Melanie Lynskey has been gracing our screens for nearly three decades and has become an icon in the LGBTQ+ community. The actress, who currently stars in Showtime’s sapphic thriller Yellowjackets, has embraced her queer fans and expressed her love for being an LGBTQ+ icon.
Lynskey has been known for taking on unapologetically queer roles throughout her career, including her breakthrough performance in the 1994 biographical drama Heavenly Creatures alongside Kate Winslet, cult classic But I’m a Cheerleader in 1999, and trailblazing lesbian TV series The L Word.
In an interview with The Independent, Lynskey addressed her penchant for playing gay roles and responded to criticisms of her choice of roles, saying, “There are so few gay characters in the world. It’s not like I’m going to be able to exclusively play gay people. There’s just not enough material. It’s always been strange to me that people have those concerns.”
Lynskey also spoke about her family’s acceptance of her exploration of her sexuality, even before her breakout role in Heavenly Creatures. She revealed that her mother would ask her children if they were gay because “she always wanted a gay child.” Lynskey added, “It was always something that was not just on the table but she would say, ‘Do you think maybe…?’ And so I was like, ‘Yeah, maybe!’ I was always exploring it.”
Despite the progress that has been made in LGBTQ+ acceptance and representation, Lynskey believes that the “homosexual agenda” still needs to be pushed. She says, “It should be pushed. It’s a big agenda for me.” And Lynskey knows that she has the support of the queer community, as she asks, “Doesn’t everybody want to be loved by gay people?”
As Yellowjackets is hailed as the “queerest show on TV right now,” Lynskey continues to break barriers and pave the way for LGBTQ+ representation in the entertainment industry. And with her recent appearance in the post-apocalyptic smash-hit The Last of Us, Lynskey is solidifying her status as an LGBTQ+ icon.