It’s typical of the shallower pools in Hollywood when almost every Toni Collette biography comes with an implied asterisk next to the critical kudos, remarking on the fact she doesn’t share the razor cheekbones of Australian leading ladies who’ve worked in American film, such as Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts.
Well, screw the wags. What’s important to recognize is the actor has voracious ambition and an ability honed by a career in theatre (earning her a Tony nomination for her Broadway work) and an average of two films a year for 14 years (earning her multiple awards in Australia with Golden Globe and Oscar nods on this side of the Pacific). The fact she’s not a star is more a testament to her chameleon abilities as an actor than any lack of glamour. She also sings, but more on that later.
If you’re still scratching your head as to who she is, pay attention—the selected filmography will come thick and fast.
Toni Collette’s big break was in her fourth film, as Muriel/Mariel in 1994’s Australian dark comedy Muriel’s Wedding. At 22, Collette gained 40 pounds in less than two months for the role of the girl from Porpoise Spit with deep self-esteem issues and a passion for ABBA. Leading roles in little-seen (on these shores, anyway) Aussie pics followed, but Hollywood noticed, providing the first in a series of colourful supporting parts, the first in the David Schwimmer vehicle The Pallbearer, also starring Gwyneth Paltrow. Collette followed Paltrow to her next project, Emma. From here on, anyone not knowing she was born on the west side of Sydney would have trouble guessing her background—she’s never had trouble nailing accents, whether regional American or prim Jane Austenese.
The scripts kept coming, with roles both leading, as in the 1997 Sundance fave Clockwatchers, with Parker Posey and Lisa Kudrow, or supporting, in Todd Haynes’ decadent rock fantasy Velvet Goldmine. She also showed up in Peter Greenaway’s 8 1/2 Women. Collette either has a great agent, or she can smell talent off her directors.
Her next role was in 1999’s The Sixth Sense, the massively popular film by wunderkind auteur M. Night Shyamalan, which earned her the Oscar nomination. She’s never less than emotionally raw as the unbelieving mother of Haley Joel Osment’s withdrawn ghost-seer, especially in the scene that takes place in the car near the end, where she finally gets the full picture. That kind of honesty is on display in Paul and Chris Weitz’s About A Boy, where she again plays mother to a young son, but this time she’s the one with emotional problems, driving the kid to hang out with Hugh Grant’s wealthy slacker.
Amongst these higher profile parts was a role in Hotel Splendide, with the future 007, Daniel Craig. She’s featured in Changing Lanes with Samuel Jackson and Ben Affleck, and her part in The Hours is brief but potent opposite Julianne Moore’s tormented mid-’50s suburban housewife. Connie and Carla was a return to broad comedy, shot in Vancouver and co-starring Nia Vardalos from My Big Fat Greek Wedding in a gender-bent take on Some Like It Hot.
Collette’s choices veer all over the place, resisting any pattern save a resistance to repetition. A standout role was the gorgeous, haunting 2003 Australian drama, Japanese Story. She’s an overworked geologist escorting a Japanese businessman on a tour of outback mining facilities. An unplanned night spent in the desert leads to the bridging of cultural gaps, and a shocking development in the third act you won’t see coming.
Last year’s In Her Shoes gave Collette her highest profile part yet, playing the responsible sister, Rose, to Cameron Diaz’s party girl, Maggie. Though the conceit is that Rose is frumpy—a tough sell—she isn’t Muriel. Her Rose is far more complex. Plus, she owns the movie. Diaz has to work hard to match her.
At 33, Collette isn’t slowing down: this week she’s in the Robin Williams thriller The Night Listener and the upcoming, peculiar-looking road trip comedy, Little Miss Sunshine. Back in Australia she’s an activist, giving speeches opposing her country’s proposed free trade agreement with the US.
Oh, and about the singing: the new album from Toni Collette and The Finish, Beautiful Awkward Pictures, comes out this fall.
The Night Listener opens Friday.
This article appears in Aug 3-9, 2006.