Yellowjackets star Melanie Lynskey reveals ‘heartbreak’ and ‘pain’ of losing touch with Kate Winslet

Yellowjackets icon Melanie Lynskey has opened up about the “painful” experience of falling out of touch with her Heavenly Creatures co-star Kate Winslet. 

Lynskey, who recently captivated viewers with her terrifying turn as resistance leader Kathleen in The Last of Us, spoke to Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast on Thursday (20 April) about drifting apart from Winslet, calling it “more heartbreaking than some breakups”. 

Lynskey and Winslet worked together on 1994 biographical psychological drama film Heavenly Creatures, based on a 1954 case of two teenage girls – Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme – who murder Parker’s mother.

Their suffocatingly close, obsessive relationship is rendered beautifully by both actors, but they grew apart after Winslet’s career exploded with the release of the 1997 classic Titanic.

On the podcast, Lynskey explored the entirely relatable feelings of loss at the cooling of a valued friendship: “When I lost touch with Kate, it was more heartbreaking than some breakups that I’ve had.

“It was so painful because it wasn’t like anything happened, it’s just she became a gigantic international movie star and she didn’t have a lot of time.

Lynskey was clear that she doesn’t blame Winslet for the pair losing touch, noting that the separation just “gradually happened” as is the case in many relationships.

“I wouldn’t hear from her, you know, and it just sort of like gradually happened, and it happens in relationships,” she said. 

“People kind of drift apart, but it was so painful for me.”

Lynskey also delved into her feelings when an unnamed actor broke off a friendship after filming, when she felt they’d be lifelong friends.

“I did this movie with this actor and when we were finished I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m just so happy that I met you and we have this friendship,’” she continued. “And she said, ‘Yeah, I’m not friends with actors. I don’t stay friends with actors.’

“And I was just like, ‘What?’ I was so shocked by it.”

Lynskey described her younger self as “so sensitive”, adding that she was able to pick herself up after from the experience. “We move on and this is just a couple of months of our life.

“I was always so injured by losing these great loves I was having. It got easier.”

Lynskey has previously spoken about having a “very intense” relationship with Winslet, telling Time magazine in a 2012 interview that it was “more intense than some love affairs that I have had in my life.”

“We developed such a bond that for a long time we couldn’t let it go,” she continued. “We would write each other letters and talk on the phone all the time. We were in constant contact for so long.”

Lynskey is currently delighting viewers in her role as Shawna in the Showtime survival thriller Yellowjackets, which has garnered rave reviews and holds a 98 per cent fresh rating on aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.

Yellowjackets is currently streaming on Paramount Plus.