“We all do things we’d rather forget,” says Toni Collette in a new trailer for “Pieces of Her.” A trailer for the Netflix thriller based on Karin Slaughter’s bestselling novel suggests that the Oscar nominee and Emmy winner is playing a character who excels at keeping secrets — until a shooting at a local diner changes her life overnight. Laura (Collette) is celebrating her daughter Andy’s (Bella Heathcote, “The Man in the High Castle”) birthday with dinner when a random act of violence sets off an unexpected chain of events. Laura intervenes when a gunman terrorizes the diner, swiftly taking control over the situation and shocking everyone — including Andy — with her physical prowess. A recording of the incident goes viral, and exposes Laura’s true identity to dangerous enemies from her past.
“You ever have that thing where you think you know someone as well as you can possibly know anyone, and then one day you were totally wrong?” Andy asks. She begs her mother to tell her “the truth” and answer one question: “Who are you?”
Laura is less interested in providing Andy with answers than getting her out of town ASAP. “You don’t have much time. You have to leave. You can’t talk to anyone, OK?” she begs. “No calls. No texting. Nothing. There are just some things you don’t understand.”
Collette received an Oscar nod for “The Sixth Sense.” The four-time Emmy nominee took home the prize for Outstanding Leading Actress in a Comedy Series for “United States of Tara.” Her recent credits include “Knives Out” and “I’m Thinking of Ending Things.” Collette is re-teaming with her “Miss You Already” director Catherine Hardwicke on “Mafia Mamma,” a comedy about a suburban American woman who inherits a Mafia empire, and is set to make her directorial debut with “Writers and Lovers,” an adaptation of Lily King’s book about an aspiring novelist who finds herself in a love triangle.
Directed by Minkie Spiro (“The Plot Against America,” “Dead to Me”), “Pieces of Her” launches on Netflix March 4. Charlotte Stoudt (“Fosse/Verdon,” “Homeland”) serves as showrunner.
