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Of Mothers and Madwomen: Mining the Emotional Terrain of Toni Collette’s Anti-Star Persona

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Abstract

Since her breakthrough role in Muriel’s Wedding in 1994, Toni Collette has forged a career spanning the Australian and American screen industries. Favoring emotionally and physically challenging parts rather than glamorous roles, Collette has crafted an anti-star persona by playing women living with mental illness or psychological trauma, or mothers caring for family members with mental health issues. Chapter 4 discusses key films that helped establish Collette’s anti-star persona and explores the thematic and cultural resonances across these films, which share an interest in mental health and complex portrayals of motherhood. Toni Collette’s career offers a case study of the role (and roles) that Australian actors play in global Hollywood cinema and how these performances influence and shape contemporary Australian film.

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Acknowledgement

With sincere gratitude to the AFI Research Collection at RMIT University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of New England, Armidale, Australia

    Fincina Hopgood

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  1. Fincina Hopgood
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Adrian Danks

  2. School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Stephen Gaunson

  3. Department of Radio-Television-Film, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA

    Peter C. Kunze

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Hopgood, F. (2018). Of Mothers and Madwomen: Mining the Emotional Terrain of Toni Collette’s Anti-Star Persona. In: Danks, A., Gaunson, S., Kunze, P. (eds) American–Australian Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66676-1_5

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