Melanie Lynskey Quotes

I just want other women to be able to see themselves in the music.

Once I realized, when I became a plus-size model, that there were more women like me, my confidence immediately shot through the roof.

For me, I want to see diversity in storytelling sources because we live in a very diverse society, and the stories are for the whole society. That's really important. For me, as a female filmmaker, when I was out on the festival circuit on 2006, I felt like such a freaking anomaly - an oddity.

One of my core values is to help redefine what it means to be a strong and beautiful woman in the music and fashion worlds and to empower the wonderful things that make us unique.

I've never wanted to look like models on the cover of magazines. I represent the majority of women and I'm very proud of that.

I enjoy stories about thin women - I read them frequently. I enjoy them; I root for those characters, but I always feel like there are enough of them out there and there are enough of them in the spotlight.

What's so kind of beautiful about the whole thing was that everything that made me not right for all of those hundreds of commercial auditions that I went on and no one ever wanted me for is what made me perfectly right for 'Real Women Have Curves'.

I wasn't able to relate to anyone on TV growing up, so I wanted to bring my own experiences to the screen.

What I think is exciting is that, to a certain extent, there is a revolution happening where black women are owning their own beauty, despite the standard of beauty that in the past has not had space for it.

Even if I wouldn't wear something myself, I think I know how women feel, how women want to look. I can really relate to women, I get on very well with women... Some women don't. I want to empower women, make women feel the best version of themselves.

I started watching so many different types of women, saw all the complexities of them, all the ways and the look and shapes they could be, and I felt it was missing for me in American film. I didn't see anybody I was watching in movies that felt like me. I felt rather tortured and lonely about it.

Very few women get asked to be in the swimsuit issue, and I'm really proud to be one of so many beautiful and empowering women.

If there was going to be a pioneer of the plus-size girl of my shape on TV, why not me?

I loved her music and the fact that she was a classically trained pianist and that her voice was so unique, but what made Nina Simone my hero is that I had never seen anyone in the public eye who looked anything like me at all, ever.

I'd watch shows like 'The Kids in the Hall' or 'Twin Peaks,' and I'd see weird people being celebrated and appreciated without compromising their weirdness. On 'The Facts of Life,' I'd see girls who were pudgy, beautiful, popular, tomboyish - many ways of being female - and I'd feel quietly reassured.

I never grew up seeing women that looked like me in magazines or on TV and didn't feel like I had a place in the world of fashion. I am honoured to be part of that change.

I want women on-screen that we all either want to be, or we know, or we recognize.

To see another fat girl on television, I think, is really powerful. I'm happy to open the doors for a younger generation of fat, black women to be visible, to be seen, to be heard.

I didn't even aspire to be a model because I didn't see myself represented, even as simple as the freckles on my skin.

I want to play characters that people relate to, characters that make different kinds of women in society feel represented.

People in big studios are like, 'People want to see other people who are skinny and happy and amazing.' But I think, nowadays, they are realising that what sells is real people from all different backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures and size. People want to see themselves represented on screen, and it's a real cool thing for everyone.

The majority of women in America look like me.

For those of you who are underrepresented in technology, know that you've always been here. Look in photos and see yourself reflecting back.

It's about how you exist as a person in the world, and the idea that your work is more important than you as a person is a horrible, horrible message. I always think about a little gay boy in Wisconsin or a little lesbian in Arkansas seeing someone like me, and if I cannot be open in my life, how on earth can they?

My visibility may have gotten Hollywood to redefine what's attractive.