Melanie Lynskey is opening up about drifting apart from her once-close friend and Heavenly Creatures co-star Kate Winslet.
While speaking with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast Thursday about the nature of the industry and how people “move on” following projects, the Yellowjackets actress explained that “When I lost touch with Kate, it was more heartbreaking than some breakups that I’ve had.
“It was so painful because it wasn’t like anything happened, it’s just she became a gigantic international movie star and she didn’t have a lot of time,” she added. “I wouldn’t hear from her, you know, and it just sort of like gradually happened, and it happens in relationships. People kind of drift apart, but it was so painful for me.”
But before their bond even existed and before she had the role of Pauline Parker in the Oscar-nominated film, Lynskey said she already looked up to Winslet because she “set the bar.”
When she initially auditioned for the role, the Togetherness actress said director Peter Jackson showed her Winslet’s audition tape and told her, “This is how good you have to be.” She found it helpful and so once she got the part, she said, “He must have felt like I had done that.”
Although the two haven’t crossed paths much since Heavenly Creatures, except for the premiere of Lynskey’s 2009 film Away We Go, she said Winslet has always been a “huge inspiration” for her. Lynskey especially appreciated “how gracefully she handled” the negative comments about her body image, something that Lynskey has also faced throughout her career.
“She’s like a very, very confident person but … she’s very sensitive and the way she was dissected and talked about, and I remember at the time just being so furious on her behalf,” she explained. “Like Kate Winslet is in the world, Kate Winslet is doing movies and you’re getting to witness that talent. … This is an actor that comes along once in a generation, just focus on that.”
They both have gone on to amass successful careers since their 1994 film, but the Intervention actress explained that her and Winslet’s friendship wasn’t the only one that hit her hard. Lynskey said that it actually “happened a couple of times.”
“I remember one time I did a movie with this actor and when we were finished I said, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m just so happy that I met you and we have this friendship,’ and she was like, ‘Yeah, I’m not friends with actors. I don’t stay friends with actors.’”
While she used to be “so sensitive” about losing relationships in the industry, over time, she learned that was just how it worked. She added, “I was always so injured by losing these, like, great loves I was having and it got easier.”
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Winslet’s team for comment.
