Toni Collette Courtesy of Getty Images Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Toni Collette, whose breakthrough role was the socially awkward title character in 1994's Muriel's Wedding, has never shied away from playing women who downplay their attractiveness. In Curtis Hanson's comedy/drama In Her Shoes, which had its world premiere at TIFF in 2005, the Australian actress starred as a slightly dowdy, buttoned-up lawyer who finds herself at odds with her flashier, if unreliable, sister, played by Cameron Diaz, as well as a long-lost grandmother portrayed by Shirley MacLaine. But as Collette walked the red carpet at Roy Thompson Hall, she looked every bit as glamorous as her two co-stars. Collette, MacLaine testified as they made press rounds for the film, "is one of the best there is. Really. So much so that her natural beauty and glamour gets dwarfed when she commits to a character ... That's how brave she is." Related Stories Movies Lydia Peckham Went From Playing a CGI Ape to TIFF Historical Drama 'Nuremberg' Music K-pop Girl Group IVE Dishes on Favorite Tracks From New Album 'IVE Secret' Joining in the mutual admiration society, Collette, in turn, paid tribute to the veteran actress. "I was nervous initially and I thought I would be very intimidated, but having met her, she's just so grounded and such a strong woman," Collette said. "She's all about truth, there's no crap with Shirley, which I really admire." Collette's chameleon-like abilities will be on display once again at this year's festival, where she's set to accompany the unveiling of the Netflix miniseries Wayward, in which she plays the ominous lead counselor at Tall Pines Academy, a rehabilitation camp for troubled teens. Promises Mae Martin, who created the multi-part thriller, "Toni is one of those few actors who really understands the joke and can be so dryly funny, but then also absolutely terrifying." THR Newsletters Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day Subscribe Sign Up TIFF 2025 Lydia Peckham Went From Playing a CGI Ape to TIFF Historical Drama 'Nuremberg' Heat Vision One Battle After Another Ends for Warner Bros. Movie Chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy Heat Vision 'My Hero Academia' Live-Action Movie Nabs 'Welcome to Derry' Co-Creator as Writer (Exclusive) Toronto Film Festival See Emile Hirsch in Horror-Comedy 'Lice' (Exclusive First Look) Heat Vision Guillermo del Toro's 'Frankenstein' Gets the 'Art & Making of' Book Treatment (First-Look) Toronto International Film Festival 2025 'Julian' Review: A Lesbian Couple Takes on an Unfair World in a Poignant Belgian Drama of Queer Love, Loss and Bravery TIFF 2025 Lydia Peckham Went From Playing a CGI Ape to TIFF Historical Drama 'Nuremberg' Heat Vision One Battle After Another Ends for Warner Bros. Movie Chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy Heat Vision 'My Hero Academia' Live-Action Movie Nabs 'Welcome to Derry' Co-Creator as Writer (Exclusive) Toronto Film Festival See Emile Hirsch in Horror-Comedy 'Lice' (Exclusive First Look) Heat Vision Guillermo del Toro's 'Frankenstein' Gets the 'Art & Making of' Book Treatment (First-Look) Toronto International Film Festival 2025 'Julian' Review: A Lesbian Couple Takes on an Unfair World in a Poignant Belgian Drama of Queer Love, Loss and Bravery