Melanie Lynskey says she was body-shamed while filming ‘Coyote Ugly’

Melanie Lynskey is opening up about the body shame she faced during her early days in Hollywood.

The “Yellowjackets” actress, 44, recently spoke with The Hollywood Reporter along with fellow co-stars, Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci and Tawny Cypress, all reflecting on their careers in the entertainment industry.

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From being pressured to lose weight to body-shamed, the mother of one shares the painful memories she has from the set of 2000’s “Coyote Ugly.” Melanie Lynskey and her husband, Jason Ritter, welcomed a daughter in December 2018.

“All the girls had this regimen they had to go on. It was ridiculous,” Lynskey recalls. “I was already starving myself and as thin as I could possibly be for this body, and I was still a [size] four.”

“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,” she continues. “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.’ 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*** you?”

This isn’t the first time Melanie Lynskey has had to deal with people criticizing her body—something that has absolutely nothing to do with them!

Lynskey also spoke to Vulture in May about her breakout role in 1994’s “Heavenly Creatures.” She says she was constantly told that she wasn’t, “thin, confident, pretty.”

She was just a teenager at the time.

And it was because of the pressure swirling around her that she ended up putting her health at risk by throwing up after meals and going on starvation diets, all in an effort to lose weight fast. Her disordered eating behaviors continued until her boyfriend at the time helped her realize the dangers.

In a different interview, Lynskey also opened up about how “Yellowjackets” didn’t require her to be anything but her authentic self for the role. And, she says, she was grateful to not have to lose weight or appear younger.

Melanie Lynskey is a gorgeous actress with many, many iconic roles. But whether someone agrees with that or not, doesn’t give them the right to comment on her appearance. Ever.

“I had a lot of beliefs when I started about what I was supposed to look like,” she told People in May. “It feels very nice to be in a body that I’m comfortable in, to be aging and have people want to cast me.”

Even as recently as January, Lynskey has had to defend her appearance. When fans of the show “Yellowjackets” started leaving body-shaming comments on Twitter she had a great response.

“The story of my life since Yellowjackets premiered,” she tweeted. “Most egregious are the ‘I care about her health!!’ people…b**** 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.”

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