Australian actress Toni Collette almost quit her role on upcoming movie Grassland when she found it impossible to perfect an Irish accent.
The veteran actress has adopted a number of onscreen dialects during her 24-year career but admits she finally met her match playing a Dublin-based drug addict in the gritty new drama.
She was struggling so badly on her first day on set she even phoned her husband and threatened to quit, but she eventually mastered the tricky twang with the help of a voice coach.
"Glassland was filmed in a part of Dublin with a very specific accent. I loved the script but I was very nervous about doing the accent," she told UK talk show host Graham Norton.
" I arrived on the set and sat down with a dialect coach and turned myself into a knot. I actually called my husband and cried and said, 'I cannot do this, I think they are going to have to re-cast'. It freaked me out so much but I relaxed and just did it. I was at least consistent!"
* The Graham Norton show airs in Australia on the Ten Network.
