Melanie Lynskey shares why she couldn't turn down the role of Shauna on Shauna is involved in one of Yellowjackets' biggest ongoing mysteries, as viewers try to sort out what happened to the baby she's expecting in the 1996 timeline.
Despite working consistently in Hollywood since the mid-'90s, many feel Lynskey is finally getting the respect she deserves with her role on Yellowjackets. Her performance has been met with universal acclaim, winning the Critics' Choice Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series earlier this year. Lynskey will likely be in the conversation when the 2022 Emmy nominations are announced in July. All told, the actor made the right choice in accepting the role of Shauna on Yellowjackets.
In a recent conversation with Variety, Lynskey sheds some light on why she couldn't turn down the role. The way Lynskey tells it, speaking with Yellowjackets creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson made all the difference:
They had so many focused ideas. They had a plan. They know these people; they know these characters. I felt like there was five years’ worth of interesting material. I was the first person cast and then I would just hear about everybody else who was cast. We just got very lucky that they were nice people and people I wanted to hang out with. We got extra, extra lucky with our crew, who were just very ionate about the show and genuinely loved the show.
Lynskey's rationale for accepting the part makes a lot of sense. It's easy for Yellowjackets to start strong but go off the rails a couple of seasons later as the writers struggle to keep track of the mythology and provide adequate answers to viewers' questions. This has even been seen in other plane crash shows like Lost, which many feel suffered from a downturn in quality in the later seasons. As Yellowjackets is only one season in now, it's hard to know for sure if future episodes will be as strong as those in season 1. However, the creators clearly have enough of a plan in place to have convinced Lynskey to come on board.
It's also worth noting that Shauna is a particularly meaty role on Yellowjackets, allowing Lynskey to show off her incredible range. After hearing the pitch for her character, it's understandable the actor found it hard to turn down. Likewise, it's no wonder the show was able to bring in other heavy hitters to play the adult versions of the characters, including Tawny Cypress, Juliette Lewis, and Christina Ricci. Similar to Lynskey, those actors likely had a hard time saying no to an inventive series like Yellowjackets.
Source: Variety