Biografia

Beat Julia Roberts for the role of Linda Warner on the soap opera La valle dei pini (1970).

In March 1997, ex-boyfriend John Heard was charged with harassing Melissa via telephone misuse and trespassing.

Was the runner-up for the 2004 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in 21 grammi (2003).

She is a natural redhead.

Despite appearing and being billed in early trailers for Lee Daniels's The Butler - Un maggiordomo alla Casa Bianca (2013) as Mamie Eisenhower, her part ultimately was cut from the film.

[Excerpt from her 2011 Academy Award acceptance speech] When I watched Kate Winslet two years ago, it looked so fucking easy - Oops!

[on interpreting the title role in Francine (2012)] To play someone when the character masks their own emotions, doesn't understand their own emotions, has no release for their own emotions, and yet is full of emotion - that is a much harder character to play than someone who has somewhere to put it.

Being an actor on a movie set is like going to the playground at recess.

An actor's life is fairly lonely.

I am a smoker, I'm ashamed to say. I had given it up for many years, then picked it up again. It's a horrible habit. I struggle with myself all the time. And I love to smoke.