Melanie Lynskey gracefully navigates Janet’s extreme doting, a dog bark or two, and way too many questions about the film Heavenly Creatures in Episode 16’s foray into life in New Zealand, crushing on Beck, and whether freezing in place creates magical invisibility.
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I love Melanie. I am currently going through everything she’s ever done so far. Prior to this podcast I only knew her from Two and a half men but she’s so amazing I wish she was getting more leading roles in films.
Thanks, Janet. This was an incredible podcast!
I don’t think you had anything to worry about with this podcast. I wouldn’t have even realised you were worried about your interviewing style if you hadn’t mentioned it! It focused more on show-biz than others, but if Riki Lindhome can do a You Made it Weird-ish episode, then there’s nothing to stop you from doing a Making It episode. 😛
About Kiwis being more reserved and downplaying success, I feel like there’s some of that in Canada, too. Maybe it’s general reaction to being the little county next to the similar, giant-sized one. For ages, Canadian films didn’t even seem to *try* to be big and brash. The US cultural machine is so big that it kind of swamps over everything else, so seeking out that kind of fame was kind of a rejection of being Canadian. I don’t think it’s as big a deal now that Canadian actors show up all the time in locally-produced Hollywood movies, but I definitely remember Maurice LaMarche hearing rip into his old colleagues for being down on his choice to move to the States.
Hey Guys! Thanks for the great comments so far! Todd- bless you. Thank you as always. GuanoLad- thanks for giving me a reason to type “GuanoLad” and so glad you enjoyed Mel and her wonderful Kiwi accent! Colin – 🙂 and Grace, thank you SO MUCH for telling me that! It makes me so happy to know that tradition is alive and well. And thanks for sharing my erstwhile fascination with scary people. 🙂
Oh and it is good to hear I wasn’t the only one obsessed with Clockwork Orange and Alex!
Hey Janet! Lovely podcast with the lovely Melanie! But, to answer your question about writing notes and letters, I would say, as a 14 year old, that tradition still runs rampant today. My friends and I often email on vacations, but when we are home we write letters and drop them into each other’s lockers. I have a tradition for birthdays that I make comics usually about a hunt for my friend’s current crush and their eventual fantasy life. I think that email has a more coldness to it whereas reading a letter is nice because you feel the kindness through their handwriting and words instead of a empty email that takes two minutes to write. My friends and I don’t text at all, the three ways we communicate (other then in person) is usually letters, phone and email. Thanks for the podcast, Janet!
I had to backtrack a little and listen again because I got distracted imagining the combo of you + Bret & Jemaine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNdwFI1BWiA
I love Melanie Lynskey. My favourite film of hers is “Ever After.” And hearing a Kiwi accent again, and one that sounds so closely to my sister’s, is strangely comforting.
I still find your encouragement noises far more charming (and conversational) than distracting…and among the odder thoughts voiced in this episode is that Lynskey ever had (at least, by the time of HEAVENLY CREATURES) a terrible voice. (In fact, one thing that I think might be true of at least the simple majority of Anglophones, or certainly American Anglophones, is how likely we are to be charmed by people who speak the same language with a different accent…something I’ve noted seems to be a lot less true of people who speak other languages I’ve heard from, one way or another, when they come across, say, rather different-sounding fellow Francophones or Sinophones.
And that charming-the-monster thing, Beauty and the Beast…is is simply both having the power to charm the monster, and living vicariously through his Transgression (so much more kinetic than one’s own), or is there something more or something else about it?