When reminded that this year an actor sued the internet site IMDb for ruining her career by publishing her real age, Collette laughs. ''But it's honest. That's so funny,'' she says. ''I'm proud of my years, man. I'm doing some exciting things and kind of feel very lucky and fortunate, so that's crazy talk.''
Proudly 40, then, Collette is an actor incredibly well regarded by her peers. She is known for completely inhabiting characters, physically and mentally, yet she still loves to have fun. On The Way Way Back, she enjoyed being the big kid with the other big-name actors - Carell, Alison Janney, Sam Rockwell - while the young actors were the focus, revelling in a set with two directors who created ''a relaxed, easygoing vibe''.
When she realised that Liam James, playing son Duncan, and Rockwell had many scenes around and on the waterslides at Water Wizz, while Collette's Pam never has a ride, there was one solution for an actor who puts as much work into relaxing on set as working: ''I did it about 30 times after they closed one day.''
Collette is now playing in New York, based there for Jerry Bruckheimer's Hostages, her first significant role in a free-to-air American television series. ''I play a surgeon who has been chosen to operate on the president of the United States of America, and the night before this well-publicised surgery she and her family are taken hostage and they try to convince her to do all the wrong things to the president.''
Observing that the role is of another mother is no concern. Collette cringes only at the suggestion she might be playing an all-action surgeon. It is a Bruckheimer show, after all, but, while the show will unfold in a real-time style similar to the series 24, Collette promises to deliver another unique character.
A long list of future roles awaits, and Australia has its share - ''I love working at home,'' she says. And what about theatre? Collette's first roles were a school production of Godspell and the lead in a Bicentennial musical. A few Sydney Theatre Company and Belvoir roles later, she was nominated for a Tony Award in 2000 for her performance in The Wild Party on Broadway. ''I'm definitely open to it,'' she says of treading the boards again. ''[It's] just a matter of the right thing, and scheduling, because, man, if you've got to do it night after night, you want to love it and find it endlessly interesting.''
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