at school like whenever I could,
Speaker 1: So you knew this was something that you were going
Speaker 1: to pursue. Yeah, and then at sixty you got your
Speaker 1: first big role in a movie that I remember and
Speaker 1: I loved, called Heavenly Creatures. Yeah. I had been saying
Speaker 1: that I wanted to be an actor, and everybody around
Speaker 1: me said, that's not a real job. You got to
Speaker 1: think about what you really want to do. But it
Speaker 1: was my dream. And then I was fifteen and some
Speaker 1: people came to my high school and did a movie audition,
Speaker 1: and I got the job and Heavenly Creatures and went
Speaker 1: off by myself for three months to make this incredible movie.
Speaker 1: Was one of the world's greatest actresses and one of
Speaker 1: the world's greatest directors, and I like it just was
Speaker 1: like drama school. I learned so much. You don't fit
Speaker 1: into this typical box for an actress. I was really
Speaker 1: upset reading that. Not surprisingly, Harvey Weinstein was a real dick,
Speaker 1: and you describe your co star as having this unfettered confidence,
Speaker 1: and as you mentioned, I'll read, Melanie, you were shy
Speaker 1: and Harvey Weinstein didn't help build up that confidence. Tell
Speaker 1: me how you were treated at that time, which is
Speaker 1: really aggravating to me. It's not like a traumatic, you know,
Speaker 1: it feels a bit ridiculous to talk about when people
Speaker 1: have had genuine, terrible traumas inflicted upon them by that person.
Speaker 1: It just was more, you know, Kate and I had
Speaker 1: been on this adventure together making this movie together, like
Speaker 1: a little team. We were you know, some nights we
Speaker 1: slept over together because we were so close we couldn't
Speaker 1: let it go. And then during the release of the movie,
Speaker 1: became apparent to me that I was not the important one,
Speaker 1: and at a certain point I was kind of a hindrance.
Speaker 1: It felt like, you know, I was shy. I would
Speaker 1: take a minute to talk in interviews like often Kate
Speaker 1: would just answer all the questions because I'd be kind
Speaker 1: of collecting myself. Were also sixteen years old. Yeah, I was.
Speaker 1: I was so young, and I just like the fact
Speaker 1: that I was in New York. I just was you know.
Speaker 1: We were staying at the Four Seasons off of Central Park,
Speaker 1: and every day we just would like take all the
Speaker 1: snacks out of the mini bar. But he just there
Speaker 1: was just like a vibe of like, yeah, like every
Speaker 1: time I was there, I was kind of ignored, sat
Speaker 1: at the end of the table kind of thing, and
Speaker 1: Kate was being very celebrated deservedly, but whenever there was
Speaker 1: a fancy dinner, I just was treated as though I
Speaker 1: wasn't there by Harvey in particular, and it was hurtful.
Speaker 1: Did that give you a sense that, gosh, maybe I'm
Speaker 1: going to be a bit of an outsider in this industry? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it really did. And I just I started to think,
Speaker 1: did I do a bad job? You know? And I
Speaker 1: always have loved film criticism, so I asked to read
Speaker 1: every review in Merrimax was sending me the reviews and
Speaker 1: they were wonderful. So I was like, Okay, people, I
Speaker 1: respect people have been reading or saying wonderful things about
Speaker 1: the work that I did, So what is it? And
Speaker 1: it kind of boils down to you know, you're it,
Speaker 1: You're not the thing, And then you know, Kate was
Speaker 1: getting offers from agents and millions of scripts and it
Speaker 1: just wasn't happening for me, and I just had to
Speaker 1: sort of go. I didn't expect that to happen, the
Speaker 1: Kate within Slid experience, right, but you expected something. I
Speaker 1: thought maybe I'd get an agent, and I just for
Speaker 1: a couple of years nothing happened, and then a very
Speaker 1: sweet lady in Los Angeles signed me and I started
Speaker 1: working again, but it was definitely a slow process. We'll
Speaker 1: be back right after this. Are you or a loved
Speaker 1: one battling cancer. I'm passionate about raising awareness about the
Speaker 1: importance of early detection and for patients and their caregivers
Speaker 1: to fully understand all available treatment options, especially those that
Speaker 1: have meaningful impact to extending survival and improving quality of life.
Speaker 1: You know, too often the length of treatment, recovery period,
Speaker 1: and debilitating side effects can be difficult to cope with.
Speaker 1: Our partners at View Ray have reinvented cancer treatment with
Speaker 1: Meridian MRI guided radiation therapy for those who qualify. Around
Speaker 1: eighty percent of patients complete treatment and as few as
Speaker 1: five sessions, often with little or no side effects. Viewray
Speaker 1: is working to educate patients about this life changing cancer
Speaker 1: treatment and where patients can find a Meridian treatment center.
Speaker 1: Innovation like Meridian gives me hope for the millions of
Speaker 1: people around the world currently battling cancer. So talk to
Speaker 1: your doctor to find hospitals where a Meridian is available.
Speaker 1: Visit viewry dot com. What is it do you think, Melanie,
Speaker 1: about your upbringing or about your training that has allowed
Speaker 1: you to tap into something that is complex and mysterious
Speaker 1: and makes you particularly adapt at portrayed deeply misunderstood characters.
Speaker 1: Do you ever think about, like what helped shape me
Speaker 1: and allow me to do that? Thank you first of
Speaker 1: all for saying that I think I was always very
Speaker 1: sensitive and now you know, I'm in my mid forties now,
Speaker 1: and this is the first time in my life that
Speaker 1: I've had kind of true, like mainstream success, And I'm
Speaker 1: so grateful for all the years of being anonymous, all
Speaker 1: the years of being under the radar. Honestly, all the
Speaker 1: years of struggling and getting to know myself and living
Speaker 1: life and getting to observe people, because that's where you learn,
Speaker 1: that's where you you know, Empathy is such a big
Speaker 1: part of acting and the ability to understand someone else's situation,
Speaker 1: and you can really be put in a little bubble
Speaker 1: if you're a famous person. So I'm very grateful that
Speaker 1: I was not famous at a young age that I
Speaker 1: got to just live and experience things. You are having
Speaker 1: a moment, as they say, I'm sure you've seen a
Speaker 1: lot of the headlines. Melanie Melanie Lynsky is having a moment. Yes.
Speaker 1: And I read in an article that your psychic predicted this.
Speaker 1: I mean, do you have a regular psychic or is
Speaker 1: this somebody You happen to see the hand on a
Speaker 1: window and decided to give it a try. Every time
Speaker 1: I saw the hand on a window people they would say, oh,
Speaker 1: you have a duck or a tragedy is all around you.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh god, I never got and then
Speaker 1: they would charge you. They'd be like, that's a hundred
Speaker 1: dollars for hearing that your life is tragic. No. I
Speaker 1: met this woman through a friend of a friend. She's
Speaker 1: absolutely amazing. Her name's Fatima. She lives in New Orleans.
Speaker 1: Her website is called Awakened with Fatima dot com, and
Speaker 1: it's kind of like having a very empowering therapy session
Speaker 1: every time you talk to her. But there is one
Speaker 1: time in the middle of the pandemic, I was feeling
Speaker 1: kind of hopeless. I had been pregnant, I lost my pregnancy.
Speaker 1: It was a very painful, sad time for me, and
Speaker 1: I wasn't doing anything, going anywhere working, it was the pandemic.
Speaker 1: And she just said, you're about to enter into a
Speaker 1: time in your career that you thought wasn't going to
Speaker 1: happen because it didn't happen when you were a twenty five.
Speaker 1: And I said, Fatima, I don't think so, it's not
Speaker 1: really how it goes, like, bless you, but no, and
Speaker 1: she was like, no, it's going to happen. And then
Speaker 1: she said you've already done something and it's going to
Speaker 1: come back. And I said, well, I did this pilot,
Speaker 1: but I haven't heard a peep, like I literally haven't
Speaker 1: heard anyone say like the pilot was great or anything.
Speaker 1: And eight months, yeah, crickets. And she was like, Nope,
Speaker 1: it's gonna get picked up. It's going to be a
Speaker 1: big success. And she just sounded crazy, like I was like,
Speaker 1: you know what, she can't always be right. She's probably
Speaker 1: stressed out she is always right. She's always right. And
Speaker 1: of course she was talking about Yellow Jackets. She was
Speaker 1: talking about Yellow Jackets. Yeah, which is a fantastic show.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited for the second season. Oh thanks, And
Speaker 1: I want to talk all about your role in that,
Speaker 1: but I also want to talk a little bit about you.
Speaker 1: Once said that you weren't getting any roles, and the
Speaker 1: ones that you were getting would be quote, the fat
Speaker 1: character just sitting in the corner eating a chocolate bar
Speaker 1: while the pretty girls are all at the dance. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I objected to that. I objected to their very existence.
Speaker 1: And also, you know, the other painful thing about it
Speaker 1: was that I was in the middle of a very
Speaker 1: very intense eating disorder where I would eat eight hundred
Speaker 1: calories a day and if I ate anything over, I
Speaker 1: would throw up. Sorry trigger warning for anyone you know
Speaker 1: with eating disorders. But I was starving myself as much
Speaker 1: as I possibly could. I was obsessively exercising, and I
Speaker 1: was still like a size six, you know, that was
Speaker 1: as small as it was going to get. And I
Speaker 1: was still being treated like the chubby one and the
Speaker 1: plane one, and it kind of my self acceptance kind
Speaker 1: of came out of exhaustion at a certain point, because
Speaker 1: I was like, it doesn't matter what I do, and
Speaker 1: I'm spending so much time worrying about like what's on
Speaker 1: this salad, like you know, never having salad, dressing, never
Speaker 1: eating a French fry, and I just couldn't anymore. I
Speaker 1: was so tired. I didn't want to be playing the
Speaker 1: roles that were coming to me, so I was passing
Speaker 1: on everything and I just thought like, maybe I can't
Speaker 1: be an actor. And then there was this kind of
Speaker 1: amazing thing that happened that the more I came to
Speaker 1: terms with me and my body and who I was
Speaker 1: and what truly was like a healthy point for me,
Speaker 1: the more my world started opening up. It was like
Speaker 1: the universe was rewarding me for believing in myself. That
Speaker 1: sounds a bit mystic, and for accepting yourself. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1: I also had an eating disorder when I was in
Speaker 1: college and a few years afterwards, and I know this
Speaker 1: kind of strange mentality that takes over where it's kind
Speaker 1: of an all or nothing situation. If I ate a
Speaker 1: stick of gum that wasn't sugarless, yeah, I would feel
Speaker 1: like a failure and then punish slash reward myself by benching,
Speaker 1: because I'd have to start again tomorrow on this quest
Speaker 1: for perfection. Yeah, and it's so damaging physically and mentally,
Speaker 1: and I'm so glad for both of us that we
Speaker 1: stopped doing that. Yeah, I'm so glad for you. It's
Speaker 1: exhausting and it's I mean, you're one of the most
Speaker 1: brilliant women in the world. The fact that any part
Speaker 1: of your brain was occupied with what your body looked
Speaker 1: like as a tragedy. You know, the fact that it
Speaker 1: just makes it impossible for us to be our whole
Speaker 1: selves because you're obsisting over something that's so meaningless. How
Speaker 1: did you keep going though? So you said you accepted
Speaker 1: yourself the universe opened up, and tell me about what
Speaker 1: happened after that? Did you start getting the kind of
Speaker 1: roles that you wanted? I not exactly. I mean I
Speaker 1: was very happy being a working actor, and I just
Speaker 1: tried to make the best choices I could within what
Speaker 1: I was being given. And I guess the kind of
Speaker 1: turning point for me. I did this movie called Shattered Glass,
Speaker 1: which I think was in two thousand and four. Do
Speaker 1: you see all those editors at the correspondence dinner why
Speaker 1: they were circling him. Is that what you want? Amy?
Speaker 1: Do you get a bunch of smoke blown up your
Speaker 1: ass by a pack of editors? Yes? Yes it is.
Speaker 1: And when I saw that movie, I just had a
Speaker 1: very deep understanding. I was like, this is how I
Speaker 1: want to feel every time I see myself in anything.
Speaker 1: And of course that didn't happen. There were still disappointments
Speaker 1: after that, but it became my set point for quality
Speaker 1: work and the type of work I wanted to do,
Speaker 1: and I really tried to follow a path that lead
Speaker 1: me into more independent movies after that. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: Yellow Jackets, which is, as I mentioned, an incredible show.
Speaker 1: It's a soccer team, a girls soccer team. They're plane
Speaker 1: crashes in the wilderness, and it really becomes a sort
Speaker 1: of Lord of the Flies, survival of the fittest, and
Speaker 1: each character carries a mystery of how they survived into
Speaker 1: adulthood and how they manifest the trauma of being in
Speaker 1: that situation. How did that come together? And why do
Speaker 1: you think it's struck a chord among people who are
Speaker 1: watching it? I mean, I just got a script, got
Speaker 1: an offer in a script, and it was so good.
Speaker 1: And I just was like, I don't know how many
Speaker 1: people got offered this before me, but thank you for passing.
Speaker 1: You're crazy, whoever you are. I just was so excited.
Speaker 1: The thing for me about the pilot was that there
Speaker 1: are so many women, so many female characters, and they
Speaker 1: all felt like human beings. They all felt like people
Speaker 1: that I knew or wanted to know. There was no
Speaker 1: sort of stereotypes, and I think that that's the thing
Speaker 1: that's been appealing. Part of it is the mystery of
Speaker 1: the show and the fact that the show is very,
Speaker 1: very compelling and well written. But the other thing I
Speaker 1: think is that the women feel real, Like it's a
Speaker 1: group of women in their mid forties, and we all
Speaker 1: kind of look like it. You know, we all look
Speaker 1: like we've lived, we all resemble someone that you might know.
Speaker 1: You know, my co stars are absolutely beautiful, but there's
Speaker 1: not like a level of perfection that anyone's trying to attain.
Speaker 1: We were encouraged to not we're makeup. We were encouraged
Speaker 1: to look like real people, and I just think it's refreshing.
Speaker 1: I think people want to see themselves who represented and
Speaker 1: I think I think also the young cast is so
Speaker 1: great they are. They're amazing too, They're just amazing. So
Speaker 1: it's just kind of a magical. There's some moments working
Speaker 1: on the show where I'm like, oh, there's just magic here,
Speaker 1: just something magic is happening. But it is so well
Speaker 1: written and the characters are so awesome. You play Shauna
Speaker 1: who has this strength and yet this vulnerability too. How
Speaker 1: did you go about playing Shaun as someone who takes
Speaker 1: a rabbit who's eating her vegetables and basically bilets it
Speaker 1: and serves it to her family for dinner with a
Speaker 1: big smile on her face. This chili is really good night,
Speaker 1: It's really good new Russipe. Actually it is Callie forgot
Speaker 1: to take the men out of the freezer, so I
Speaker 1: killed a rabbit in the garden, skinned it. Chin to Ana,
Speaker 1: she says, Christmam, you're in a mood. You were so
Speaker 1: freaking weird. Oh it's one of my favorite scenes. It
Speaker 1: was so funny. It's so funny and yet so disturbing.
Speaker 1: It's so funny. I mean, there's very little that I
Speaker 1: have to do. It's all on the page. This character
Speaker 1: is so fully realized. She's everything. She's very very funny,
Speaker 1: she's sarcastic. She's kind of rough around the edges, but
Speaker 1: she's like an empowered sexual woman. I mean, it's there.
Speaker 1: They're just giving me incredible stuff to do in every episode.
Speaker 1: It seems like with every role you take, Melanie, this
Speaker 1: idea of what an actor should look like continues to
Speaker 1: dog you. On the set of Yellow Jackets, there was
Speaker 1: one person who I was working alongside in some capacity
Speaker 1: who was very concerned with my body. And it was
Speaker 1: disappointing because I had said to that person ahead of time, Listen,
Speaker 1: I had a miscarriage. I have not been able to
Speaker 1: lose the weight that I gained from being pregnant. I
Speaker 1: think there's some hormonal thing. I've gone through four rounds
Speaker 1: of IVF since I had my miscarriage. My body is
Speaker 1: sort of going through it right now, and I'm just
Speaker 1: trying to give myself some grace and be kind. And
Speaker 1: they just had a problem, you know. It was just
Speaker 1: one single voice, and I do have to say at
Speaker 1: a certain point, you know, as somebody who had had
Speaker 1: an eating disorder, my first instinct was to turn on myself,
Speaker 1: be full of shame. You know, I had been on
Speaker 1: a diet, I had done you know, nothing was happening,
Speaker 1: Like sometimes it just is what it is. Your hormones
Speaker 1: are like out of control and your body's protecting itself.
Speaker 1: So there wasn't really anything I could do. I was
Speaker 1: driving myself crazy and then I said, you know what,
Speaker 1: I think, I'm going to go to the producers. And
Speaker 1: I went to them and I said, is this a problem?
Speaker 1: You know I've been told it's a problem. I'm trying
Speaker 1: my best, and they were horrified, mortified, and they just said, listen,
Speaker 1: this person has come to us. We shut it down.
Speaker 1: We said, please stop talking about that. It's inappropriate. We
Speaker 1: think she's perfect. And Ashley was one of the co
Speaker 1: creators of the show, wrote me this beautiful letter that
Speaker 1: just said, I wish that I had seen someone who
Speaker 1: looked like you on television when I was growing up,
Speaker 1: and especially in a love triangle with two hot men.
Speaker 1: It might have like shifted my future a little bit.
Speaker 1: And this is something that I want to do for women.
Speaker 1: So the team involved in the creation of the show,
Speaker 1: that's their feeling about it, and I really did feel
Speaker 1: empowered by them. And also I was playing a character
Speaker 1: who honestly doesn't think about your body, doesn't think about it.
Speaker 1: It's you know, if someone was to say, like, oh,
Speaker 1: are you sure about those genes, she'd be like, what
Speaker 1: the fuck are you talking about? You know, it's not.
Speaker 1: And there's an empowerment in that too, especially for me
Speaker 1: at that time of my life, feeling so fragile and vulnerable,
Speaker 1: to have to go to work and be in the
Speaker 1: skin of somebody who's just like, yeah, here I am.
Speaker 1: This is what I look like. You know, I think
Speaker 1: I look great. It really helped me sort of process
Speaker 1: some of my own feelings. Do you sometimes feel like
Speaker 1: sissiv us, you know, pushing a boulder up a hill,
Speaker 1: trying to be the embodiment of what it means to
Speaker 1: be an inclusive society, what it means to appreciate and
Speaker 1: love bodies and people of all different types. Because I
Speaker 1: feel like we make gains and then we, you know,
Speaker 1: take two steps backwards, and it's very frustrating, isn't it.
Speaker 1: It is very frustrating. You know, in feminist movements, there's
Speaker 1: just a constant backlash, right Like women start to gain power,
Speaker 1: of women start to edge towards equality, and there's some
Speaker 1: kind of movement that is designed to push us back again.
Speaker 1: I feel like right now there's this current kind of
Speaker 1: craze for super thin bodies again, and I'm just like,
Speaker 1: oh God, really, like you know, everyone's doing oh zemperic
Speaker 1: or whatever it's called, and right it's like, are we
Speaker 1: not past this? I guess not, Like like it's it's
Speaker 1: just going to keep going in waves and I just
Speaker 1: want to shake people and be like, this is designed
Speaker 1: to make you waste your time on this, This is
Speaker 1: designed to take your power away. You want to be
Speaker 1: thinking about you your life, What do you want to
Speaker 1: do with your life, Who do you want to be
Speaker 1: for your kids? Who do you want to be for
Speaker 1: the other women in the world. Like it just feels
Speaker 1: like such a waste of time to me. And yet
Speaker 1: and yet it keeps copying up with this. Adrian rich
Speaker 1: tweet that in the Last of Us you were looking
Speaker 1: to Life of Luxury and not Linda Hamilton enough, and
Speaker 1: you had such a great response a thing that I
Speaker 1: will always push back on as this idea that people
Speaker 1: with curvier bodies, bigger bodies are greedian, lazy. Yes, the
Speaker 1: life of luxury. Yeah, so that was the thing I
Speaker 1: think that really I was like, you know what, hang
Speaker 1: on a minute, I know how I live. I know
Speaker 1: that I'm a healthy person, and I don't like that,
Speaker 1: and I just, you know, I just wanted to make
Speaker 1: a point first of all, to show I was doing.
Speaker 1: It's a post apocalyptic scenario with mushroom zombies, like anything's possible, right,
Speaker 1: So I just I just have an issue with things
Speaker 1: that are just misogynistic and just hateful for no reason
Speaker 1: because and loaded and loaded, Yeah, I'm going to I'm
Speaker 1: not going to push back on everything, because it would
Speaker 1: be all I would all I spent my day doing.
Speaker 1: Because I get a lot of people writing to me
Speaker 1: telling me how they feel about my body. That must
Speaker 1: be so exhausting. Why do you even read it? I
Speaker 1: don't know, Because I like Twitter. I like reading film
Speaker 1: critics honestly, Like I could just have a feed that's
Speaker 1: just the critics I like. But I don't know. I
Speaker 1: do think about this, and sometimes I do. Sometimes I
Speaker 1: just like, put my phone down. I have a four
Speaker 1: year old. I want to hang out with my child
Speaker 1: if I'm not working. I don't want to be thrust
Speaker 1: into a pool of self loathing because of what some
Speaker 1: idiot on the internet said to me. And you have
Speaker 1: a little girl, now, Yeah, and so I'm sure you
Speaker 1: think about this and how she'll move in the world
Speaker 1: and feel comfortable with who she is, because it does
Speaker 1: trickle down to especially girls at a very young age,
Speaker 1: this pressure to look and be a certain way. I'm
Speaker 1: sure that's something that's probably in the back of your
Speaker 1: mind a bit as you race this beautiful daughter. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, it's in the forefront of my mind. I
Speaker 1: It's also been another good listen for me because I
Speaker 1: realize how often throughout a day I nitpick myself, and
Speaker 1: I've given myself the challenge to never criticize myself in
Speaker 1: front of her. So, you know, every time she was
Speaker 1: cuddling me when she was little, I'd be like, isn't
Speaker 1: mummy's tummy nice and soft? You know? And she'd be like,
Speaker 1: you're so soft, Mama. She just thinks I'm the most
Speaker 1: beautiful person she's ever seen, and I don't want her
Speaker 1: to think otherwise. She doesn't know the word fat. She's
Speaker 1: never said anything negative about somebody's appearance. She doesn't understand
Speaker 1: that concept. So as long as I can protect her
Speaker 1: from that, I know I'm not going to be able
Speaker 1: to do it forever, but I'm going to try, and
Speaker 1: I'll so praising her for her value when it doesn't
Speaker 1: have anything to do with her appearance. All the time.
Speaker 1: The thing that is most important to her is that
Speaker 1: she's kind, and she's so kind, and the thing that's
Speaker 1: most important to her is that other people are kind.
Speaker 1: So she's very special. She's such a good little person.
Speaker 1: And it sounds like you're a wonderful mom, but also
Speaker 1: that your husband, Jason is a wonderful dad. Oh, I
Speaker 1: got so lucky. First of all, you know, of course,
Speaker 1: I always think of John Ritter, who was so beloved
Speaker 1: and died far too young. Yeah, and Jason sounds like
Speaker 1: an amazing human being. He's very much a co parent, very,
Speaker 1: which is wonderful. I also really appreciate it, Melanie, how
Speaker 1: you thank your nanny when you want a Critic's Choice
Speaker 1: awards saying she is the most important person, because I
Speaker 1: think the people who help us take hair of the
Speaker 1: most important thing in our lives are so often not
Speaker 1: appreciated or celebrated. Absolutely, it's the hardest job in the world.
Speaker 1: She's amazing, and Jason is such a good dad and
Speaker 1: such a good partner. You're very lucky. I'm so lucky,
Speaker 1: Like you genuinely. He's also really sacrificed for me to
Speaker 1: have this moment in my career. Like today, I had
Speaker 1: to get ready for a day of press, and he
Speaker 1: got up, he got her off to school, did the lunch,
Speaker 1: put her here in little pigtails. My husband, when I
Speaker 1: was doing the Today Show, would get up early, obviously
Speaker 1: take our daughter to preschool and she'd have a real
Speaker 1: rats nest and she'd have to comb it and put
Speaker 1: it in a pony tail. And those are such sweet moments.
Speaker 1: I think it's so sweet. It's so sweet. By the way,
Speaker 1: I should say how lucky he is to have you,
Speaker 1: because I know sometimes he tweets these wonderful words of
Speaker 1: praise for you. The good news is he's not just
Speaker 1: doing that on Twitter. He's doing that at home no
Speaker 1: matter what. Like I can be in the rastiest, most
Speaker 1: disgusting pair of sweat pants and he'll be like, you
Speaker 1: look gorgeous, just like, oh my gosh, I don't. My
Speaker 1: husband used to say to me, you know, I think
Speaker 1: you look prettier without makeup. Oh that's sweet. I mean,
Speaker 1: who says that. Yeah, my current husband. I haven't heard
Speaker 1: him say that. I probably need to talk to him
Speaker 1: about that. I know we're almost out of time, but
Speaker 1: what are you excited about? And so you have yellow
Speaker 1: jackets on the horizon. I would love to do a play.
Speaker 1: There's so many things, but most of all right now,
Speaker 1: I just want to hang out with my child and
Speaker 1: do lots of cuddles and take her to soccer practice.
Speaker 1: And I feel like you've been on such a journey
Speaker 1: of self acceptance and self appreciation. Any advice for women
Speaker 1: who might feel they're less than or not good enough,
Speaker 1: or not than enough, or not pretty enough, or not
Speaker 1: successful enough and all those enough that seemed to haunt
Speaker 1: us on a daily basis. I mean, I just look
Speaker 1: back on my life and I think about you know,
Speaker 1: when I was nineteen, I did a movie in the
Speaker 1: South of France and I wouldn't eat anything. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: eat like I never went out for pasta. I never
Speaker 1: had a delicious French meal. There's so much of life
Speaker 1: that I missed out on because I was trying to
Speaker 1: fit into something that I was never going to be.
Speaker 1: And you know, we have one life. Probably I don't know,
Speaker 1: but just you're going to look back and regret those
Speaker 1: times in your life that you didn't fully get to
Speaker 1: live because you were so worried about what do you
Speaker 1: look like? I look back and I think like, oh,
Speaker 1: why didn't I just put a swimsuit on? Now I
Speaker 1: wear a swimsuit all the time. I don't care. I'm
Speaker 1: just like, sure, you know I do. Also another thing,
Speaker 1: I don't want my daughter to see me feeling self
Speaker 1: conscious about having a swimsuit on. Like a body's just
Speaker 1: a body. So just as soon as you can try
Speaker 1: to let go and try to be fully prisoned in
Speaker 1: your life, do it, because it's just not worth it.
Speaker 1: Those are great words of wisdom. I hope a lot
Speaker 1: of people take them to heart. Melanie, You're so wonderful
Speaker 1: and I think you know you you. I think you
Speaker 1: are one of the nicest or the nicest person in Hollywood.
Speaker 1: So thank you. That's very sweet. I think my husband does.
Speaker 1: But thank you so much. Thanks for listening everyone. If
Speaker 1: you have a question for me or want to share
Speaker 1: your thoughts about how you navigate this crazy world reach out.
Speaker 1: You can leave a short message at six O nine
Speaker 1: five one two five five h five, or you can
Speaker 1: send me a DM on Instagram. I would love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. Next question is a production of iHeartMedia
Speaker 1: and Katie Currechmedia. The executive producers are Me, Katie Curich,
Speaker 1: and Courtney Litz. Our supervising producer is Marcy Thompson. Our
Speaker 1: producers are Adriana Fasio and Catherine Law. Our audio engineer
Speaker 1: is Matt Russell, who also composed our theme music. For
Speaker 1: more information about today's episode, or to sign up for
Speaker 1: my newsletter, wake Up Call, go to the description in
Speaker 1: the podcast app, or visit us at Katiecurrek dot com.
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