Nicholas Hoult told Toni Collette that every time he sees her in a movie he says, 'That's my mom!'

Toni Collette has been the movie mom to a lot of great young actors, among them Nicholas Hoult, with whom she starred in the 2002 dramedy About a Boy.

While discussing some of her most iconic roles, from Muriel's Wedding to The Sixth Sense to Hereditary for EW's Role Call, the Oscar-nominee recalls how proud she is of seeing Hoult grow as an actor and the maternal bond she still has with him.

Dia Dipasupil/Getty; Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty (l-r) Nicholas Hoult and Toni Collette

Based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Nick Hornby, About a Boy starred Hugh Grant as spoiled, philandering cad Will Freeman who uses young Marcus Brewer (Hoult) to aid his dating life by posing as his son. Collette, replacing Emma Thompson, played Marcus' depressed, suicidal mother Fiona.

"I kinda felt ripped off. My character was the saddo," Collette joked. "Everyone else is having the time of their lives and I'm the suicidal lady with balls of snot hanging out of her nose in the kitchen."

Despite being the saddo, Collette had nothing but praise for the writers and directors of the film, Paul and Chris Weitz, and for her on-screen son.

Universal/courtesy Everett Collection

"I love watching Nick Hoult grow and soar and evolve as an actor and as a person. I'm so proud of him," Collette told EW. "It's so funny being the mother to so many different kids and still having those kind of maternal feelings and hearing about them and watching them as they get older."

"I ran into him, actually, at a Vanity Fair party for the Oscars a few years ago," the Mafia Mamma star continued. "We're standing in the middle of the dance floor, everyone's dancing around us, we're completely still, and he goes, 'You know what? Every time I see you in a movie, I'm like, That's my mom! That's my mom!' It's so funny, because that's how I feel about him!"

Check out Collette taking a stroll down the memory lane of her career in EW's Role Call below:

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