Mamma mia!
Toni Collette is happy to take on comedic or dramatic roles, but she isn’t ready to dip her toes into anything too revealing.
Pvnew cheekily asked the Aussie actress whether she still would have signed on to star in “Mafia Mamma” — which filmed in Italy — if it had been a porno.
“I don’t mind which genre I work in, but I really can’t commit to doing porno,” she responded at the film’s New York premiere last Tuesday.
“That’s where the buck stops!” she jokingly added.
In the comedy, which is now in theaters and also stars Monica Bellucci, Collette travels to Italy to attend her grandfather’s funeral, only to discover he was a Mafia don and she has inherited his fiefdom.
The Oscar-nominated “Sixth Sense” star, 50, told us the script came to her “out of the blue.”
“It sounded too good to be true, shoots in Rome, but as I read it, I devoured it,” she shared. “I laughed my ass off. It felt like a nugget of gold that I just want to share with the world.”
And, of course, there was the opportunity to live in the Eternal City while filming.
“I already loved Italy,” Collette enthused. “I’ve spent a lot of time there, and to think I got to live there for a few months and work and experience day-to-day life was honestly a life-changing dream. It was such a gift and a total joy from beginning to end.”
The “Hereditary” star sounded slightly gobsmacked that “Mafia Mamma” — the first movie she’s produced — came together in the first place.
“It’s really hard getting a film made, lining everything up,” she explained. “It’s a miracle they ever get made — let alone released, let alone celebrated. I’m so proud of it. It means so much to me.
“It wasn’t just a highlight of my career; it was a highlight of my life, a profoundly joyous experience.”
Collette became an overnight star almost 30 years ago with the 1994 release of “Muriel’s Wedding.”
Even she can’t believe it’s been that long.
“Time is strange, isn’t it? This weird, elastic notion, like two minutes ago and a hundred years ago,” she mused. “‘Muriel’s Wedding,’ I’m forever grateful to that one. I love that character, I love the friends I made and so grateful.
“It changed my life. It gave me a career I never dreamed of. I grew up in Blacktown [in Australia] in a working-class family. The fact that I’m here, wearing Valentino, hello!”
