Melanie Lynskey Recalls 'Starving' Herself For A Role: 'It Was Ridiculous'

Actress Melanie Lynskey has been a popular fixture in Hollywood and recently earned an Emmy nomination for her role in the Showtime drama series "Yellowjackets."

However, throughout her career, the "Two and a Half Men" actress says that she has been the victim of body shaming and has faced unwanted comments about her appearance.

As Entertainment Weekly recently reported, Melanie, now 45, recently recalled working on the set of her 2000 film "Coyote Ugly." At the time, she said that she had to undergo harsh comments about her appearance from the costume and make-up team, even though she was already "as thin as [she] could possibly be for this body."

While she was working on the set of the 2000 film "Coyote Ugly," Melanie recalled that she was already "starving" herself, and yet it didn't seem to be enough for those who criticized her appearance.

In a recent conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, the "Don't Look Up" actress said, "All the girls had this regimen they had to go on. It was ridiculous." She added, "I was already starving myself and as thin as I could possibly be for this body, and I was still a [size] four."

The film stars Piper Perabo as an aspiring songwriter who takes a job as a "coyote," or a bartender that's meant to "tantalize" customers. Lynskey played the role of Perabo's character's best friend. Melanie said she quickly realized that all women working on the set were encouraged to lose weight.

"There were already people putting a lot of Spanx on me in wardrobe fittings and being very disappointed when they saw me, the costume designer [at the time] being like, 'Nobody told me there would be girls like you,'" Melanie recalled.

She added, "In your early 20s, so much of it is about beauty, and how people respond to you, and do people want to f--- 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.'"

After The Hollywood Reporter interview was published, Melanie quickly attempted to "clarify some things" after people started coming after Marlene Stewart for body shaming online.

"I see this has become a headline so please let me clarify some things!" Melanie tweeted. "The costume designer who initially worked on Coyote Ugly left for some reason, & a lovely kind woman named Marlene Stewart took over and she was AWESOME. The first person was mean, the person credited was not."

She then posted, "Just nervous that people will google 'Coyote Ugly costume designer' and think that Marlene was not nice when she was just the greatest."

"And my answer was kind of a jumble- I had experiences with makeup artists offering to help my face look better but that did not happen on Coyote Ugly," she added in the Twitter thread. "The hair and makeup team were amazing and so kind and among the best I’ve ever worked with."

"Sorry for any confusion I may have caused- if I ever talk about a bad experience I’ve had I’m pretty careful about people not being able to identify who did those things as I am not in the business of publicly shaming people," she concluded. "I’ll talk about my experience without including that."

In a 2020 interview with Variety, actress Maria Bello said that she was age 32 when she was filming the movie. At the time, she was told that she was "too old" to dance on the bar with the rest of the actresses.

"I had argued for it because I worked at Hogs and Heifers. I said, 'Why can't I dance?'" she recalled. "And I was told that I was too old. The truth is the movie was run by men, right? All male producers, a male director [David McNally], so I don't know where that information came from, but that information came to me. It was different back then. I remember arguing about it, but I wasn't gonna win."

That same year, Tyra Banks revealed that there's supposedly a sequel in the works, although it's not known at this time if Melanie Lynskey would be interested in returning.