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Melanie Lynskey gets emotional recalling Kate Winslet friendship and 'painful' way it ended

Kate and Melanie starred together in Heavenly Creatures

Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey in Heavenly Creatures
Rebecca Lewis
Rebecca Lewis - Los Angeles
ReporterLos Angeles
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Friends forever...or not. Yellowjackets star Melanie Lynskey has shared the "pain" she felt when her friendship with Kate Winslet ended. 

The two starred together in 1994's Oscar-nominated Heavenly Creatures, when they were both teenagers and total unknowns, and "developed such a bond that for a long time we couldn’t let it go," Melanie, 45, revealed during an appearance on the 'Happy Sad Confused' podcast.

"We would write each other letters and talk on the phone all the time. We were in constant contact for so long." 

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Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey in Heavenly Creatures
Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey in Heavenly Creatures

However, time and distance —exacerbated by the explosion of Kate's Hollywood career, particiularly after 1997's Titanic — put a strain on their connection, and the New Zealand-born actress said it was "more heartbreaking than some breakups".

"It was so painful, and it wasn’t like anything happened. It’s just [that] she became a gigantic, international movie star, and she didn’t have a lot of time, and then, suddenly, she’d be in Los Angeles and not have time".

The last time the pair saw each other was in 2009 at the premiere for Away We Go, but the star has no bad feelings, adding: "Kate Winslet is doing movies, and you’re getting to witness that talent and those performances. This is an actor who comes along once in a generation."

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Melanie, who also starred in The Last Of Us, can now be seen on Showtime's acclaimed series Yellowjackets; season two is currently on screens. The series explores the mystery surrounding a group of survivors who found themselves in the wilderness after a plane crash.

 The Candy actress is married to fellow actor Jason Ritter and mom to one daughter, and in 2022 she revealed that the pair only got married so Jason could enter Canada with her when she left to film Yellowjackets

"We got married on our front porch of our little rental house in Atlanta. A nice lady came and married us. We had two friends there. Ali Ahn and William Jackson Harper…They brought a cake and flowers and everything we needed. It was actually a very fun wedding day, but it didn't need to happen. He could totally have gotten into Canada," she said in an interview with SiriusXM's Jess Cagle in May 2022.

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