Toni Collette was taken back to her childhood days splashing around in Sydney while filming at a water park in the US for her new movie.
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Collette, who plays a divorced woman with a teenage son in the coming-of age-film The Way, Way Back, admits she took advantage of the waterslides while on location at the Massachusetts park.
"I really utilised my time there, let me just put it that way," she said.
The low-budget movie was primarily shot in Marshfield, Massachusetts, and nearby areas - including the Water Wizz park, which plays itself.
"I grew up going to a water-theme park not dissimilar from Water Wizz in the movie, called Water Works in the western suburbs of Sydney. That was very familiar," Collette said.
The Oscar-nominated Australian actress and her family arrived in Massachusetts for filming on the evening of July 4, 2012, and were treated to a fireworks fanfare celebrating America's Independence Day holiday.
"I remember, all of a sudden, there were these massive noises. It sounded like bombs going off and things exploding. We walked outside, and we were totally jet-lagged, having flown from Australia," she recalled.
"We were standing there with our mouths agape. This is like a wonderland; what is happening? And it went on and on for hours, and it was lovely. I can't believe we actually slept through some of it."
In The Way, Way Back, Collette plays Pam, who goes to her boyfriend's beach house with her 14-year-old son in tow.
Steve Carell is the beau, Trent, and Liam James plays Pam's son, Duncan.
The teen and the audience witness a side of Trent that Pam doesn't in the opening scene.
Pam's son helps to reveal Trent's true nature in the course of the dramedy.
The film had been years in the making by actors, writers and first-time directors Jim Rash and Nat Faxon.
"I personally absolutely adore this movie, and I challenge anyone to dislike it. I don't think you could; it has such a good heart," Collette said.
"When I read it, I just thought, oh my God, this script is just so beautiful and so true and so funny and so sad and just very human and relatable."
The Way, Way Back is due to be released on August 1.
Meanwhile, Collette is about to begin working on a new CBS television series, Hostages.
In the suspense drama series, she plays a thoracic surgeon whose family is taken hostage by a rogue FBI agent who wants her to kill the US president.
AAP
