The Magical Life of Toni Collette

THE ACCLAIMED AUSSIE ACTRESS ON HER THREE BUSY DECADES IN SHOWBIZ, LIFE AS A MOM AND WHY SHE HAS NO PROBLEM WITH AGING

- GILLIAN TELLING

She has played nearly 100 different characters onscreen in her 33-year career—but Australian actress Toni Collette has been able to use her native accent only a handful of times. “I wish I could do more roles at home, but the industry’s not as big in Australia,” she says. So whether she’s starring in blockbuster films like 2018’s Hereditary or on prestigious TV dramas like HBO Max’s The Staircase, she plays, yep, American. “I don’t even have to think about it,” she says of slipping into her perfected Yankee twang. “It just comes out. I also don’t think about driving on the right side of the road even though we drive on the left side. It’s so strange!”

In her latest series, The Power (now streaming on Prime Video), the supremely versatile actress, 50, plays another American, this time the mayor of Seattle and mom to daughter Jos (Auli’i Cravalho), one of many teenage girls who develop the ability to produce electricity from their hands. Collette says the series, based on the bestselling novel by Naomi Alderman, delivers a powerful message of what the world might look like if women didn’t carry an inherent fear that they could easily be harmed.