Toni Collette, as ‘cancer bully,’ galvanizes ‘Miss You’
Toni Collette plays a woman dying of cancer in the film “Miss You Already,” a role that requires her character to show her mastectomy scars. The 43-year-old Australian actress’s bold, chameleonlike career also has seen her put on 40 pounds (“Muriel’s Wedding”), play a woman with dissociative identity disorder (“United States of Tara”) and, here, shave her head.
We spoke recently with Collette about how the new movie — and the performer — stubbornly resists pigeonholing. An edited transcript follows.
Q: I want to talk about “Miss You Already.” But before we do, let’s get one thing out of the way first. Is your upcoming Christmas movie “Krampus” a comedy or a horror film? From the trailer, I can’t tell.
A: You know, it’s both. Initially, it feels like a very family-oriented thing. There’s kind of a John Hughes warp to it. There’s a wit to it. But when it takes a turn, it really becomes something else. When it’s scary, it’s kind of winking at you. Honestly, I haven’t seen the film, so I don’t know how dire it does get at the end.
Q: “Miss You Already” was written and directed by women (Morwenna Banks and Catherine Hardwicke). It’s the story of the friendship between two women, one of whom is dying of breast cancer. This may sound like an archaic notion, but is there such a thing as a women’s film? Not a film made by or about women, but made for women?
A: I also think it’s an archaic idea. It happens to be a story about a couple of women, but there are all kinds of humans within that story. One of its subjects is a particular kind of cancer which affects — predominantly — women. But initially, the director, when I attached myself to the film, was male (Paul Andrew Williams, of “London to Brighton”). I don’t think gender has anything to do with talent or creativity. I guess that the story might lure one sex over the other into the cinema, but I have to say that what I love about “Miss You Already” is that it defies all kinds of categorization. It was made for humans.
Q: Is it fair to call it a tear-jerker, as some have?
A: Admittedly, it does make everybody cry who sees it. There are certain assumptions that come with that label. Most people assume it’s going to be wet, saccharinesweet, limp, a vapid experience. This is a robust, very vital, very alive journey that we’re taken on.
Q: Your character, Milly, is kind of hard to love. She’s a “cancer bully,” as her best friend, played by Drew Barrymore, calls her in the film.
A: She’s horrible! So selfish. But that’s what makes it even more believable. If suddenly she becomes a bit of a saint, then it’s just another movie that no one will ever give a … about. She kind of doesn’t change. That, to me, is heaven. She’s still rude and selfish. Yet as horrible as she is, she’s still charismatic. That’s why I love it. Working with Catherine Hardwicke, it was like driving off-road. You had a basic landscape, but you never knew where you were going to go.
Q: What did you say earlier? That you like to defy expectations?
A: I think I said defy categorization. I love it when you can’t label something. We’re all fluid.