By Siobhan Duck
Copyright news
“They probably know me the best. And the relationships that are the longest are irreplaceable, actually. I really cherish them.”
One of those cherished long-time pals is fellow Australian actor Rachel Griffiths, whom Collette met when the pair co-starred in the beloved 1994 film classic Muriel’s Wedding.
“I haven’t seen Rach in a long time,” Collette says wistfully.
“[For] the 25th anniversary of Muriel’s Wedding [in 2019], there was a celebratory screening in New York, and Rachel wasn’t able to make it. I stood in a corridor and we were screaming love at each other [on the phone] for 10 minutes during the party afterwards. But I haven’t, sadly, seen her in a little while.
“We were thick as thieves for a really long time, but then life happens,” Collette adds.
“But she will always be in my heart and I will care for her like I do all my female friendships.”
PJ Hogan’s larger-than-life film celebrating underdogs and the uplifting power of ABBA music put both actors on the map, kickstarting their enduring screen careers and earning Collette the first of her six Golden Globe nominations. So it’s no surprise that it remains one of the projects of which she’s proudest, or that she’s fiercely protective of its legacy. In fact, she admits she was initially sceptical when it was adapted for the stage in 2017.
“But when I saw it, I was completely blown away,” she says of the musical, which features songs written by Kate Miller-Heidke and went on to win five Helpmann Awards.
“It’s just beautiful, and retains all the honesty and the awkwardness of that story and that woman’s trajectory, finding her own sense of freedom.”
As for whether Collette would ever be up for returning to the famous fictional town of Porpoise Spit in a film sequel, she’s in two minds.
She was surprised to hear that another 1994 Aussie film classic, The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert, has a sequel in development, with the original’s director Stephan Elliott and stars Guy Pearce and Hugo Weaving all on board. (Before his death in August, 87-year-old British actor Terence Stamp was also confirmed to reprise his role as Bernadette.)
“I can’t imagine there would be a sequel [to Muriel’s Wedding],” she says, before admitting, “I guess you could pick up the story now …”
Whether it’s big-hearted Muriel, tormented Annie Graham in the 2018 horror film Hereditary or grieving Lynn Sear in 1999’s hit psychological thriller The Sixth Sense (a role that earned her an Oscar nomination), Collette is always fascinated by the psychology of the people she plays.
And in her latest performance as Evelyn, an enigmatic cult leader who uses psychedelics and tin-pot psychology to treat “troubled teens” at her expensive Tall Pines Academy in the Netflix series Wayward, she gets to explore some truly deep, dark corners of the human psyche.
Based on a friend’s experience at a rehabilitation facility for wayward youth, the series was created by – and also co-stars – Canadian comedian, actor and screenwriter Mae Martin, who wrote the part of Evelyn specifically with Collette in mind.
In the US, the so-called troubled teen industry does big business, with privately run enterprises ranging from therapeutic boarding schools to boot camps and wilderness programs all aimed at correcting problematic behaviour in young people.
Having grown up in Blacktown in Sydney’s western suburbs, Collette tells Stellar she’s grateful her own parents never forced her to conform and instead supported her decision to leave school at 16 to pursue a career in acting.
“I was actually a very good girl and I was really good at school,” she recalls.
“I did a musical at school and started doing them in the local community and at ATYP – the Australian Theatre for Young People.
“And I ended up doing something that nobody anticipated, because everyone kept saying I was going to be the school captain. But I left, because I found my passion.”
Now, as a mother to daughter Sage, 17, and son Arlo, 14, Collette offers them the same support and freedom to figure out who they are and what they want to be.
As such, she can’t understand why anybody would want to send their child away to a rehab facility.
“I don’t even like the term ‘troubled teens’,” she adds.
“Being a teenager is a time where you’re not fully formed. You’re trying to become an individual. And there’s so much information, especially in this day and age. You’re inundated with ideas, endlessly. It’s too much information. We’re not meant to accumulate and absorb this much information.
“It’s difficult enough trying to find the quiet truth of your centre at any age, but when your body is changing, the way you’re interacting with the world is changing and you’re starting to have slightly more mature ideas? It’s a really fragile time.”
That being said, Collette does point out that she has dabbled in self-help over the years.
“I think we’re here to grow and evolve and learn and become our best selves, and that involves looking at oneself,” she says, hastening to add with a wry laugh that “I’ve never been in a cult – and I’m not interested in one.”
In Wayward, her character’s controversial arsenal of therapies includes bombarding the children in the facility’s care with overtly critical feedback about themselves. Essentially, it’s like trolling someone face-to-face instead of from behind a computer screen.
As for Collette, despite spending the past three-and-a-half decades in the public eye and in an industry where criticism is part of the job, she insists that she’s never felt overly scrutinised. Instead, she says, growing comfortable with fame and the attendant interest in her personal life has been a gradual process.
“It used to make me feel uncomfortable doing interviews, because as a young person it just felt like all of a sudden you have to have definitive kinds of ideas about every subject that you’re asked [about],” she explains.
“I found that a little overwhelming. But the older I have gotten, the less I really care about what other people think. I know who I am, and I know my truth, and I find life much, much easier as I get older. And more fun.”
Wayward premieres Thursday on Netflix. Read the full interview with Toni Collette inside Stellar tomorrow, via the Sunday papers. For more from Stellar and the podcast Something To Talk About, click here.
Originally published as ‘I know who I am, and I know my truth’: Toni Collette on Hollywood, life lessons and Muriel’s Wedding
