Castle Rock‘s Melanie Lynskey talks to Awards Daily about her character Molly Strand’s unique abilities and working in the Stephen King universe.
Melanie Lynskey first appeared to American audiences in Peter Jackson’s great Heavenly Creatures. There, she played Pauline Parker who, along with Juliet Hulme (Kate Winslet), murdered her mother. So, she’s not exactly a stranger to darker material.
It’s no surprise, then, that she’s eventually wound her way into Hulu’s Stephen King-inspired anthology series Castle Rock. She plays Castle Rock real estate agent Molly Strand, a tortured woman with a particular kind of psychic ability that gives her the ability to share other’s thoughts and feelings. This gift (or curse) causes her to commit a heinous act when she’s a young child, forever influencing the course of her life.
Have no fear. Melanie Lynskey in real life is a completely lovely person.
Here, she talks about diving into the dark aspects of her character and how she was able to make this foreign psychic condition a reality through personal experiences. Castle Rock‘s first season was designed to be a stand-alone season, so we’ve perhaps seen the last of Molly Strand. But thanks to Melanie’s tremendous presence and accomplished performance, Molly likely won’t leave our thoughts for a very long time.
Melanie Lynskey, tell our readers about your Castle Rock character Molly Strand.
Molly is a real estate agent who lives in the town of Castle Rock. She’s chosen probably a career where she’s most likely to fail because people are not moving here. She’s also struggling with a lot of issues, a lot of guilt from her past, and an addiction problem. She uses pills to cover up a particular psychic issue she has that causes her a lot of problems in her everyday life.
Were you a fan of Stephen King’s work before the series?
Yeah, I was a fan. I’d read a lot of his writing and really, really enjoyed it. Obviously, there are such great plots, mysteries, and terrifying thrillers. The thing, though, that has always stuck with me was the incredible characters. He’s really created some iconic female characters over the years.
Are there any characters within what you’ve read of Stephen King that remind you of Molly?
Molly has this psychic affliction which is very much in line with previous Stephen King characters, but she’s really a new creation. She’s so herself. It was very interesting, when Dusty and Sam [Shaw and Thompson, respectively, series creators] were explaining her to me, they kept explaining me that she was a very new creation.
Aside from echoing the setting made famous by Stephen King, what would you say Castle Rock was about?
It’s definitely about wrestling with the past. It’s about whether or not you deal with your past, whether or not you can overcome it.
You’re amazing in Episode 3, “Local Color.” I know Molly suffers from her peculiar mental issues. Did you do any kind of research to be able to so accurately recreate her panic issues and anxiety?
Well, thank you, first of all for saying that. Dusty and Sam sent me a podcast about a woman who has mirror-touch sanesthesia which is the condition that Molly has. I realized as I was listening to her that it’s kind of a way more intense thing that I have which is called misophonia. If there’s a repetitive noise behind me that’s one of my triggering noises – for me it’s chewing noises – I cannot think. I can’t form a sentence. It’s so overwhelming in my brain. Mirror-touch sanesthesia affects the same part of the brain as misophonia, so I was familiar. I can’t read people’s minds, of course, but I’m familiar with the feeling of something coming into your consciousness that overwhelms you so completely that you forget your purpose in that moment. I definitely drew upon that.
As you mentioned a few minutes ago, why would Molly become a real estate agent in a terrorized town like Castle Rock? It seems like some sort of self-sabotage.
I think it’s exactly what you said – she’s punishing herself. There’s something she did in her early childhood involving Henry’s (André Holland) father that was such an intense moment for her. The lengths that she would go to due to her condition when she’s under the influence of someone else’s thoughts and feelings. She doesn’t really trust herself because of that. She’s generally a kind person, and she wants to do good things in the world but she has a tremendous amount of guilt. She’s become obsessed with making the town better and tries to bring positive energy in, but she feels so incredibly guilty about her own past.
Talking about Henry and her past, she tries to avoid Henry as much as she can given their history. But she eventually sleeps with him. Why does she eventually let him in?
I kind of likened it to an alcoholic. Sort of really, really doing their best to not drink and to take it one day at time. To say, “No, I’m going to avoid this situation.” But he keeps coming back and is around her. At a certain point, it’s so overwhelming, her defenses are down, and she just lets it happen. Eventually, I think she just thinks it’s easier to go along with it. To stop fighting it.
What was it like filming those terrifying scenes involving the ghost of Henry’s father?
It was actually very creepy. We had a wonderful actor playing the Reverend [Adam Rothenberg] who was doing a lot of back and forth from New York. The thing in the church with everyone’s faces wrapped in bandages was very creepy. I kept getting so panicked about everyone’s noses and mouths covered. I wondered if they were getting enough water or snacks! It was a very anxious day for me worrying about all of those people.
No spoilers, but what can we expect thematically from Molly in the rest of the series?
Oh gosh, it’s so hard to talk about without spoilers. There’s one episode upcoming that was so interesting for me to play that has a lot to do with Bill [Skarsgård], the Kid, but I can’t talk about it. She has a really interesting journey. There’s kind of a resolution for Molly and kind of not. I don’t even know how to talk about it.
I’m sorry. It’s not a fair question.
No! It’s a perfectly reasonable question. I’ve never done anything with this level of secrecy before. It’s terrifying!
Hulu’s Castle Rock drops weekly on Wednesdays. The first season concludes on September 12.