Yellowjackets star Melanie Lynskey opened up about not getting the role of Willow on the iconic WB show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
In an interview with Evan Ross Katz, Lynskey shared how she initially passed on the role. “It was kind of a visa issue, but not really; I also was not sure about doing television at that time. It was very early in my career. I had a very old-school agent who was like, ‘TV? That’s for has-beens!’ And I was like, ‘I don’t think it is anymore,'” she said.
After the pilot was shot and creator Joss Whedon decided to recast several roles, Lynskey once again had the chance to nab the part, or so she thought. She recounted a dinner with Whedon where he seemed to have offered her the role, but things didn’t pan out. After the dinner, Whedon and Lynskey stayed in touch and during a certain point when Buffy was replacing an actor from the pilot, she was called in again. “I had stayed in touch with [Joss], and he said, ‘Now do you think you would want to do it?’ And I had seen the pilot and I was like, ‘Oh, this is good,’ and I kind of took my agent into it.”
Despite eventually showing interest in starring on Buffy, Lynksey’s audition didn’t go well and Alyson Hannigan was eventually cast in the role. “It became this whole thing of, ‘Well, now you have to audition.’ So I auditioned,” she said. “Then: ‘Oh, they didn’t like what you were wearing.’ It was a whole process. And then I didn’t get it! Alyson Hannigan got it, who was absolutely wonderful and all was [cast] as it should have been. That was the actual story.”
Melanie Lynskey’s Career
Though Lynskey didn’t manage to snag a role on Buffy, she’s had an interesting career on television, taking on a variety of roles since. Her most recent stint as Shauna Sadecki on the Showtime thriller-drama Yellowjackets, has garnered widespread acclaim. The critically acclaimed show revolves around a New Jersey high school girls’ soccer team as they attempt to stay alive in the Canadian wilderness after a plane crash.
Her cameo on HBO’s The Last of Us as Kathleen was also appreciated by critics and audiences alike. Despite being subject to body-shaming on Twitter for her appearance on the show, Lynskey clapped back at the critical comments.
A user pointed out that Lynskey did not have the body type to be the leader of a revolutionary group on the show to which she had the perfect retort. “I’m playing a person who meticulously planned & executed an overthrow of FEDRA. I am supposed to be SMART, ma’am. I don’t need to be muscly. That’s what henchmen are for,” the actor said.
