Toni Collettes First Reaction To Getting Cast In ‘The Sixth Sense’ Was ‘Ugh’

April 25, 2023
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Toni Collette’s sixth sense was actually pretty spot-on — even if she thought it was a bit off at first.

The “Power” star recently revealed to Entertainment Weekly that she was initially disappointed when she was offered a role that would ultimately change her career.

In a video for the entertainment magazine, the Australian actor said that a few years after she starred in the 1994 cult classic “Muriel’s Wedding,” she flew to New York City to meet with two directors about potential roles. One director was the famed Martin Scorsese, who was eyeing Collette for a part in “Bringing Out the Dead.” The other was a largely unknown filmmaker named M. Night Shyamalan, who was interested in casting Collette in a mid-budget horror flick called “The Sixth Sense.”

Collette could only commit to one of the projects, and she admitted to EW that she was way more excited about one than the other.

“Night hadn’t done anything. Scorsese’s Scorsese,” Collette said. “So, I had both my meetings and I had my hopes.”

Haley Joel Osment as Cole and Toni Collette as Cole’s mother, Lynn, in 1999’s “The Sixth Sense.”
Haley Joel Osment as Cole and Toni Collette as Cole’s mother, Lynn, in 1999’s “The Sixth Sense.”

Getty Images via Getty Images

Collette said that after her meetings with Scorsese and Shyamalan, she was walking around New York with a friend one day when she randomly had “a feeling some news [had] come through.” She found a pay phone and called her hotel to see if she had any voice messages. (Keep in mind this was the ’90s, and cellphones and texts weren’t really a thing yet.)

“And there was indeed a message from my agent and my manager at the time,” Collette said. “And I could feel they’re all excited.”

Collette said that when she finally got in touch with her agent, her intuition that she’d been cast in “Bringing Out the Dead” was so strong that she began to scream with joy.

“[My agent] goes, ‘No, no, no, no, wait, you didn’t hear me. You’ve been offered The Sixth Sense.’ And I was like, ‘Ugh!’” Collette recalled, before bursting into laughter.

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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK1CwgSRXbE?rel=0&start=141&enablejsapi=1]

“The Sixth Sense,” in which Collette co-starred with Bruce Willis and a young Haley Joel Osment, became a cultural phenomenon. The film, which had a $40 million budget, ultimately made a whopping $672.8 million at the box office thanks to word-of-mouth hype for its shocking twist ending. It also garnered six Academy Award nominations — including a Best Actress in a Supporting Role nod for Collette — a feat virtually unheard of for a genre movie.

In hindsight, Collette said, doing the film was a great move ― and a great experience.

“There are no coincidences in life,” Collette said of the movie. “I think you get the experiences you’re meant to have for your soul’s growth. And that movie was so meaningful on so many levels. I still have great friends from that time, and that [movie] really changed my career.”

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