The actress recalls advice she received from a friend: “Why don’t you play the hot mess?”

For much of the time that director Catherine Hardwicke‘s new indie “Miss You Already” was in development, Toni Collette was attached to play the role that eventually went to Drew Barrymore.

As the Australian actress recalled in an interview with TheWrap’s Steve Pond at the Toronto Film Festival, she got some telling advice from a friend: “You have to stop playing these kind of grounded, supporting roles. Why don’t you play the hot mess?”

In the film, Barrymore and Collette play childhood best friends whose relationship hits a rough patch when Barrymore’s character struggles to have a baby and Collette’s learns she has breast cancer.

The film, from a script by Morwenna Banks, also stars Dominic Cooper, Paddy Considine and Jacqueline Bisset.
Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate are releasing the film domestically on Nov. 6.