Melanie Lynskey has clapped back at America’s Next Top Model winner Adrianne Curry after the model body-shamed her.
The 45-year-old actress from New Zealand stars in the new HBO series, The Last of Us, in the role of Kathleen - who is a Kansas City warlord who apparently defeated the FEDRA militia in that city.
After they got trapped with her crew, Kathleen is now after the main characters Joel (played by Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (played by Bella Ramsey).
Check out this trailer for The Last of Us:The series has received critical acclaim but has also experienced online backlash from viewers. Lynskey became the victim of that recently when 40-year-old model Curry - the season one winner of ANTM in 2003 - shared a now-deleted tweet of the actress and body-shamed her.
Read the tweet below:Curry criticized the YellowJackets star's body figure and claimed that her shape didn't fit Lynskey's role in the post-apocalyptic drama series.
"Her body says life of luxury…not post apocalyptic warlord. Where is linda hamilton when you need her?", the model penned, clearly indicating that only women of a specific size would be suitable for the show.
However, the Candy actress did not have time for the model's disheartening post and pushed back on the idea that her character - one who acts as a leader for a resistance group - needs to look a specific way.
"Firstly- this is a photo from my cover shoot for InStyle magazine, not a still from HBO’s The Last Of Us," Lynskey tweeted with a screenshot of Curry’s deleted complaint. "And 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."
As of the time of writing, the tweet has garnered 8.6 million views and 121.6K likes, with many fans on the social media platform praising Lynskey for defending herself.
One user wrote: "You look incredible, thriving, healthy and gorgeous, and as for this other person," and then shared a gif of Mariah Carey saying: "I don't know her."
Another said: "You are a GORGEOUS QUEEN in this dress (and in your sweats) and you absolutely killed it in The Last of Us (as per usual) BRILLIANT casting choice @TheLastofUsTV."
A third commented: "Having to defend your body as a woman in a patriarchal society + as an actress occupying a role, is bloody exhausting and demeaning. ++ I can’t tell you how much harder it is to have to defend it to another woman. Ladies, please check your internalized misogyny. -It’s a thing."
A fourth shared: "People can be so weird over fiction, actors body types shouldn’t have to adhere to your dystopian fantasy."
According to the Huffington Post, Curry claimed in follow-up tweets - that have now been deleted as well as her Twitter account - that the actress "cropped out what I said about her perfect hourglass frame being the most desirable to men," and called her screenshot "manipulative".
This wasn’t the first time that the Heavenly Creatures star has opened up about body shaming as during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter last August she revealed that she felt pressured to lose weight while working on the movie Coyote Ugly.
She reflected on the "regimen" that she and her co-stars had to "go on" while shooting the movie, and said: "It was ridiculous. I was already starving myself and as thin as I could possibly be for this body, and I was still a [size] four.
"That was already people putting a lot of Spanx on me in wardrobe fittings and being very disappointed when they saw me, the costume designer being like: 'Nobody told me there would be girls like you,'" she added.
Lynskey also stated that she experienced body shaming by makeup artists and recalled the "really intense feedback" that she’d receive about her looks.
"People doing my makeup and being like: 'I'm just going to help you out by giving you a bit more of a jawline and stuff,'" she explained. "Just the feedback was constantly like: 'You’re not beautiful. You’re not beautiful.'"
