Melanie Lynskey Clarifies ‘Coyote Ugly’ Body-Shaming Comments to Avoid Calling Out Costume Designer

Melanie Lynskey is giving more context after sharing her experience with body-shaming on the set of Coyote Ugly. The Yellowjackets star, who appeared in the 2000 film as Gloria, told The Hollywood Reporter she was criticized for her appearance while working on the movie, but after her comments from the interview began to spread online, Lynskey gave more details about her experience, which included an interaction with a costume designer who was “disappointed” with her figure.

Lynskey wanted to “clarify some things” about her words, sharing on Twitter, “The costume designer who initially worked on Coyote Ugly left for some reason, & a lovely kind woman named Marlene Stewart took over and she was AWESOME. The first person was mean, the person credited was not.”

She continued, “Just nervous that people will google ‘Coyote ugly costume designer’ and think that Marlene was not nice when she was just the greatest.

“And my answer was kind of a jumble- I had experiences with makeup artists offering to help my face look better but that did not happen on Coyote Ugly,” Lynskey wrote. “The hair and makeup team were amazing and so kind and among the best I’ve ever worked with.”

She ended her message with one final tweet, apologizing for “any confusion” and adding, “if I ever talk about a bad experience I’ve had I’m pretty careful about people not being able to identify who did those things as I am not in the business of publicly shaming people. I’ll talk about my experience without including that.”

In Lynskey’s initial comments to THR, she said she had been “starving” herself while working on Coyote Ugly, telling the outlet, she was “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,'” she recalled.

“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,'” Lynskey 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 fuck you?”

Lynskey said she still experiences body-shaming on set, and pointed to a recent experience working on Yellowjackets in which staff on the show said she could get a trainer to help her lose weight. But much like their characters in the hit Showtime drama, her costars were ready to support her; Tawny Cypress, Christina Ricci and Juliette Lewis all defended Lynskey after the incident.