Toni Collette Shimmers in Silver at Mickey 17 Premiere, Says ‘It Was Bloody Brilliant’ to Work on the Sci-Fi Comedy (Exclusive)
“I was pinching myself the whole time,” the actress told PEOPLE about working with Oscar winner Bong Joon Ho
JOE MAHER/GETTY
Toni Collette shimmered in silver at the London premiere of her latest film, Mickey 17.
The Oscar-nominated actress arrived dripping in crystals at the Thursday, Feb. 13, premiere of the sci-fi comedy.
Collette, 52, donned a silver form-fitting gown that was adorned in sequins and crystals. The sequins gathered at her waist and expanded to create an intricate hourglass effect.
A coordinating cape gave the effect of dripping sequins.
She accessorized with a pair of tiered dangle drop crystal earrings and silver rings with floral designs.
JOE MAHER/GETTY
Her glam included her blonde hair in a slick back, half-up half-down hairdo. Her makeup was a soft glam look, with a light metallic eyeshadow and a coordinating bold red lipstick that matched her bright red manicure perfectly.
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At the premiere, Collette told PEOPLE exclusively how ecstatic she was to work on director Bong Joon Ho’s latest feature film. Collette stars alongside Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun and Mark Ruffalo in the upcoming comedy.
“I mean I got to work with Bong Joon Ho, are you kidding me?” the actress said of her experience on set. “It was bloody brilliant, all of it,” she told PEOPLE. “I was pinching myself the whole time.”
The Emmy winner said that she hopes audiences “have a lot of fun” watching the film, which she believes is about the idea that “we all matter.”
MIKE MARSLAND/WIREIMAGE
The film follows an unlikely hero named Mickey Barnes (Pattinson), who, per a synopsis, “has found himself in the extraordinary circumstance of working for an employer who demands the ultimate commitment to the job … to die, for a living.”
But each time Mickey dies, a new version of him is generated through a human-printing process. He’s then sent back to a dangerous job over and over again.
At CinemaCon in Las Vegas in April 2024, Pattinson teased the film and expressed his excitement for playing “two very fun characters,” according to Entertainment Weekly.
“Mickey 17 is someone who has the lowest expectations of his life, and yet the world keeps pushing those expectations, to the point where he has a job that tortures him every day. And then 18 comes along, and he’s got frontal lobe damage and no self-control, libido out of control,” he explained. “It’s like playing an evil brother or twin.”
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Mickey 17 is in theaters on Friday, March 7.
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‘Mickey 17’ First Reactions Praise Bong Joon Ho’s ‘Zany’ and ‘Deeply Chaotic’ Return as the ‘Perfect Allegory for the Hellscape Stage of Capitalism We’re in’
By J. Kim Murphy
It’s been nearly six years since Bong Joon Ho‘s last feature “Parasite” debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, beginning a months-long rollout that ended with it becoming the first foreign language feature to win best picture at the Oscars. Bong received a warm welcome in his return to the spotlight at the London premiere of his long-awaited follow-up, “Mickey 17,” on Thursday evening.
Adam McKay, who wrote and directed comedies like “Anchorman” and “The Other Guys” as well as Oscar-nominated features like “The Big Short” and “Don’t Look Up,” sang his praises for the film, calling it “a perfect allegory for the hellscape stage of capitalism we’re in right now.”
Culture writer and progenitor of the #BongHive fandom Karen Han shared that “Mickey 17” is “worth the wait” and sports “really wonderful performances from Robert Pattinson.”
IndieWire chief film critic David Ehrlich is reserving his full thoughts for the review embargo Saturday, but wrote “rest assured that Bong Joon Ho is still very good at making movies.”
Fandango managing director Erik Davis called the film an “absolute riot” and praised the first half as “tremendous” before the film “settles into something more powerful and timely in classic Bong fashion.”
Games Radar entertainment editor Emily Murray described the feature as “thrilling” and “zany,” while feeling “incredibly urgent in today’s world.”
Globe and Mail film editor Barry Hertz was a touch more measured in his praise, but asserted his belief that Bong “got final cut on this deeply chaotic tour into humanity’s worst instincts.” He also highlighted Mark Ruffalo’s performance as the film’s villain, saying he does the “best Trump of our generation.”
The integrity of the final cut of “Mickey 17” had been a worry among some Bong fans, who haven taken note of how Warner Bros. has nudged the film around its theatrical schedule. Principal photography took place in 2022 and an original release date of March 2024 had been set. When initial delays were announced, Variety reported that the decision was made to secure an Imax release window and allow more time for an ample post-production schedule. Based on these first reactions, “Mickey 17” has proven to be as idiosyncratic as Bong’s other films.
Based on the 2022 novel “Mickey7” by Edward Ashton, “Mickey 17” stars Robert Pattinson as an “expendable”: a recruit that is sent on fatal missions colonizing an ice planet and then “reprinted” with most of his memories intact. Along with Ruffalo, the cast also includes Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie and Toni Collette.
“Mickey 17” will also screen at this month’s Berlin International Film Festival. It releases in theaters in the U.S. on March 7. It will debut in Bong’s native South Korea on Feb. 28.
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Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Bong Joon Ho Leave London Starstruck at ‘Mickey 17’ World Premiere
Pattinson talked about the movie’s ‘Star Wars’ scale and why Bong was on his bucket list of directors, while Steven Yeun also sang his praises, and Ackie emphasized the importance of love.
BY GEORG SZALAI
Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette, and writer-director Bong Joon Ho were among those walking the red carpet for the world premiere of Mickey 17 on Thursday evening that left Londoners starstruck.
Mickey 17 is the director’s first feature since his historic Oscar sweep with Parasite. “Bong is one of the directors I just wanted to work with my entire career,” Pattinson told The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet. “I saw Memories of Murder when I was a teenager, and he was just one of my bucket list directors. And he was absolutely incredible.”
Calling him “just a complete master,” Pattinson said he was proud to get the chance to be “working with one of the top five directors working today.”
The star didn’t know Ackie, who plays Mickey’s love interest, before the film. “I just got on with her really well from the beginning,” Pattinson shared with THR. “We went out for a drink, and she’s hilarious.”
Pattinson also didn’t know anything about the story of the film before he agreed to the lead role. “I wanted to work with Director Bong so much, and I kind of said yes before I’d even seen the script, and he wouldn’t tell me what it was about,” he said with a laugh. “I mean, this is a pretty bizarre movie when you see the script. You’re like: What!? How is this happening? When you see how bizarre the script is and then see that the scale is like Star Wars, I mean it’s really, really, really crazy. But I just like being surprised and inspired by things.”
Ackie told THR that the relationship between Mickey and her character Nasha is central to the film. “It’s at the core of the story,” she said. “Amongst everything else, it is a love story. There’s something so special about Nasha and the way that she loves Mickey through all of his phases and is willing to fiercely defend him. I think we all need a Nasha in our corner.”
What did her friends say when they found out she would play opposite heartthrob Pattinson? “They freaked out!” she replied with a laugh.
Ackie also sang the praises of Bong. “It was a dream,” she told THR. “I have worked with amazing directors, and he managed to combine compassion and warmth and joy mixed with preparation and dedication. And the fact that he manages to mingle all those things together and produce work like this is insane to me. I can only just stand in awe.”
In the film, Pattinson plays Mickey Barnes, a space colonist known as an expendable. Expendables do the most dangerous jobs the colony has to offer, and often die in the process, only to be brought back to life via human printing technology.
Pattinson plays Mickey 17 and Mickey 18 in most of the story. At CinemaCon, the star said he gave the men different characteristics. Mickey 17 is beaten down by life, but happy to be part of the time, while Mickey 18 is like “an evil brother” who “is out of control.”
“The book features the concept of human printing, and in that, there’s just so much human drama,” Bong told THR at Thursday’s world premiere about why the book that the movie is based on spoke to him. “So I was immediately captivated by it.”
Edward Ashton originated the world shown in the film in his 2022 novel Mickey 7, which centers on the seventh iteration of Mickey Barnes. For the movie, however, that number was increased to 17. “The number is the number of times he dies. I killed him 10 times more,” Bong noted to laughs at CinemaCon in April when he introduced the first footage of the film. “It’s a sci-fi movie, but it’s a human story.”
On Thursday, he told THR: “Of course, I wanted him to go through many more deaths (than in the novel), but it’s not like I wanted to create a serial killer movie. Ultimately, I also wanted to show him overcome the suffering and provide a piece of hope and optimism through his journey.”
Human printing has some parallels with the current debate about AI and its role in society. “It is this advanced technology, but no one knows what it is and how to exactly deal with it,” Bong offered. “And I think it’s the same with AI. People talk about how amazing AI is, but we’re at a loss on what to do with it and all the ethical complications that arise from it.”
Yeun was welcomed on the red carpet by excited fans chanting his name like they did with other castmembers. And the actor told THR how special it was for him to work with the director again after their collaboration on Okja. “He’s one of my favorite people and, obviously, one of my favorite artists,” Yeun said. “Getting to work with him a second time around was a joy — having a shorthand, having an understanding, we just played.”
What makes Bong so special? “First off, craft-wise, skill-wise, he’s just incredibly devoted, and the amount of prep and the amount of care he has for the whole thing really allows everybody participating with him to engage with it in their own way and bring themselves to it,” Yeun explained. “But beyond that, he’s also an incredible artist who is just diving deep into the well of creativity and not trying to tell [us] what to do, but letting it reveal itself.”
Producers Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Dooho Choi also hit the event in the British capital before the sci-fi black comedy brings glamour to the 75th edition of the Berlin Film Festival.
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