When Toni Collette read the script for “Mafia Mama,” her reaction was swift and enthusiastic: “Oh yeah! I gotta do this one!”
It’s no big surprise as to why the Oscar-nominated actress thought that. The story follows an Italian woman with low self-esteem, who is overlooked and mistreated by misogynistic men in her life – from her cheating husband to the cavalcade of chauvinists at work – but gets her life on track when she becomes a mafia “godmother.” The movie has it all — it’s fast-paced action, it’s laugh-out-loud funny and it’s brutally violent in places. The gruesome moments are such an antithesis to the funny ones that those extremes become that much more powerful.
“Oh my God. It’s such an uplifting, feel-good, empowering, unusual, very unique, hilarious romp,” Collette told TheWrap, adding that the film is “wet your pants funny.”
“When this came to me, it was during COVID, and it was just like holding a beacon of light. I was like, ‘I have got to dive into this light and then spread the light.’ It is that, it is light,” she said of the “Mafia Mamma” script. “And the feeling of making it was the same. I’ve never had so much fun in my life. It is literally the best job of my life. And not just the best job of my life — one of the best experiences of my personal life. It was huge for me.”
But at the root of it, “Mafia Mamma” really is a female empowerment movie. “She starts out as someone who I don’t think knows herself very well. She lives for other people and always puts everybody else first,” Collette said. “She’s kind of in a bit of a bereft moment where the window is open and she could change her life, but she is so full of fear. So many people stay in the comfort of their own discomfort without even realizing they actually have the opportunity to change their lives. And she wouldn’t, but she gets this call from out of the blue. The grandfather she didn’t know existed, has died.”
And the adventure of a lifetime begins when she is summoned to Italy to take over the family business – the “mafia family,” that is.
“She won’t go, but she has this unbelievably strong best friend who pushes her out the door. And it’s for her own good, because she doesn’t even know what’s good for her,” Collette said. “She finds out so much about herself, and I think when you are challenged, that’s where the good growth happens. So she finds all kinds of strength and joy and a sense of freedom and autonomy and strength and power. It’s a non-dogmatic, empowerment story. And so by the end, she is a total badass.”
Hardwicke and the producers wanted to keep the reality of the mob world, violence and all. In fact, Kristin literally at one point has to fight for her life. And that, Collette said, was the turning point for her character, where she decides to just live her life. “And it’s such a brilliant moment,” Collette smiled.
You can watch the entire interview in the video at the top, where Collette also talks about being directed by Catherine Hardwicke, shooting the film’s most shocking scene and how “Mafia Mamma” is like Collette’s breakout film, “Muriel’s Wedding” in 1994.
