The Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody developed Tara, the typical American woman, who manages to be a good wife, a good mother and a good working professional at the same time. “The United States of Tara” was based on the executive producer Steven Spielberg’s idea.

Yet, Tara’s three identities go even deeper than previously scheduled. Played by Toni Collette, Tara changes her personalities due to the circumstances of her suburban life. Once she is a teenager who wants to take her daughter on a shopping spree while she complains about the body which hosts her and at another time she is just a fan of beer and striptease club.

Even if the director of the series wanted to make Tara only a metaphor for the hurried modern woman, the Tara character suffers from the Dissociative Identity Disorder and represents a whole nation and person divided. Yet, Cody said that every man dissociates in everyday life “to a degree.”

He wants the Tara character to represent a three-dimensional woman and not a mentally ill invalid and, as he added, the people nowadays don’t have “clear-out roles anymore” and they may be parents at day time and sexual at night.

Collette has been known for her role in “Muriel’s Wedding,” where she interpreted the girl obsessed with ABBA. She also played in “About a Boy” and “Little Miss Sunshine.” But nevertheless, her roles have been always odd and complex and as she talked about the Tara character, Collette said that it reminded her of her favorite book, “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee,” by Rebecca Miller.