Rosie: The new musical, The Wild Party, is based on a legendary jazz era poem written in the 20s that tells the story of Queenie, her abusive boyfriend, and the wild party that changes their lives forever. Here to perform “The Lowdown Down”, please welcome Oscar nominee, Toni Collette!
Toni then goes on the sing “The Lowdown Down”
Toni: Want a sip?
Rosie: No! Toni Collette, we’re going to chat with her. Oscars this weekend, we’re gonna talk about it. Don’t go away. (pans back and over the music you can hear Rosie say to Toni) Go get changed.
(cut to commercials)
Rosie: Back with Toni Collette, what a wonderful performance at the Virginia Theater, “The Wild Party”, it opens in April right?
Toni: Yeah April 13th.
Rosie: So how tired are you from all the previews?
Toni: I’m pretty damn exhausted, I think being on Broadway is like being in the army.
Rosie: It is! And you don’t know it until you get in it!
Toni: No, we rehearse all day. It’s during previews, cause it’s a new piece we’re restructing it and merging different songs and cutting some stuff and adding new stuff and... It’s great, it’s exciting to be a part of but it’s just so exhausting and then we’re performing at night as well as rehearsing all day.
Rosie: Yeah and very,very long days until ya open.
Toni: MM, but I love it.
Rosie: And you know what? You’re a great singer, who knew?
Toni: Thank you.
Rosie: Had you ever done a musical before?
Toni: No, but you made me sing last time I was on the show. (laughing)
Rosie: I know, I don’t want to take credit but...!
Toni: You discovered it, baby! (laughing)
Rosie: Come on Toni I saw it in you, a voice. How did they know to ask you? They just heard you could sing?
Toni: Um, I had actually been offered a job through another director and it got back to one of the producers of The Wild Party when the original Queenie dropped out so i was on my way to New York anyway. It just kinda happened. It was quite natural and...
Rosie: Well, I can’t wait to see it. I’m coming opening night.
Toni: Cool, see ya there.
Rosie: I hear it’s really wonderful.
Toni: Champagne baby!
Rosie: Alright now, what are you doing? Getting on a plane and going out to-for the Oscars? Nominated for the Sixth Sense Ladies and Gentlemen.
Toni: Thank you
Rosie: Really, really brilliant. I was so happy you were nominated.
Toni: Thank you.
Rosie: Where were you when you found out?
Toni: In bed. (laughing)
Rosie: Were you?
Both at the same time: Dead asleep. I was asleep. (laughs)
Toni: Yeah I had no idea, I got a couple calls from people, actually quite a few calls from people. Um, but I do a matinee on Saturday and then head out straight after that and get in late Saturday night, and I’m so excited cause my parents will be there and I get to see them.
Rosie: Flying from Australia?
Toni: Yeah.
Rosie: Oh, that’s nice.
Toni: Haven’t seen them since Christmas; it’ll be cool.
Rosie: And are you all worried about what to wear and the whole sha-bang?
Toni: Um, well, it is yet to be decided
Rosie: Yeah.
Toni: Which is a little worrying. But there are a few different prime pieces to choose from.
Rosie: Cause don’t they all like call and say, you’re nominated, let me make you a dress.
Toni: Yeah it’s been quite-some of the perks are outrageous actually!
Rosie: Yeah.
(Both laugh)
Rosie: And you get a lotta of free stuff, you know? You get a bag.
Toni: Yeah, pressies here, pressie there.
Rosie: It’s not too tough.
Toni: Not too bad, not too shabby. (giggles)
Rosie: Um, the story I read in the press, don’t know if it’s true, you faked an appendix attack?
Toni: Ahh, yes, very embarrassing. (giggles)
Rosie: To get out of school when you were a kid?
Toni: I can’t believe she admitted that. I shouldn’t have-and it followed such an embarrassing event!
Rosie: Yes.
Toni: Um, yes I did, I did fake my appendicitis and they, um, you know, rushed me into the emergency room and took them out and then I came home and there was nothing wrong with me and I got to go home and watch the sound of music on video over and over and over. (laughs)
Rosie: Now, that is an unbelievable—how old were you?
Toni: Eleven.
Rosie: And you were a good actress, even then! How did you even know where the appendix was, on which side?
(Toni laughs)
Toni: My mom, well, my- well, the reason I think that it sprung to mind when I was, um, sprang to mind when I was eleven was because my, my mother told me she had hers taken out when she was eleven. And that when the doctor pushed in it didn’t hurt and the thing that was the most surprising about appendicitis was that when they released was when it hurt. So I was taken to the doctor, in-no, out-AHH, and straight in to the emergency room...(laughs)
Rosie: Oh my gosh, that’s way to much information for an eleven year old!
Toni: I know!
Rosie: Now have you ever told your mom that-that it was a fake?
Toni: She-They’re not aware of it.
Rosie: They’re not?
Toni: (Shakes her head) mm-mm-mm.
Rosie: They don’t fly in ‘til tomorrow.
Toni: That’s right.
Rosie: They don’t get this show in Australia!
Toni: (Shakes her finger at Rosie) You keep away from them! (laughs)
Rosie: You’re lucky because-that-they would probably be so horrified and embarrassed.
Toni: Um, yeah, probably, not as mortified as I would be though .
Rosie: Yeah.
(Toni groans)
Rosie: I would do stuff like that, never to the point of surgery.
(audience laughs)
Rosie: But I’d always like, I’d always go-
Toni: (interrupting) Oh my God! it sounds so extreme, it’s just-just...(laughing)
Rosie: No-no, I’m just saying I can relate, I’d would do this (heavy breathing) really-‘til I got bronchitis.
Toni: Oh.
Rosie: Like you can make yourself cough, if you do that. And I’d do it all night and then in the morning my mother would come in and I’d go cough-cough; she’d go, oh bronchitis and I’d stay home. I missed a day of school every year of elementary school.
Toni: Oh wow...
Rosie: Every week-I missed-I picked one day and I stayed home.
Toni: Every week?!?
Rosie: One-once
Toni: (interrupting) Once a week?!?
Rosie: Yeah, I only went four days.
Toni: How’d you get away with that?
Rosie: I was very sick, I had bronchitis.
Toni: Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
Rosie: Like you’re one to talk, Ms. Appendicitis. How’d I get away with that? A doctor didn’t at least cut me open and remove an organ!
(Toni laughing hard)
Rosie: Now how do you like living in New York?
Toni: I could be living on the moon! All I do is go to work and come home. Is this New York?
Rosie: It is New York.
Toni: It’s-yeah, well I can’t wait ‘til we get up and running cause then I can actually have a life and enjoy this place...
Rosie: Yeah, and you’ll get to, you know, there’s a great Broadway community, you’ll get to see all the other actors afterwards, you go out to Joe Allen’s.
Toni: (nodding) Yeah...
Rosie: You know, it’s a really wonderful experience, I-I hope that you enjoy it.
Toni: Yeah, it’s good, so far I’m loving it.
Rosie: Are you nervous at all about the Oscars or not?
Toni: I haven’t had time to think about it. Um, mm, I’m sure I will be when I get there.
Rosie: Yeah? Well good luck to you. You know, you really deserve to win. It’s a brilliant, brilliant performance Toni.
Toni: Aww, thank you very much.
Rosie: And Muriel’s Wedding, probably my favorite movie ever!
Toni: I get to see her in L.A. as well.
Rosie: You tell her I said hello.
Toni: I shall, I shall.
Rosie: I love her, I want her to come on my show as well, What’s her name?
Toni: Jeanie Drynan.
Rosie: I need her on my show.
Toni: Ok, I’ll...(says something mis-understandable)
Rosie: Remember with the sandals that she stole at the store?
Toni: And the bunyons. Twisted. (laughs)
Rosie: Oh! (gets vechlempt)
Toni: Oh, so sad.
(Both act vechlempt)
Rosie: We’ll be right back.
(Toni laughs, Music starts)
Rosie: Did you cry during...(music fades them out)
(Cheering and Clapping)
And you were so good in that.
(Toni makes a silly face at Rosie, like she’s pleased that Rosie said that)
With the ABBA thing and the mother with the sandals, and the lawn that got burned.
