Happy New Year everybody. After a dismal theatrical release in the United States, “The Estate” will have its exclusive UK premiere in Sky Cinema from 13th January 2023. Radio Times has posted a compilation of interviews with the cast to promote its release: Australian actor Toni Collette is perhaps best known in recent years for her dark roles in Hereditary, Nightmare Alley, and The Staircase. But her upcoming movie The Estate, written and directed by Dean Craig, is something slightly different: a laugh-out-loud comedy. “I thought it was so outrageous, so much of it is so wrong and I love it,” she told RadioTimes.com on her initial reaction to the script. “I laughed my arse off and couldn’t stop, I wanted to do it immediately.” She continued: “I read it in the middle of COVID and it just brought me so much joy. I laughed out loud repeatedly and I thought, ‘I need that,’ and I feel the world might need that, too.” The Estate features an incredible ensemble cast made up of Anna Faris, David Duchovny, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ron Livingston and the legendary Kathleen Turner – whom Faris described working with as “terrifying and wonderful”. The complete article can be read over Radio Times.

Australian actor Toni Collette is perhaps best known in recent years for her dark roles in Hereditary, Nightmare Alley, and The Staircase. But her upcoming movie The Estate, written and directed by Dean Craig, is something slightly different: a laugh-out-loud comedy. “I thought it was so outrageous, so much of it is so wrong and I love it,” she told RadioTimes.com on her initial reaction to the script. “I laughed my arse off and couldn’t stop, I wanted to do it immediately. “I read it in the middle of COVID and it just brought me so much joy,” she continued. “I laughed out loud repeatedly and I thought ‘I need that’ and I feel the world might need that, too.” The Estate features an incredible ensemble cast made up of Anna Faris, David Duchovny, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ron Livingston and the legendary Kathleen Turner – whom Faris described working with as “terrifying and wonderful”. The complete article and interview can be read over at RadioTimes.com.

It was a really short shoot and I don’t know if we magicked it up or it came naturally but we did become a very tight unit very quickly. I think we both loved the idea that this is a film about a love between sisters and they are just so desperate that they would do absolutely anything and we did kind of cling to each other. They really rely on each other, they are different but they very much need each other and we very much needed each other too. (Toni Collette, Radio Times, October 31, 2022)

After last month’s Making a Scene video (see previous update), Variety has posted a lengthy article from this interview with Toni Collette: Each morning as Toni Collette brushes her teeth, an owl stares back at her. The stoic bird of prey is not perched outside her window but rather ornately sitting on her countertop, contorted into the shape of a ceramic coffee mug that she places her toothbrush into before she starts her day. “It’s there looking at me daily — twice a day if I’m dentally honest,” Collette says. “Maybe I need a new receptacle.” Even if its days as her morning companion are numbered, the mug is a surreal artifact of her newly Emmy-nominated turn as Kathleen Peterson, a North Carolina woman found dead at the bottom of her stairs in 2001 — a case dramatized by HBO Max’s true crime limited series “The Staircase.” The shocking death occupied headlines for months as her husband, Michael Peterson (played by Colin Firth), was tried and convicted of her murder — all of it later chronicled in a 2004 French documentary also called “The Staircase.” The making of that doc was part of the 2022 series. The complete interview can be read over at Variety.

I guess she is always kind of there because it’s all about the fallout from the loss of her. But this telling of this story was an opportunity to give Kathleen a voice, to make her real and whole, to allow her to live beyond the notion of ‘victim.’ (Toni Collette, Variety, August 06, 2022)

While Toni has rarely been overexposed in the promotional circuit for her work, it comes as a great surprise she’s front and center in this week’s press for the upcoming premiere of “The Staircase” on May 5. Cover stories from the British TV & Satellite Week and the Australian Foxtel have been added alongside more reviews and interviews (don’t get too happy about all the new interviews, it’s always the same :-) For a complete overview of all added scans, have a look at the list below.

Toni Collette graces the cover of this Sunday’s (April 24) Stellar, inside The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (Victoria), The Sunday Mail (Queensland) and Sunday Mail (SA). The “Muriel’s Wedding” star reflects on 30 years in the spotlight, and how older women are hitting their stride in Hollywood. Her schedule is as busy as ever on the heels of Best Picture nominee “Nightmare Alley”, the recent Netflix hit “Pieces of Her” and the upcoming HB Max / Sky miniseries “The Staircase”.

I was blown away when [I was] asked to play Kathleen, but I did take pause. I questioned the actual purpose of retelling this story of tragic loss and, guilty or not, I certainly didn’t want to further fan Michael Peterson’s narcissistic flame. When I realised I could help give Kathleen a voice beyond victimhood, I was in. We experience much more of Kathleen as a whole person, instead of being objectified as she was in the documentary.

Netflix has published an interview on how Toni Collette, Jessica Barden and director Minkie Spiro navigated Jane’s story, which contains spoilers to the series: Jane Queller is a teenage piano prodigy and heir to a corrupt millionaire whose life is turned upside down after she meets and falls in love with the leader of the Army of the Changing World (and budding domestic terrorist), Nick Harp. Laura Oliver is a middle-aged single mother whose quiet life gets interrupted when she stops a gunman at a local restaurant, making her famous overnight. The women could not be more different, and yet, they are the same. Pieces of Her follows Laura, played by Toni Collette, as she is forced to exit witness protection and confront her past life as Jane, played by Jessica Barden. Jane’s upbringing, including the pivotal moments that land her in government protection, unfolds via flashbacks teased throughout the season, takes shape in the second half. Minkie Spiro directed all eight episodes and was tasked with tracing the evolution of Jane’s trauma over multiple decades, two identities and two performers. “Trauma as a subject really fascinates me,” Spiro says. “I was interested in dealing with present trauma, but also how trauma rears its ugly head years later.” The complete interview can be read over at Netflix.