Melanie Lynskey is tired of hearing about her body

Melanie Lynskey is tired of hearing about her body

Actress Melanie Lynskey has been working in the entertainment industry since she was 15 and has spent just as long dealing with people - both strangers and those she works with - who have opinions about her body. Most recently, Lynskey came under scrutiny for her looks while playing Shauna Sheridan on the Showtime series Yellowjackets, which she spoke about in a new interview with InStyle featuring a conversation between Lynskey and Danielle Brooks.

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A member of the Yellowjackets crew suggested the 45-year-old lose weight for the role, which forced Lynskey to film a series of intimate scenes, she told InStyle. She declined and has since received both criticism and applause for the way her body appears on screen in the show. "Sometimes I get tired of hearing about my body, even when it's positive. I just feel like I need a break to think about it and hear about it, and I think all women feel that way," she said.

While chatting with Brooks, Lynskey continued to comment on the concept of dealing with body image issues while working in the entertainment industry, particularly when filming revealing scenes. "It's always such a battle. I feel like I have two voices in my head," she explained, adding that one tells her she's "perfectly fine" while another is more negative. "I think there's this weird shame for anyone who isn't about a size two, and I'm just over it," she said.

Melanie Lynskey got honest about her "long journey" to body acceptance

Although Lynskey feels "vulnerable" filming sex scenes, she does so in part because she wants to normalize seeing someone who isn't a size two in a sexual role on screen, she explained to Brooks. Lynskey also noted that "it's funny" how some people bring up the fact that she had a baby when talking about her body, almost as an excuse for why she might look that way. “It shouldn’t just be, ‘Well, you’re a mother now, so your body can’t be so small.’ Our bodies should be what our bodies naturally are.”

For Lynskey, it's clear that your body type doesn't define what you're capable of in front of or behind the camera. "...It's possible for women of all body types to do all kinds of things. It's possible for a woman of my body type to have two men find her attractive," she told Brooks. "All bodies are beautiful and I would really like to get to the point where we can have all different types of bodies and it just doesn't get commented on the way it is now," Lynskey concluded.

While society may not have moved beyond celebrities' bodies yet, it's always refreshing to hear actresses speak positively about embracing their looks as they are and encouraging others to do the same. (Next up: Chloe Bailey used to be ashamed of her curves - now her "favorite part" of her body is her butt)