Toni Collette on new film Goodbye June, and how she learned to do a Cork accent 

Australian star Toni Collette has strong links to Ireland, writes Esther McCarthy

 Toni Collette at a screening of Goodbye June, the directorial debut of Kate Winslet that's in cinemas in advance of a release on Netflix.  (Photo by Stephanie Augello/Getty Images)

On hearing that the journalist interviewing her is from Co  Cork, Toni Collette switches briefly and effortlessly to a spot-on Leeside lilt. It’s an accent she got an ear for while spending time in Cork, Wicklow and Dublin in the late 1990s and early noughties.

Ireland is a place she feels a great affection towards. She considered making a base here at one point and returned to work on Kerry filmmaker Gerard Barrett’s Glassland. Again she took on an Irish accent - this time Tallaght - when she played Jack Reynor’s troubled mother in the well-received drama.