On June 5, the IndieWire Honors Spring 2025 ceremony will rejoice the creators and stars liable for some of the most spectacular and interesting work of this TV season. Curated and chosen by IndieWire’s editorial workforce, IndieWire Honors is a celebration of the creators, artisans, and performers behind tv effectively value toasting. In the days main as much as the occasion, IndieWire is showcasing their work with new interviews and tributes from their friends.
Forward, Lyonne’s long-time finest pal Melanie Lynskey tells IndieWire about the many qualities that set our Maverick Award aside, each as a performer and as a pal.
There’s a second when Melanie Lynskey talks about Natasha Lyonne that sort of says all of it.
“If she chooses you, you’re going to be her pal,” she stated. “That’s simply it.”
For greater than 20 years, Lyonne and Lynskey have been ride-or-dies bonded by bizarre nights, nice scripts, and deep mutual respect. They’ve starred in three films collectively, together with “However I’m a Cheerleader” and “The Intervention” (that one directed by their nice pal and “Cheerleader” co-star Clea DuVall).
In order Lyonne will get her flowers at IndieWire Honors, Lynskey is right here to remind us why there’s no one like Natasha.
“She’s all the time been insanely proficient,” Lynskey stated. “However now, she is aware of precisely what she’s succesful of — and the world is aware of it too.”
That features writing, directing, producing, and starring in not one however two groundbreaking reveals (“Russian Doll” and “Poker Face”), all whereas championing the individuals she loves. “If she loves you, she needs you to be doing every part to the most of your skills,” Lynskey stated. “She’s everybody’s greatest cheerleader.”
Their friendship kicked off in Toronto throughout filming for the 1999 movie “Detroit Rock Metropolis,” when a shy, New Zealand-based Lynskey arrived on set. “Natasha took me out for the night time and that was it. We had been bonded for all times,” she stated. That night time included a Halloween KISS live performance, an tried on line casino journey (denied at the door: no passport), a persistent limo driver attempting to crash the afterparty, and vodka. Tons of vodka. “If we tried that now, it will take me two weeks to recuperate.”
Lynskey nonetheless lights up when she talks about how Lyonne works. “I actually sort of envy the looseness she has in her physique, like the drapey-ness and the sort of physicality that may be somewhat bit masculine at occasions. It’s actually enjoyable,” she stated. “She’s very free, particularly in ‘Poker Face.’ She has an actual kind of looseness to her limbs. And I really feel like there’s all the time a component of my mind that’s like, ‘What do I do with fingers?’— there’s simply this swagger. In the meantime, I’m over right here like, ‘What do I do with my fingers?’”
Even earlier than “Poker Face,” Lyonne’s spirit helped form Lynskey’s path — typically actually. When Lynskey was auditioning for the function of a New Jersey woman in “Coyote Ugly” and couldn’t afford a dialect coach, she leaned on her interpretation of Lyonne (by no means thoughts that she was very a lot born and raised on the Higher East Facet). “It morphed into one thing else after I received forged, however I sort of based mostly it on Natasha, yeah,” she stated with fun. “I don’t know the way impressed she was about that: ‘I did that audition, too.“ I used to be like, ‘Effectively, sorry about that.”
Now, at the same time as Lyonne’s busy operating the present, she’s nonetheless hyping her buddies. “She’s everybody’s greatest cheerleader. I bear in mind one time I received a message from her, and he or she was on the lookout for performing coach or a dialect coach and he or she stated, ‘You’re the finest actor I’ve in my cellphone.’ Such a particular praise. I beloved the way it wasn’t hyperbolic,” Lynskey stated.
They don’t see one another as a lot as they’d like, though Lynskey has an upcoming guest-star slot on episode 8 of “Poker Face” — however after they do, nothing’s modified. “We had this nice night time not too long ago, simply hanging at Natasha’s home and speaking for hours. That’s the great things.”
So what’s left to say?
“She’s such a treasure to all of us,” Lynskey stated. “There’s no one like her, so it’s actually so particular to see her being acknowledged.”
Learn Natasha Lyonne’s full IndieWire Honors profile.
