Toni Collette has had some iconic horror roles. However, she recently revealed that she was unaware what she was getting into during her first foray into the genre.
Collette told Q With Tom Power that she didn’t realize that The Sixth Sense was a horror movie when she began filming.
“IÂ just thought it was a beautiful, spiritual story,” she said, laughing.
The United States of Tara star played Lynn Sear, mother to the supernaturally gifted Cole (Haley Joel Osment), in The Sixth Sense. Collette was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the M. Night Shyamalan film.
She realized that the movie was a horror film when she passed by the makeshift editing bay on set. The editors were cutting together the scene when Cole finds the ghost of a dead girl named Kyra, played by Mischa Barton.
“She reaches out and grabs him,” Collette said. “And the way it was shot, I was like, ‘Oh, holy s—, I think this is a horror movie.'”
Mischa Barton in ‘The Sixth Sense’.
Buena Vista
Shyamalan previously broke down the pivotal scene in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“[Cole’s] feeling that his life has become a horror movie,” Shyamalan said. “When she comes out from under the bed, the movie is saying, ‘Hey, we don’t belong to those tropes.’ That scene is about it changing to the experiences of humans.”
Collette said that the horror films she has starred in are “beautiful dramas” that take the story a step further. The Hereditary actress added that all of the scary movies she has done have an element that “sensationalizes” them.
“Hereditary is just a heartbreaking story about family, grief, and disconnection,” she noted.
While Collette has said she isn’t a big horror fan, she currently stars in the new horror-thriller series Wayward on Netflix. The show premiered Sept. 25.
Listen to the full interview with Toni Collette on Q With Tom Power below.