Toni Colette

My acting is as good as an ABBA song. It’s as good as Dancing Queen.

Not while I'm alive, she isn't, OP!

1 nomination

Consummate actress, brilliant in United States of Tara and Mental. Can't do an American accent to save her life, much as she tries. Her vowels, especially 'a', morph from Yank to Aussie by the end of the word.

Muriel, you're wonderful!

I think she's a sensational actress. One of my favourites and definitely one of the best working today.

I rewatched ABOUT A BOY the other night and despite containing one of Hugh Grant’s best performances, Toni Collette just about stole it.

Her very earnest, woke hippie never descended into parody but remained funny.

She should have won an Oscar from The Sixth Sense.

Isn't she supposed to be a bit of a diva in real life?

R9 Yes. And she is a stupid as fuck.

Her and her dimwit husband bided on a house for auction a few years ago. Under Australian law anyone that makes a bid on a house and are the last bid and over the reserve price must pay the deposit of 10% on the day. Dimwit Collete and her husband did that and then changed their mind and wanted their deposit back. You can't have it back - you forfeit your deposit. The twits took the owners of the house to court to get their deposit back (there is no way they would have won) only to not get the deposit back but had the pay the owners legal bills and damages. She truely is a bogan, twit, dimwit and cunt but in spite of all that she is actually a very gifted actress.

It's unfortunate thar horror movies are usually ignored by the Oscars, because I felt like this scene in Hereditary (and the scene where she finds her daughter's headless body) was deserving

*that

Someone on another thread said she was a cunt filming that Amazon show she did about infidelity. Is she really bogan? I was kind of bummed to here this.

I don't know about the 'best' (I think Judy Davis still rules the roost), but she's easily the most *reliable* Aussie actress (and maybe actress in general working today). She's never even AVERAGE, let alone bad. I can think of few movies she's in where she wasn't the best thing about it. And she can do pretty much everything! Broadway musicals, mainstream action thrillers, indie dramas, TV series... she will nail basically any period / look / accent (she was amazing in Glassland a few years ago as an Irish alcoholic). She always feels real.

It's a shame she doesn't garner the attention and recognition that her more svelte, conventionally attractive peers such as Kidman, Blanchett and Watts seem to be lavished with. Because she can act them all under the table.

It's also mind boggling that most of her best performances aren't even widely seen. Small Australian films like The Boys, Lilian's Story, The Black Balloon, and (probably her magnum opus) Japanese Story, an incredibly beautiful and natural performance.

R13 She comes from Blacktown a suburb in Western Sydney - a heavy concentration of bogans live and bred there.

Has anyone around here seen Cosi? Is it worth checking out? It features a mini Muriel's Wedding reunion (with Colette and Rachel Griffiths co-starring again) but you never see that film mentioned anywhere.

[quote]a heavy concentration of bogans live and bred there.

EVERYONE in Oz is a bogan. A few are a bit better at hiding it.

I agree op. But I feel she’s anti movie star unlike Nicole.

While, it should not be surprising to hear someone in the industry being a cunt, I am disappointed to read R10.

For a long time I thought she was American.

*

R10 is one to be calling others stupid as fuck

One of my favorites. She never turns in a bad performance.

[quote]She never turns in a bad performance.

Agreed on that point, R23, though for me she's more dependably not bad than she is good. I've never been stirred, as so many gay men seem to be, to think "what a fine performance."

R16, I rented Cosi back in the 90s after seeing Muriel’s Wedding; the video box made it out to be a similar story. I don’t remember much about it other than being disappointed as it was nothing like Muriel’s Wedding. I don’t think Griffiths has much of a part in it. I’d be curious to watch it again to see Collette since I know her as so much more than Muriel now. Let me know if you find it streaming anywhere.

I think she's one of the most underrated actresses working today. And very attractive.

And what's a bogan?

R24, I think that’s what I love about her. She makes it look so easy, and that’s the hard part.

[quote]And what's a bogan?

"Bogan is Australian and New Zealand slang for a person whose speech, clothing, attitude and behaviour are considered unrefined or unsophisticated"

The same as a Chav R26 or a redneck

I think she's a wonderful actress. Unconventionally pretty. I like that she's tall. She has gotten very slender, not at all like her Muriel or About a Boy physique.

That house deposit story is hilarious. How did she manage to outbid a Chinese family? Someone told me that’s a primary reason Aussies are racist-the Chinese are eating up real estate.

Was she the actress in the TV show "United Sates of Tara"?

"They've accused him of raping a Japanese tourist, which is ridiculous! Chook hates the Japanese!"

I disagree, r4, I think her American accent is fine.

I have to say that she served me at Mr Crackles in Sydney in 1989 and she forgot thst I asked for no onions on my pork roll. I was bitterly disappointed.

R31, LOL. Racism in Australia did not suddenly spring up with the advent of Chinese money.

It can actually be as asset for an film actor to be a bit “non-analytical;” aka not the brightest bulb on the tree - they don’t overthink and they can just BE in a way that really works on camera. They often turn in performances that resonate more than the work of some of their more intelligent, analytical peers.

I think she is pure butter. She always exceeds expectations.

R35 - “I have to say that she served me at Mr Crackles in Sydney in 1989 and she forgot thst I asked for no onions on my pork roll. I was bitterly disappointed.”

Well, if you ask for things the way you spell, it’s no wonder you didn’t get what you wanted. Eat your goddamn pork roll and like it.

Is she still related to Anita Gillette?

I generally like her but find that she can overact. One example is in THE HOURS where she played Julianne Moore's neighbor and carried on like she was going to dominate her scenes come hell or high water - she needed to bring it down a few notches. It didn't help that Moore was recycling her near-comatose performance from SAFE - fortunately, she redeemed herself later in the film in that lovely scene with Streep.

Any project she appears in gets my immediate attention. She’s an Australian Mary Kay Place. Always good and makes the same type of connection to the audience. Pauline Kael called that ability “flooding the character.”

R34 I agree, she does good with American accents. I do remember a couple of accent slips in that movie she did with Cameron Diaz.

That movie where she played a woman doing drag as a man in drag as a woman could have worked if it didn’t have such a shitty script. Thanks a bunch, Nia Vardalos.

R44 I recall reading somewhere that Nia and Toni feuded during filming.

Are there any good clips online of her singing? I've heard she has a killer voice but I've never heard it

Here's one, r46:

Woof! Thank you R47.

R38

I caught that cross-dressing film on TV a few months ago and had to turn the TV off after about 15¸minutes. What an unfunny disaster! Now Nia Vardalos may be hack of epic proportions but I still gotta give her some credit: the woman made her whole career out of the simple fact that she's of Greek heritage. That's quite impressive.

R41 Yes, compared to the subdued depression of Julianne Moore's character, she seemed over the top, but I think that was the point. She was the prototypical 50s bubbly housewife. Loved her in the Hours. That housewife character ended up one of the personalities in the United States of Tara show (Alice) and I was always entertained by her.

I did not hear anything wrong with her American accent in Knives Out. I would have said she nailed it, as did the Australian actress playing her daughter.

A poster said that they felt she never gave a truly amazing performance. in some way I think that's the key to her talent - she doesn't dazzle you. She just is the character.

R41 Toni walked away with her subplot in The Hours. Julianne Moore was not great.

She was very close to being cast as Mrs. Lovett in the film of Sweeney Todd before director Tim Burton decided to cast his then romantic/live-in partner and frequent professional collaborator Helena Bonham Carter instead.

Maybe she can act them under the table, but can she actually play a table?

[quote]I generally like her but find that she can overact

I got the same feeling from a short lived HBO (I think) series she did where she played a character who had multiple personality disorder. Her portrayal of the teenage personality was cringy.

You can kind of hear a bit of her Australian accent in The Sixth Sense come out. It's happens in the end when she's scolding Cole about grandma's bumble bee pendant.

Cosi is a bit average and dated. It doesn't ever outgrow its theatrical origins (Louis Nowra's play it's based on is very 'theatrical' in general). There are fun performances from Jacki Weaver and Barry Otto, but the story and the central Ben Mendelsohn/Toni Collette/Rachel Griffiths triangle is very dry and forced in the way it's directed.

Toni is natural and very sensitive in it though. In touch with the character's emotions. Of all the 'crazy' people in the film she's the most grounded. And she sings in a more low-key voice (not meant to be a powerhouse performance, the character is in a mental institution) which is a sweet moment. Rachel Griffith's character is a pretty stock standard 'controlling GF who is a constant wet blanket to her BF' trope, unfortunately.

R53 The story goes that she also was halfway through signing her name on the dotted line to play Roxie in Chicago (almost immediately after being Oscar nommed for Sixth Sense and Tony-nommed for the musical Wild Party), before Harvey Weinstein [metaphorically?] ripped the contract out of her hands and put Zellweger in it instead. I actually liked Renee Z in that role, but it would be nice to see Collette in a real screen musical one day.

"I got the same feeling from a short lived HBO (I think) series she did where she played a character who had multiple personality disorder. Her portrayal of the teenage personality was cringy."

R55 - United States of Tara???

^Yes, that's it.

Maybe she’ll play the mother in the film version of Dear Evan Hansen?

I think Ben Platt will be playing that role.

She’s great in Knives Out.

Judy Davis OP. The best up there with Charlotte Rampling, Glenda Jackson, Vanessa Redgrave, Jessica Lange. But Toni is good I agree.

She'll always have my respect for having Jonathan Rhys Meyers when he was at his hottest.

Underrated, R26?

She has been the critic's darling for decades now. Has she ever had a bad review for anything?

You might make a case for overrated, but underrated? Seriously?

R62 because the ensemble cast was so huge in Knives Out, I thought she was under-utilized. She only had a few scenes. But she was great even if only briefly seen.

[R63] I find Davis an extremely charismatic performer but there is something about her that seems genuinely toxic. I feel like Colette turns off her own personality entirely when performing and with Davis I am always aware of something prickly and mercurial beneath.

R55 r58 r59

DLs favorite cuntface Brie Larson played Collette's daughter.

Why does datalounge hate Brie Larson so much?

Love Toni.

Shaft was disappointing

Did she play Shaft?

Yes, Rose, she did.

No, Rose, she did not. Samuel L Jackson did.

She uses that drongo look on her face for vulnerability which is annoying.

She won best lead Female in a Comedy Emmy for United States of Tara

I think her big scene at the end of The Sixth Sense is one of the best pieces of acting I’ve ever seen. She should have walked away with the Oscar that year (and Haley Joel Osment should have as well). The supporting winners that year made no sense.

R74 I get them mixed up.

I find her repulsively ugly. She and Elizabeth Moss make it so I almost can't look at them on screen. I mean, there are other ugly actors out there but there's just something about certain ones that I just cannot stand to look at.

She's wonderful in so many things--she blew me away in her small but spectacular role in "The Hours." And she has been fantastic in so many other roles.

I do have to say, though, that she gave a rare disappointing performance in "Unbelievable." She just didn't seem in step with the other actors.

You're an idiot, R79.

I hope she plays the role of the mom in the film version of Fun Home opposite Jake Gyllenhaal.

Oh, fuck off, R81. I find her ugly as hell. I'm sure there are people in the world you find as ugly as hell, too. Moron.

Die in a grease fire, cunt R83.

I do find it depressing that she's been so close to being in multiple movie musicals and they never pan out. Is Amy Sherman Palladino still trying to turn Gypsy into a movie? Toni would be a sensational Mama Rose. She could sing it, is around the right age, can be funny, scary, and even make us feel a little bad for a monster like that. The Oscar would be hers.

I totally agree, R85. She’d make an amazing Mama Rose.

So invested, R84. Are you her mother? What a freak.

She was very good in that awful movie The Night Listener. That was a demanding role.

She was very good in that awful movie The Night Listener. That was a demanding role.

You're a gash. Fuck you, R87.

[quote]And she is a stupid as fuck.

[quote]Her and her dimwit husband bided

Her really bided?

Isn't Rachel Griffith supposedly a cunt from hell too?

But she does great work on screen, too.

Colette was APPALLING in Emma. Comically appalling. Worse than a high school performance appalling. I’m totally surprised she ever scored a job afterwards.

R55 CRINGEY is the perfect one word description of the whole of "United States of Tara".

I loved her doing a different (for her) style of hyper feminine characterization in “The Hours”

I thought she was great in the United States of Tara. Dramatic, yes, but she was playing someone who has very different personalities. If they’d portrayed Dissociative identity disorder more accurately, the personalities would be a lot more subtle and the show would’ve been, frankly, boring.

I gave up on The United States of Tara after two episodes. I love Collette but the show was a dud.

Toni is another fpreign actress who does very blah American accent. There was oe film where she played a character in Philly and sounded like a generic American from Noweheresvile! She is better than Cate Blamchett though. CB is half fucking American(her dad was from Texas) so she has no excuses for a mediocre American accent.

I could never warm to About a Boy because of her - I thought her accent was cringe-inducing, it sounded so fake. Other than that, she's been fine to excellent in what I've seen her in.

Didn’t she feud with someone when she was doing The Party ?

I usually like her American accent and think she's way better at it than, say, Nicole Kidman whose accent pops up at least a few times in everything she's done. You'd think one of her directors could stop her and say "great,t but Nicole, on this next take, you actually say this word like this."

R98, you're a fucking idiot. Colette does an excellent American accent. She's one of the best non-American actors to do an American accent--especially in THE SIXTH SENSE.

R102 Actually you are complete moron and a foolish blowhard. She does no regional variety when she oes accents...AT ALL! Her accent in About A Boy was complete rubbish. Get your hearing and your brain checked because you are bad at discerning accents and are totally off mentally. OUCH!

She does no regional variety when she does accents...AT ALL!

"Her accent in About A Boy was complete rubbish."

What do you know about American accents, you British twat R103?

Most American actors don't do a variety of different regional dialects either. Hell, Holly Hunter can't lose her southern accent to save her life. Most American actors affect that bland, unspecific anchorperson dialect. I feel like Collette has adopted that.

And don't get me started on the ludicrously lame attempts by Brits at doing American accents.

What a coincidence, today my bf and I went to a dive bar to have their breakfast special and the place was packed because some football game, so there was no place to sit. But there was one person in a very large booth and so we asked her if we could share the booth with her and she said of course. When the waitress came over to take our order she would not let us have the breakfast special because it was 1:25 and the breakfast special ended at 1:30. We argued a bit saying we have 5 minutes left and she said sorry it’s over.

So we got up to go because I’m not spending full price at this dive bar with all these football fans screaming at a TV screens. But then women in the booth told us talk to the manager that the waitress is being unfair and if you just leave, they’ll never know that there’s a problem.

Well the manager of course said they would honor the breakfast special even though it was so close to the end of it. So we sit back down in the women tells us that was the most exciting thing that’s happened to her this morning and that’s when we realized it was Toni Colette.

We chatted a bit but we couldn’t believe that Toni Colette was in this dive bar by herself, eating wings, a side of boiled spinach and a beer. She’s was very nice, but we did not acknowledge that we recognized her for who she was and we eat our meal together. It was all very strange, but that’s life in LA.

Legendary, based on Muriel's Wedding.

In Knives Out she is playing goop?

R108 - What a great story! I love Tony Colette.

r38

R108, I love that story, thanks for sharing it.

That story made me love Toni even more. Sounds like a nice gal.

She is, R112. I met her and hung out with her once in London and she's lovely.

R105 Cuintbreath I am American(of mixed Kiwi, Aussie background)! She did two Philly based movies and sounded like a generic fucking US network newsreader. Now go fuck off and bottom for your chickehawk or pose for the presenting hole thread.

R108 So down to earth. I love it.

R114 is an EXPERT on American regional dialects and KNOWS them all! Listen, you Kiwi cunt (you should know the correct spelling of the word "cunt" because that's exactly what you are), you're giving yourself away left and right: "rubbish" and "newsreader" are NOT Americanisms. So YOU go fuck off back to Oz and die in one of their fires, twat.

Although Broadway theatre tickets have gone ridiculously over the top, it would be great to have Toni come back in a big musical or great comedy/drama. As already mentioned, If they do GYPSY once again, Toni would be perfect.

R116 You are a complete and utter moron! You sound like Trump you cottage cheese filled cunt. My mother is from Australia you xenophobic dolt, I was born in The US. I am from The US you silly immature little guttersnipe. I am based in The NYC area and have relatives in Philly you idiot. I know a Philly accent when I hear it and Toni didn't do one in not one but two films.

R118 is triggered! Are you gobsmacked, too? As it happens, I live in NYC, and also have relatives in and just outside Philly. Carrying on about Toni Colette as if she's a disgrace for not doing what to your specifications a Philly accent should sound like, and with all the outrage you can muster, is pretty hilarious.

Who says "guttersnipe"? Practically no one in America. I have no one you should know, as it's a good old-fashioned Aussie term: ratbag. That's you, in a nutshell.

LMFAO!

*I have one you should know,

R119 Once again you sound like a complete bore. You definitely voted for Trump along with your other deplorable friends! Your xenophobia is dumb ans completely bizarre. You sound like a white ethnic deplorable pretending to be a WASP. Go back to your little hovel in Trumplandia and keep on ranting and raving like a right wing loon. Thank God civilized Americans accept Aussies like Toni and my mother. Your grandfather or father was probably a white ethnic that was an illiterate peasant from some shitty part of the world. What a shame you are.

r121....You sound about 12....

I thought she was disappointing as Elton's mother in "Rocketman" -- until I realized halfway through that "she" was Bryce Dallas Howard.

R122, you have to feel pity for poor little R121, who brings up Trump for no reason except that R121 is butt-hurt for being called out on their obvious lapses in trying to sound American. And now he mentions Toni in the same breath as his mother, after trashing Colette previously.

I voted for Sanders in the primary and Hillary in the general. As I'm an American, I could vote in the last election. Hey, maybe you are American, but when you say "guttersnipe" and "newsreaders" and something being "complete rubbish," I very much have my doubts.

Anyway, hunty, you started it by insulting Colette's accent in over-the-top terms, much like you did me in your posts. So go fuck yourself!

Oh, man, she would have been great as the cunty mum in Rocketman. I bet she turned it down.

To be completely fair, few actors EVER attempt the Philadelphia accent, R118. There are a lot of film and television that takes place there, and virtually everyone does just generic standard American accents.

I think we need experts to address this Philly accent problem...