Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Melanie Lynskey Says She Was Body-Shamed And Pressured To Lose Weight On 'Coyote Ugly' Set

Melanie Lynskey Says She Was Body-Shamed And Pressured To Lose Weight On 'Coyote Ugly' Set
David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images

Melanie Lynskey opened up about her experiences with body-shaming while working on the set of 2000's Coyote Ugly in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

Lynskey, who is currently featured in the plane-crash survival drama, The Yellowjackets, joined her TV co-stars Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci, and Tawny Cypress in a profile for the magazine in which they shared their experiences in Hollywood.


"All the girls had this regimen they had to go on. It was ridiculous," Lynskey said of her experience in Coyote Ugly.

"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.'"
"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.'"

She 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?"

This wasn't the first time the 44-year-old actress faced similar pressure regarding her body image.

When she was a teenager fresh off of her success in the breakout performance in 1994's Heavenly Creatures, the New Zealand actress said she was reminded at the time she was not "thin, confident, pretty."

"Mostly thin," she said, adding, "There was a certain pleasant energy they wanted people to have. Unchallenging. And I wasn’t successful doing that."

Feeling the pressure to lose weight, a young Lynskey engaged in eating disorders. including extreme dieting and induced vomitting. until her boyfriend at the time alerted her to the dangers.


Lynskey spoke out against body-shaming when fans of The Yellowjackets accused her of not being thin enough.

"The story of my life since Yellowjackets premiered," she tweeted.

"Most egregious are the 'I care about her health!!' people…"

She shot down the assumptions made by those who thought the actress was not in shape or actively exercising.

"b*tch 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."

More from Entertainment/tv-and-movies

Alex Cooper singing 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame'
@MBDChicago/Twitter (X)

'Call Her Daddy' Host Alex Cooper Gets Brutally Booed At Wrigley Field After Painfully Off-Key Singing

If there's one thing that all baseball fans can come together about, it's the importance of their traditions—and songs.

In the seventh inning at Wrigley Field during a match between the Cubs and the Cardinals, popular Call Her Daddy podcast host Alex Cooper was invited to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and brought two backup dancers with her.

Keep ReadingShow less
Linda Yaccarino
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

X CEO Resigns Day After AI Chatbot Grok Praised Hitler In Alarming Series Of Antisemitic Tweets

Linda Yaccarino—the former NBC Universal executive who later took the reins at X—stepped down as CEO of billionaire Elon Musk's platform after two years on the job just a day after Grok, the platform's AI chatbot, went on antisemitic rants and openly praised Adolf Hitler.

Grok issued deeply antisemitic responses on Tuesday following a reported software update that encouraged the bot to embrace what developers described as the “politically incorrect.” Taking that directive to heart, Grok responded with a series of disturbing posts that included praise for Hitler and even a statement expressing its aspiration to become a “digital version” of the Nazi leader.

Keep ReadingShow less
Black and white photo of a falling spider.
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

People Divulge Their 'Rare' Phobias That People Refuse To Believe

I am a SEVERE claustrophobic.

I have struggled with this issue for decades.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ted Cruz
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

'The Onion' Rips Ted Cruz With Brutal Headline After Yet Another Vacation During Texas Disaster

The satirical news site The Onion had social media users cackling with its brutal headline mocking Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz for once again being out of the country when Texas was hit by another deadly natural disaster.

Cruz faced considerable national backlash after he flew to Cancún while millions of people went without food and water as a result of the February 2021 Texas power disaster. At least 246 people were killed directly or indirectly; some estimates suggested as many as 702 people were killed as a result of the crisis.

Keep ReadingShow less
Elon Musk and Grimes
Kevin Tachman/Getty Images for Vogue

Elon Musk's Ex Grimes Calls X Platform A 'Poison' And 'Theatre' After Social Media Hiatus

Claire Boucher—who performs and creates under her stage name Grimes, but prefers her birth name or just "C" offstage—recently returned to her musical persona's social media accounts after taking a hiatus for her own well-being.

Once extremely active, she noted on X in April:

Keep ReadingShow less