Toni Collette

Toni Collette (birthname: Antonia Collett) is one of the most renowned and successful of the many Australian-born actors who emerged in the 1990s and has sustained a remarkable career in both leading and supporting roles. Collette’s feature film debut was in the Anthony Hopkins-starring The Efficiency Expert (titled Spotswood in its Australian release) (1991), with Ben Mendelsohn and Russell Crowe.

Collette made a huge leap forward in only her second move, as star of writer-director P.J. Hogan’s smash hit comedy, Muriel’s Wedding (1994), with Rachel Griffiths, earning Collette a Best Actress Golden Globe nomination, and grossing a robust $57.5 million globally. Collette worked again with Efficiency Expert director Mark Joffe on Cosi (1996), based on Louis Nowra’s play, and starring Mendelsohn, Griffiths, and Jacki Weaver.

Collette’s first U.S. movie was writer-director Matt Reeves’ feature debut for Miramax, The Pallbearer (1996), in which she played support to David Schwimmer, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Barbara Hershey, followed by another Miramax movie starring Paltrow with a debuting writer-director (in this case, Douglas McGrath) in the Oscar-winning Jane Austen adaptation, Emma (1996), in which Collette memorably played Harriet opposite Alan Cumming, Ewan McGregor, Jeremy Northam, Greta Scacchi, and Juliet Stevenson, and earning a good $22 million worldwide gross.

After winning a best supporting actress award from the Australian Film Institute for the Australian film, Lilian’s Story (1996), Toni Collette starred in writer-director Jill Sprecher’s U.S. indie comedy-drama, Clockwatchers (1997), co-starring Parker Posey, Lisa Kudrow, and Alanna Ubach. Collette co-starred opposite David Wenham in the Australian drama, The Boys (1998), premiering in competition at the Berlin Film Festival.

Toni Collette’s first major American movie role was opposite Ewan McGregor and Jonathan Rhys Meyers in Todd Haynes’ galvanizing celebration of glam rock, Velvet Goldmine (1998), with Christian Bale, Eddie Izzard, and Janet McTeer, and premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, where Haynes won a Cannes Palme for Best Artistic Contribution. Collette played a double role in Peter Greenaway’s playful 8 ½ Women (1999), released by Lions Gate Films and co-starring John Standing, Matthew Delamere, Vivian Wu, Amanda Plummer, and Polly Walker, and premiering in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

One of the biggest hits of Collette’s career was M. Night Shyamalan’s blockbuster, The Sixth Sense (1999), in which she co-starred opposite Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment, yielding Collette an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress and for the movie, a stunning $672.8 million global gross on a $40 million budget. Collette played a smaller role in writer-director John Singleton’s remake, Shaft (2000), starring Samuel L. Jackson, Vanessa Williams, Jeffrey Wright, Christian Bale, Busta Rhymes, and (the original Shaft) Richard Roundtree, earning $107 million worldwide for Paramount.

Toni Collette was in another Paramount movie starring Jackson, in Changing Lanes (2002), directed by Roger Michell, co-starring Ben Affleck, Sydney Pollack, and William Hurt, and earning a solid $95 million gross. A bigger hit for Collette, playing opposite Hugh Grant, Rachel Weisz, and Nicholas Hoult, was Paul and Chris Weitz’s Nick Hornby adaptation, About a Boy (2002), earning a Best Screenplay Oscar nomination as well as a $130.5 million return on a $30 million budget.

Collette played opposite Julianne Moore (as a reader of Virginia Woolf’s masterpiece, Mrs. Dalloway), John C. Reilly, and Margo Martindale in the 1951section of the acclaimed Stephen Daldry/David Hare film of Michael Cunningham’s The Hours (2002), nominated for nine Oscars (with a win for Nicole Kidman as Woolf) and grossing $108.8 million.

Toni Collette returned to the Cannes Film Festival as a star of the Australian drama, Japanese Story (2003), selected for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section and directed by Sue Brooks, with Gotaro Tsunashima, and winning Collette a Best Actress award from the Australian Academy of Cinema and TV Arts. Collette shifted to pure Hollywood entertainment with her co-starring role in writer-director Jeff Nathanson’s action comedy, The Last Shot (2004), with Matthew Broderick, Alec Baldwin, Ray Liotta, and Tim Blake Nelson.

Collette co-starred with actor-writer Nia Vardalos in the mildly received reworking of Some Like It Hot (1959), Connie and Carla (2004), with Dash Mihok and David Duchovny, but losing money for Universal Pictures ($11 million gross). Director-producer Curtis Hanson (with fellow producers Ridley Scott and Tony Scott) cast Collette in a co-starring role with Cameron Diaz and Shirley MacLaine in In Her Shoes (2005), premiering at the Toronto Film Festival and earning a fine $83.6 million global gross.

Toni Collette co-starred in one of the most successful American indie movies of the new century, Little Miss Sunshine (2006), co-directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, co-starring Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, and Alan Arkin, nominated for four Oscars (including Best Picture) and making a remarkable $101 million global gross on an $8 million budget. Co-starring opposite Robin Williams, Collette headlined the Armistead Maupin adaptation, The Night Listener (2006), with Bobby Cannavale, Joe Morton, and Sandra Oh, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival and proving a success for distributor Miramax with a $10.9 million gross.

Toni Collette was cast by filmmaker Karen Moncrieff for the first part of her five-part film, The Dead Girl (2006), opposite Piper Laurie and Giovanni Ribisi, and which premiered at the AFI Los Angeles Film Festival. Collette was part of a rich roster of women actors in the critically lambasted and commercially-failed ($20 million) movie directed by Lajos Koltai, Evening (2007), as she appeared in the second half of the movie set in the present with Vanessa Redgrave, Natasha Richardson, Meryl Streep, and Eileen Atkins.

Writer-director Alan Ball cast Collette as co-star with Summer Bishil, Aaron Eckhart, and Maria Bello in Towelhead (2007), premiering at the Toronto Film Festival but performing poorly at the box office (well under $1 million return). With two consecutive indie Australian movies, Toni Collette co-starred and executive-produced both The Black Balloon (2008) and Hey, Hey, It’s Esther Blueburger (2008). In one of her first horror movies, Collette played opposite Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse in the remake of the 1985 movie, Fright Night (2011), directed by Craig Gillespie, grossing $41 million globally.

With Anthony Hopkins in the lead role, and Helen Mirren and Scarlett Johansson, Collette co-starred in Hitchcock (2012), set during the making of Psycho (1960), and making a modest $27 million worldwide gross. Collette reunited with writer-director P.J. Hogan for the comedy-drama, Mental (2012), with Anthony LaPaglia, Liev Schreiber, and Rebecca Gibney, earning $4.4 million for Universal Pictures.

Similar to Little Miss Sunshine, Collette co-starred in another Fox Searchlight coming-of-age movie, The Way, Way Back (2013), starring Steve Carell, Allison Janney, Sam Rockwell, and Maya Rudolph, and turning a box-office profit with a $27 million return. Collette was part of a fine ensemble (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener, and Ben Falcone) for writer-director Nicole Holofcener’s Enough Said (2013), earning three times its $8 million costs, followed by the little-seen comedy-drama, Lucky Them (2013), with Collette co-starring with Thomas Haden Church.

Toni Collette returned to the world of writer Nick Hornby in the black comedy, A Long Way Down (2014), with Pierce Brosnan, Aaron Paul, and Imogen Poots, premiering at the Berlin Film Festival. Collette joined star-writer-producer Melissa McCarthy for the road comedy, Tammy (2014), lambasted by critics but embraced by audiences for a $100 million gross.

After appearing in another poorly reviewed movie—writer-director Peter Chelsom’s Hector and the Search for Happiness (2014)—Collette did a vocal performance in the Oscar-nominated stop-motion animated movie, The Boxtrolls (2014), alongside Ben Kingsley, Isaac Hampstead Wright, Elle Fanning, Jared Harris, Tracy Morgan, and Simon Pegg, finishing with a $108 million gross. Toni Collette was cast with Drew Barrymore in the modest rom-com, Miss You Already (2015), premiering at the Toronto Film Festival, and then appeared in her second horror movie, writer-producer-director Michael Dougherty’s Krampus (2015), with Adam Scott, and racking up a solid $61.5 million box office.

After playing opposite Daniel Radcliffe in the crime thriller, Imperium (2016), which played briefly in theaters but to fine reviews, Collette appeared in one of her first franchise projects, XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017), starring Vin Diesel, Donnie Yen, and Samuel L. Jackson, returning four times its $85 million costs ($346 million gross). Also in her busy 2017, along with the war movie, The Yellow Birds, Collette starred in the comedy, Fun Mom Dinner; as well as the Michael Apted-directed thriller Unlocked; the French comedy-drama, Madame (with Harvey Keitel and Rossy de Palma); and the comedy-drama, Please Stand By, with Dakota Fanning and Patton Oswalt. Toni Collette’s most dynamic horror turn was in writer-director Ari Aster’s debut, Hereditary (2018), with Alex Wolff, Ann Dowd, and Gabriel Byrne, earning distributor A24 a whopping $82.5 million on $10 million costs.

Collette turned to a supporting role in writer-director Brett Haley’s comedy-drama, Hearts Beat Loud (2018), with Nick Offerman and Kiersey Clemons, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, and then co-starred with Matthew Goode in the Irish-Quebec-made comedy, Birthmarked (2018). Collette was a member of writer-director Rian Johnson’s sprawling ensemble in the smash hit whodunit, Knives Out (2019), with Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, LaKeith Stanfield, and Christopher Plummer, returning a rich profit to distributor Lionsgate with a $312 million global gross.

In the U.K.-U.S. sports movie, Dream Horse (2020), Toni Collette led a cast including Damian Lewis and Joanna Page, followed by a droll performance opposite Jesse Plemons, Jessie Buckley, and David Thewlis in writer-director Charlie Kaufman’s jet-black comedy, I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020), playing briefly in theaters before streaming on Netflix. Writer-director Guillermo del Toro cast Collette with Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, and Rooney Mara in the remake, Nightmare Alley (2021), earning four Oscar nominations, but losing money with a poor $39 million gross. Collette’s taste for black comedy continued with writer-director Dean Craig’s The Estate (2022), with Anna Faris, David Duchovny, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ron Livingston, and Kathleen Turner, but failing at the box office and with critics.

For the first time, Toni Collette was a star producer on the crime comedy, Mafia Momma (2023), directed by Catherine Hardwicke, and co-starring Monica Bellucci and Sophia Nomvete. Collette followed this with a voice performance in Universal’s animated coming-of-age fantasy movie, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (2023), joining a cast including Lana Condor, Will Forte, Colman Domingo, and Jane Fonda. Collette joined writer-director Bong Joon-ho for his highly anticipated sci-fi drama, Mickey 17 (2024), starring Robert Pattinson, Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, and Mark Ruffalo, and released by Warner Bros. From space, Toni Collette shifted to opera for writer-director Nathan Silver’s The Prima Donna (date to be announced), co-starring Odessa Young.