Oscar Profile #387: Toni Collette

Born November 1, 1972 in Sydney, Australia, Toni Collet(e) was the first of three children of Judith (née Cook), a customer service representative and Bob Collet, a truck driver. At the age of eleven, she faked appendicitis out of boredom, her act so convincing that doctors had to remove her appendix even though the tests showed nothing wrong with it. At 16, she left school and enrolled in the National Institute of Dramatic Arts, supporting herself by delivering pizzas. She made her film debut in 1992’s The Efficiency Expert with Anthony Hopkins and Russell Crowe for which she earned supporting actress nomination from the Australian Film Institute.

It was her second on-screen performance in 1994’s international sensation, Muriel’s Wedding that made her a star, earning the Australian Film Award for Best Actress. In Hollywood from 1995, she had her breakthrough in American films with 1999’s The Sixth Sense for which she earned an Oscar nomination as Haley Joel Osment’s mother. The following year she earned a Tony nomination for Best Actress in a musical for The Wild Party.

Collette received her first BAFTA nomination for 2002’s About a Boy in which she played Nicholas Hoult’s mother and her second for 2005’s Little Miss Sunshine in which she played Abigail Breslin’s mother. In-between, she married husband Dave Galafassi with whom she has two children. She later won both a Golden Globe and an Emmy for TV’s United States of Tara in which she played a woman with a personality order for three years from 2009 to 2011.

Back on the big screen, Colette made a major impression as Alfred Hitchcock’s secretary, Peggy Robertson in 2012’s Hitchcock in support of Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren. She played yet another memorable mother role in 2013’s The Way Way Back in which Liam James played her impressionable son. She received a Drama Desk award for 2014’s The Realistic Joneses as part of an ensemble that also included Tracy Letts, Michael C. Hall and Marisa Tomei.

In the last few years, Colette has appeared in several dramatic TV series and min-series including Hostages (2013-2014), Devil’s Playground (2014), Blue Murder: Killer Cop (2017) and Wanderlust (2018).

The actress has seven films in various stages of production. They include the soon-to-be-released Birthmarked opposite Matthew Goode, Heredity opposite Gabriel Byrne and Hearts Beat Loud opposite Nick Offerman. She is currently filming an untitled Dan Gilroy project co-starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalia Dyer, Rene Russo, Billy Magnussen, John Malkovich and Daveed Diggs. In pre-production are Sea Breeze, Into the Beautiful and Andorra in which her co-stars will include Essie Davis, Vanessa Redgrave and Joanna Lumley.

Toni Colette is going strong at 45.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE SIXTH SENSE (1999), directed by m. Night Shyamalon

Collette became an international star with 1994’s Muriel’s Wedding, a 1995 release in the U.S., and was immediately cast in Hollywood films, mostly in supporting roles. Her breakthrough in the U.S. came with this 1999 Bruce Willis blockbuster for which she received her first and so far, only Oscar nomination for her portrayal of the concerned mother of a troubled son, played by Haley Joel Osment, the boy who “sees dead people.” Willis played Osment’s psychologist. The film, a huge hit, was also nominated for Best Picture, Direction, Original Screenplay and Editing.

ABOUT A BOY (2002), directed by Paul Weitz, Chris Weitz

Collete won several 2002 as a member of the ensemble in The Hours in which she played Julianne Moore’s friend. She won greater recognition, however, for her portrayal of Nicholas Hoult’s suicidal mother in this bittersweet comedy-drama in which Hugh Grant goes from being a jerk to becoming a caring surrogate father to Hoult. The film earned Golden Globe nominations for Best Picture – Comedy and Best Actor for Grant. It earned BAFTA nominations for Best Supporting Actress for Collette and Best Adapted Screenplay for Peter Hedges and the Weitz brothers. It earned an Oscar nod in the latter category as well.

IN HER SHOES (2005), directed by Curtis Hanson

The only one of Collette’s five essential films in which she does not play a mother and one of only two productions celebrated here that is not co-directed by two people, it is nonetheless like all the others in that it is about family. Collette plays a lawyer, the responsible older sister of irresponsible Cameron Diaz. After Diaz is thrown out of the family home by the stepmother who raised her, Colette offers her a place to live only to find her in bed with her boyfriend, a partner in her law firm. Diaz goes to live with estranged grandmother Shirley MacLaine in Florida and the three eventually bond again under Hanson’s assured direction.

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (2006), directed by Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris

One of the best ensemble films of the 21st Century thus far, this is about a dysfunctional family that becomes closer during a trip in their dilapidated VW camper from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Redondo Beach, California so that Colette’s unconventional bespectacled seven-year-old daughter (Abigail Breslin) can compete in a beauty pageant for children. Oscar nominated Breslin is the central character with Colette and Greg Kinnear as her squabbling parents, Paul Dano as her brother who won’t speak, Steve Carell as her suicidal gay scholar uncle and Oscar winner Alan Arkin as her heroin addicted grandfather.

THE WAY WAY BACK (2013), directed by Nat Faxon, Jim Rash

The title refers to the seat in the rear-facing trunk of a car in which 14-year-old Liam James must sit while his mother (Colette) and her boyfriend (Steve Carell) sit in front and Carell’s daughter (Zoe Levin) lies across the back seat on their way to Carell’s beach house. James is the central character here, with Allison Janney as Carell’s neighbor and AnnaSophia Robb her daughter. Sam Rockwell steals the show as the carnival worker at the local water park who gives young James a job that bolsters his confidence. Co-directors Faxon and Rash have supporting roles as Rockwell’s carnival coworkers in this unconventional charmer.