"I knew that I was most interested in a variety of characters," she tells Fresh Air contributor Dave Davies. "It wasn't in contrast to, 'Oh, I don't want to play this, because I want to get away from this image.' It was more: What else is out there? I'm curious."
Her latest film, Cyrus, again deals with the intricacies of family life. She plays a single woman with an unusually close relationship with her 21-year-old son Cyrus, played by Jonah Hill. When she falls in love, she must balance the relationship she has with her new boyfriend, played by John C. Reilly, and the one she has with Cyrus.
Tomei says though the relationship between mother and son is unusual, she didn't judge her character ahead of time.
"I wasn't reading it going, 'Oh, this is really unhealthy. How am I going to play this unhealthy person?' " she says. "And so I approached it in the sense that they're great friends. They have a great relationship. They truly enjoy each others company, and they've lived a very artsy and more bohemian kind of life. And they laugh well together. So I just saw it as more really great friends. And that part of it is really healthy."