Toni Collette says that at 11 she exaggerated a stomachache so convincingly that doctors removed her appendix.
A real stomachache became an appendectomy after she played up her symptoms, using something her mother had told her to make the performance convincing.
Her mother had undergone the same surgery at 11 and explained that the pain came when a doctor released pressure on her abdomen. Collette remembered that detail during her own examination. “And so I just knew when to react appropriately,” she said in 2006.
In a 2004 interview, Collette recalled gasping when the specialist lifted his hand. She said she was “cut open that day.”
Afterward, she remembered the doctor seeming “slightly miffed” and telling her, “Yes, they were slightly infected.” That’s part of her account, too: she’s described faking the symptoms, but also recalled the doctor reporting some infection.
Her explanations for doing it have varied. In 2004, she said, “It wasn’t about getting out of school.”
In 2010, she offered, “I guess I wanted the day off of school,” and said the doctor sent her to the emergency room. “I never owned up to it.”
She’d explained in a 2003 Ellen appearance that her parents eventually learned the story from a Time Out New York cover while she was appearing on Broadway.
Looking back in 2013, Collette said, “I was 11, I had a slight pain, I just exaggerated.” She added, “In retrospect I can’t believe I did it.”
