Here’s a nice Q&A with Toni as Out Magazine reports on the release of “Hearts Beat Loud” (which I thouht has been released in June?!): Toni Collette has held a firm place in our hearts — and given us karaoke goals — since her debut as gawky ABBA fangirl Muriel in 1994’s Muriel’s Wedding. This summer, The Aussie actress returned to horror (The Sixth Sense, anyone?) with Hereditary and got tuneful again in the queer-themed indie Hearts Beat Loud. Here, Collette dishes on music, her homeland, and Muriel’s lasting appeal.

What are your thoughts on 1994’s Australian film explosion, with Muriel’s Wedding and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert?
Those two films and Strictly Ballroom came flying out of the country in a very short period of time. It was exciting. I think those things are determined by the filmmakers. That’s what creates the wave. I don’t know if it’s happened since.

What do you remember about the reception of Muriel’s Wedding in America, and the splash you made as an actress?
I felt so alive and appreciative. It was such a surprise when people embraced that character. The movie was life-changing — it helped me embark on a career I never could have dreamed of.

Do you think the success of Muriel and Priscilla made it easier for American filmmakers to do more queer-targeted films?
Priscilla certainly did. It was so fun, but not without depth and poignancy. I don’t know if it opened doors for other films, but when something like that is available to people, it must.

Nice bit by THR‘s Scott Feinberg on Toni’s Oscar chances: People started talking about the Oscars earlier this year than most thanks to the critical and commercial successes of Disney’s Black Panther and Paramount’s A Quiet Place, as well as the doc features Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, from Focus, and RBG, from Magnolia. It may now be time to include another title in the discussion, as well: the A24 horror flick Hereditary. Hereditary marks the feature directorial debut of 31-year-old Ari Aster and stars Australian veteran Toni Collette as the matriarch of a family that faces a bizarre series of events after the death of her own mother. The film, which premiered at Sundance in January and also screened at March’s SxSW Film Festival en route to a June 8 opening in 2,200 theaters, has proven divisive. Critics have championed it (it’s at 91 percent on RottenTomatoes.com) and moviegoers have shown up for it (it grossed $28.1 million domestically in its first two weeks in theaters following the biggest-ever opening weekend for an A24 release). But many ticketbuyers have left it confused and unsatisfied (hence its D+ CinemaScore grade), not least because of its open-to-interpretation ending. Where are Academy members likely to land on the spectrum of reactions? That’s a tough question to answer. Collette’s performance, which admirers consider the best of her decades-long career, certainly appears to stand a better chance of being nominated than any other aspect of the film, but everything is obviously largely dependent on what the rest of the year brings. The complete article can be read here.

Lots and lots of magazine scans from around the world have been added to the photo gallery, all covering last week’s theatrical release of “Hereditary” (or this week, in Europe). Have a look at the previews below for a complete overview. Many thanks to Alvaro for sending in some of them. Much appreciated. Enjoy reading!

Photo Gallery – Magazines & Scans – Time Magazine (USA, June 18, 2018)
Photo Gallery – Magazines & Scans – The New Yorker (USA, June 18, 2018)
Photo Gallery – Magazines & Scans – The Observer (UK, June 10, 2018)
Photo Gallery – Magazines & Scans – Marie Claire (USA, June 2018)
Photo Gallery – Magazines & Scans – Fotogramas (Spain, June 2018)
Photo Gallery – Magazines & Scans – SFX Magazine (Australia, June 2018)
Photo Gallery – Magazines & Scans – Empire Magazine (Spain, June 2018)
Photo Gallery – Magazines & Scans – The Evening Standard (UK, June 18, 2018)
Photo Gallery – Magazines & Scans – Film Comment (USA, May/June 2018)

New York Magazine’s Vulture has a great lenghty interview with Toni Collette ahead of today’s “Hereditary” release. While they warn you that the interview features “some spoilers”, be aware that it features massive big-ass spoilers which you wouldn’t want to know if you’re going to see the film. This being said, here’s a preview alongside some amazing editorial pictures. The complete interview can be read over at Vulture: In the upcoming horror film Hereditary, written and directed by first-timer Ari Aster, Toni Collette conveys the entire spectrum of human emotion over the course of two terrifying hours. As Annie Graham — a woman who’s just lost her mother and begins to suspect she doesn’t know the entire truth about her complicated family — she’s at once a grieving daughter, a loving wife, a furious and protective mother, an impressionable follower, a confident artist, and a paranoid insomniac (and that’s just the first hour). “When this was sent to me, I had already said to my agent, ‘I don’t want to do anything heavy,’” Collette says. “’Don’t even think about sending me anything heavy.’ He called me, sheepishly: ‘I think you should be in this.’ He was right. I fucking love it, and I hate him for sending it.”

Here’s a great interview with Ari Aster and Toni Collette by Time Out New York: Outside: a thick snowfall. An icy midnight silence. But if you were in the theater during that shivery January weekend when Hereditary first traumatized its Sundance audiences, you were surrounded by a riot of noises. They mostly came from those of us in the crowd: low moans of dread exploding into full-throated shrieks, then laughter at how completely owned we were. A hypnotic stretch of stillness, followed by a quiet, John Carpenter–worthy reveal (and a wave of impressed applause). Finally, afterward, loading into the festival bus in a stunned, post-film daze, one perverse viewer clucked his tongue—a recurring motif in the movie—and everybody jumped. “Thanks a lot,” someone groused. “The hyperbole has been fun to soak in,” admits 31-year-old writer-director Ari Aster, responding to the praise that’s mushroomed around his feature debut, a supernatural nightmare about a suburban family’s descent into hell. “I think that’s probably not healthy,” he adds quickly. “I wasn’t aiming to make a horror landmark—I was aiming to make a horror film that I would like. Because I haven’t liked any in a long time.” Over a few beers at April’s genre-centric Overlook Film Festival in New Orleans, where Hereditary also killed, Aster is a sweet guy, prone to shy smiles, thoughtful pauses and self-deprecation. He’s somebody who listens to Martin Scorsese interviews on his iPhone, a geek who’d rather chat about Criterion Blu-rays than opening grosses. The complete interview can be read here.

The Los Angeles Times has published a terrific article and interview with Toni Collette today. An excerpt can be read below and the full article is available on their website. Toni Collette wasn’t looking for darkness when “Hereditary” came calling. But when the darkness found her – in the form of the unnerving saga of the Grahams, an American family haunted by tragedy, mental illness, and perhaps something supernatural – the opportunity was too delicious to pass up. “I wasn’t interested in doing anything heavy, but I picked up the script and I couldn’t stop reading it,” the Australian native explained one May morning, slipping into the same busy Westside eatery where, just over a year ago, writer-director Ari Aster convinced her to take the plunge and play a woman who begins to unlock cryptic family secrets after the death of her own estranged mother. The result, a claustrophobic chiller that distributor A24 releases June 8, features one of the most dynamic and memorable performances of Collette’s career, in what critics are calling the scariest film in years. Collette’s Annie Graham is many things. A miniatures artist who fills her home studio with dioramas of her own life, she recreates memories as a means of reclaiming control. A mother of two with a strained relationship with her own mom, she is overprotective of one of her children, and coldly resentful of the other. And when the unthinkable strikes, she struggles to cope with a sense of powerlessness that gives way to relentless dread as Aster spins his crumbling, nightmarish narrative.