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What follows was taken from The Fourth World site: Interview with Melanie Lynskey (February 21, 1998) - Here is a transcript of the recent interview with Melanie Lynskey that appeared in the New York Daily News. Thanks to Sandra Bowdler for making this available! Fairytale Ending to Actor's Long Search for Work The career of actor Melanie Lynskey has taken a fairytale turn. The 20-year-old New Plymouth woman will star alongside Hollywood luminary Drew Barrymore -- who plays the title role in the 20th Century Fox film Cinderella. It has been three years since Lynskey starred in Peter Jackson's award-winning film Heavenly Creatures in which she played Pauline Parker, a wallflower whose obsessive friendship with Juliet Hulme (Kate Winslet) led the pair to bludgeon Parker's mother to death. Lynskey then travelled to Los Angeles last year to audition for further film roles but was unsuccessful. However, on her return visit in June, before she began her part in a forthcoming film called Foreign Correspondents, she tried for the part of Jacqueline de Ghent -- Cinderella's ugly sister. "The audition was great, they were very enthusiastic -- usually an audition is terrifying because you only have a few minutes to put everything into it. You really feel the pressure, but this was just really fun," she said. And it was her agent who told her the good news. "I was just amazed. Whenever I am waiting to hear from someone, I am used to my agent saying 'they loved you but the other person was more famous, or something like that. My agent has always been honest. "But halfway through the conversation she said: 'Oh that's right, you got the part', I was like 'are you sure?'." Lynskey said learning how to overcome audition nerves was one of the reasons behind her success and she attributed part of her new- found confidence to advice from top New Zealand director Gaylene Preston. "In Hollywood auditions, no matter what sort of character you play, they like you to be totally confident as if the part is yours. This time I really got the confidence to go in there and feel good about myself." After narrowly missing out on a part in the film The Crucible, Lynskey returned to New Zealand last year to ponder her future and deal with constant questioning about what and when her next film would be. While Lynskey toiled away in audition after audition, Heavenly Creatures co-star Kate Winslet experienced a meteoric rise to fame. "People are eager to draw comparisons between us, but we are two completely different actresses who will always be doing different things. She does wonderful work. People in the industry understand how hard it is to get work, but a lot of people expected that if you do one movie, then you just do more. I felt that a lot of people thought there was something wrong with me." Lynskey will not reveal too much about Cinderella, except that it is a "different" version of the age-old fairytale. Today she flies to London for costume fitting and then will spend time with her co-star Drew Barrymore before rehearsals start on Monday. And from being a Victoria University student used to living in draughty flats, she is looking forward to working on a set in the sunny south of France with some of Hollywood's greatest stars. "My agents are so excited about the future and I'm a bit scared to walk towards it because I have not worked in four years. It has not sunk in yet."
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