Toni Collette lets us understand her characters' wants even when their behaviour makes us wince. We rate her highly for that generosity, and wish fewer scripts treated her chiefly as a woman in distress.
Fi1m perspective
In Muriel's Wedding (1994), Toni Collette makes an imagined wedding seem urgent enough to settle the question of whether Muriel Heslop deserves affection. The fantasy is embarrassing, but she gives us no comfortable excuse to laugh at the woman having it. We were moved by how hungry Muriel seemed to be wanted, because Collette made those wedding-dress dreams painful to watch. P.J. Hogan gives her room to be awkward and mistaken without making her a joke, although his script sometimes explains her unhappiness after Collette has already made it clear.
International notice followed with The Sixth Sense (1999), and her work has crossed independent films, studio productions and television, including United States of Tara (2009–2011). Troubled mothers recur among the parts, but that description tells us little about how she plays them. In Little Miss Sunshine (2006), she works through precise expressions and minimal dialogue; Hereditary (2018) asks for an emotionally intense physical performance. We would still welcome fewer scripts that require her chiefly to look anguished.
Juror #2 (2024) makes useful demands on her restraint. As prosecutor Faith Killebrew, she starts tight and certain, then lets small doubts interrupt that certainty. Clint Eastwood's courtroom drama has a creaking premise in places, but Collette gives us a reason to watch someone thinking within it. Deborah Hopper's sharp dark suits help establish Faith's authority at a glance.
She is broader in Bong Joon Ho's Mickey 17 (2025), and enjoyably so. Her Ylfa cares about sauces with the seriousness her husband Kenneth Marshall brings to destiny, giving their dinners a nasty domestic comedy. Mark Ruffalo's Marshall soon repeats himself; Collette finds more to play within the same marriage, though neither performance can cure the film's overstuffed middle. This is one of her useful qualities in a crowded film: she makes an absurd preoccupation feel important to the person who has it. Choose Muriel's Wedding first; a little over-explanation is bearable in her company.
Biography
Toni Collette is an Australian actress. She was born on 1 November 1972 in Sydney and trained at the National Institute of Dramatic Art and the Australian Theatre for Young People.
Collette made her film debut in Spotswood (1992). Her breakthrough came with the lead role in Muriel's Wedding (1994). She received an Academy Award nomination for The Sixth Sense (1999) and further acclaim for performances in About a Boy (2002), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Hereditary (2018) and Knives Out (2019).
Her recent credits include Juror #2 (2024) as Faith Killebrew and Mickey 17 (2025) as Ylfa. She has also appeared in television series such as United States of Tara, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award.
