by Nathaniel R
The Film Experience had the pleasure of a lengthy one-on-one chat with the inimitable Toni Collette yesterday after a screening and reception for her new horror classic Hereditary. We'll publish the whole interview in a few days but we thought we'd share a tidbit she thoughtfully e-mailed afterwards. You see during our chat, we had mentioned that they (the proverbial they) always say that actors are an insecure lot but this couldn't possibly be true of her. Wouldn't you have to be supremely confident about your gifts to attack high-wire material like Hereditary or the new miniseries Wanderlust? If you stop to think about it both of those provocative projects, one about multi-generational family trauma and the other about long-term intimacy and sexuality, essentially live or die based on the complexity of the central performance.
Our conversation took a detour after that so she sent us this note...
Hi N!
Lovely to chat yesterday. I just woke up realising I didn’t really answer your question about confidence.
Yes, I think, given the clarity of what is required of me when reading a script, I probably am quietly confident. This along with the fact that I’ve been doing it for so long. Having said that, I don’t ever quite know how exactly I am going to achieve it. And that always scares me a little. That fear is what keeps me going. If a job doesn’t scare me a wee bit I probably need not do it.It’s like packing a suitcase for a journey. You have an idea of what you need but you don’t know exactly what will happen each day or how and when you will use the collection of things you’ve brought with you. If you do think you know then you’ve got to loosen your grip. You’ve got to allow life to happen. You can’t force things. But film work does give you the opportunity to try to perfect each moment. As opposed to theatre where the entire show needs to unfold each night. Sometimes i forget that entire takes do not have to be perfect and that the work can be edited. That’s a relief sometimes.
But I think that’s why i enjoy unbroken shots of entire scenes. The actor gets the chance to really shape the performance. It becomes a dance with the camera and the energy of one moment can flow. Roma floored me recently. There are many scenes and shots that are examples of this. It was breathtaking. I think it is my favourite film, not just of this year.
Well well. So that's one Academy vote for Roma, but can we get a whole slew of them to nominate Collette's haunting tour-de-force breakdown in Hereditary, and their counterparts at the Emmys to honor Wanderlust?
The former Oscar & Tony nominee / Globe & Emmy winner has already been honored as "Best Actress" by the Gotham Awards for her role as the grieving artist and troubled mother in Hereditary. She also won at the Detroit Film Critics Society and is a nominee at the Film Independent Spirit Awards. Are more deserving awards forthcoming or do we have to make a deal with King Paemon to get them?
If so "Hail, Paemon!"