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When Americans accuse Jacki Weaver of \u201cputting on\u201d an Australian accent, she takes it as a compliment. \u201cThey get a shock when they hear me speak,\u201d says the acclaimed actor. \u201cIt\u2019s very funny.\u201d<\/p>\n
The confusion is understandable: 16 years ago, Weaver moved to the United States to capitalise on the success of David Michod\u2019s Animal Kingdom. Her chilling performance as crime matriarch Janine \u201cSmurf\u201d Cody earned her a swag of awards, and she was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Oscar.<\/p>\n
Since then, Weaver, 79, has appeared in dozens of critically lauded American films including Silver Linings Playbook, The Disaster Artist and Bird Box. And she\u2019s not slowing down: over the past 15 months, she\u2019s filmed three movies, a TV pilot and a six-part series. \u201cIn my dotage, I\u2019m still pedalling away<\/a>,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n What makes Weaver\u2019s Hollywood career even more remarkable<\/a> is the fact it began when she was 63.<\/p>\n \u201cI would have been too shy to [pursue acting in the US] in my 20s,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was sort of put in my lap \u2026 I never would have gotten to Hollywood if it hadn\u2019t been for Animal Kingdom. David Michod changed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n Weaver has always had a gift for accents, mastering numerous English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Australian brogues. (When she was a girl, her English mother, Edith, enrolled her in elocution lessons after deeming her broad vowels \u201ca matter of concern\u201d.) More recently, she\u2019s played characters from \u201cCalifornia, New York and all over America\u201d.<\/p>\n It was a delight, therefore, to use her own accent in Holy Days, a warm-hearted comedy-drama about three nuns on a road trip to save their imperilled convent. Set in New Zealand in the 1970s, it stars Weaver as the Australian Sister Mary Clare, who lives in the decaying building with Sister Agnes (Judy Davis) and Sister Luke (Miriam Margolyes).<\/p>\n Related Article Adapted from Joy Cowley\u2019s novel, it tells the story of Brian Collins (Elijah Tamati), a young boy devastated by the death of his mother, Paula (played by his real mum, Renaye Tamati). Terrified by the prospect of his father marrying his new girlfriend, he finds solace in the company of the eccentric nuns.<\/p>\n But when the trio learn that developers intend to tear down their convent, they race to the Southern Alps to seek help from a Maori nun-turned-lawyer. Brian invites himself along for the ride, hoping to find his mother at the top of her ancestral mountain, Aoraki.<\/p>\n In her directorial debut, actor Nat Boltt \u2013 who also plays Brian\u2019s soon-to-be stepmum, Liz \u2013 wrote the script after a conversation with her three-year-old son.<\/p>\n \u201cHe asked me if we would die together,\u201d Boltt has said. \u201cIt was that terrible moment when the question of death arose \u2013 how it happens, and what it means \u2013 and I tried to think of what to say to introduce this huge concept to a little person. \u2018No, darling,\u2019 I answered, \u2018we won\u2019t die together. With any luck, I\u2019ll go first and you\u2019ll live a long life \u2026 I\u2019ll be there for you when it\u2019s your time to die\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n This did little to ease her son\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n \u201cHe cried, then I cried,\u201d Boltt recalled. \u201cIt sparked questions about how we, particularly in Western cultures, approach death \u2026 this idea haunts and fascinates me because it strikes at the very core of Western discomfort with mortality.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article As it happens, Weaver speaks to me from Perth just three days before her third husband, Derryn Hinch, died at 82<\/a>. At his state funeral in Melbourne, she honoured the man known as the Human Headline via satellite from the West Australian outback, where she is currently filming. Referring to him as \u201cJoby\u201d \u2013 a nickname derived from their courtship, when she called him Joe to throw others off the scent \u2013 she moved attendees to tears<\/a> when she said: \u201cI\u2019ve loved you from the very start to the very end. Good night, sweet dreams. Good night, Joby. I love you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m of an age where I\u2019ve seen a lot of death,\u201d Weaver says. \u201cI once said very lightheartedly, \u2018I know more dead people than I know live people now\u2019. But I think that\u2019s one of the things that happens when you get to a certain age.\u201d<\/p>\n How did she learn to live with this grief?<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think you ever totally learn to live with it,\u201d she replies. \u201cGrief never stops, but it slowly gets softer and gentler. I find writing about how I feel helpful. We need to weep; that releases endorphins that help our sadness. But I think the best antidote to grief is working hard.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the years, Weaver has often been described as \u201cbubbly\u201d. It\u2019s a curious term: although it suggests a warm demeanour (which, in her case, is accurate), it also implies a tendency towards garrulousness. Yet, Weaver, who was the dux of Hornsby Girls High School, is intelligent and considered. Since the start of her career, she\u2019s been drawn to roles \u2013 many in government-funded educational films \u2013 addressing controversial topics, from workers\u2019 rights to dissatisfied housewives being \u201ctreated\u201d with excessive quantities of Valium.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just a pose to say that I\u2019m introverted.\u201d<\/p>\n Jacki Weaver<\/p>\n In 1978, she won a Logie for her portrayal of postnatal depression in the Channel Nine telemovie Do I Have To Kill My Child?. The film drew the kind of ratings typically reserved for major sporting events, and Weaver found herself repeatedly stopped on the street by mothers who told her: \u201cI thought I was the only one.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps the \u201cbubbly\u201d adjective reflects assumptions arising from her appearance: large blue eyes, blonde hair and a petite, 151-centimetre frame. She frequently played characters much younger than her actual age, and had to fight for the meatier roles she craved.<\/p>\n For years, Weaver\u2019s Wikipedia page falsely stated that she was a veteran soap star who had appeared in The Young Doctors and racy series such as The Box and Number 96.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I\u2019ve never been on a daily serial and I\u2019ve never followed them,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m not having a go at the genre; it just never happened. Wikipedia gets a lot of things wrong. They also said I divorced Derryn twice and I didn\u2019t; we only had one divorce. It was ridiculous \u2026 one of my young friends got on there and corrected it.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, Weaver and Hinch married in the early 1980s and separated in the mid-1990s before renewing their vows shortly after. They divorced in 1998 but remained exceptionally close, often speaking a few times a day. (\u201cHe texted me the night that he died,\u201d she said in her video tribute at his funeral.)<\/p>\n As she recounted in her 2005 memoir<\/a>, Much Love, Jac: \u201cCountless magazine and newspaper articles over 24 years have bleated: how can she love him? Why? Many women have loved Hinch, and many women still love him and they understand. The corny but unavoidable truth is that I fell for him totally on our first date \u2013 a Melbourne Football Club function, of all things, surrounded by Aussie Rules officials at a fundraising dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n Since 2003, Weaver has been married to South African actor Sean Taylor, her fourth husband. (She has one son, Dylan, from her relationship with English producer John Walters, who was almost 30 years her senior.) Although she never wed Richard Wherrett, she considers the late theatre director one of the great loves of her life.<\/p>\n \u201cYou should have seen him in the \u201970s,\u201d she told Good Weekend in 1998. \u201cHe was so handsome, as well as charming and funny and good fun and affectionate. Everything except heterosexual.\u201d<\/p>\n Weaver lived with Wherrett as he was dying from HIV-induced liver failure in 2001, nursing him in his final days. When I ask about her capacity to maintain close friendships with former partners, she jokingly deflects by stating: \u201cI\u2019m a really nice woman [but] I don\u2019t think I have a right to give marital advice to anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n Those who know her, however, often remark on her kindness.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been unkind many times before and hated myself for it,\u201d she admits. \u201cBut I do think kindness is missing at the moment all around the world. I think it\u2019s the most important virtue because it leads to fulfilling all the other virtues.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article Like many actors, Weaver is an introvert. At parties, she and her husband will find a quiet corner and chat to each other \u2013 until her manager nudges her to \u201cget out there and circulate\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you can immerse yourself as much as possible in [a character], it gives you a great understanding of how the world works,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s not just a pose to say that I\u2019m introverted. I\u2019ve done tests and I\u2019ve got friends who are psychologists, and they\u2019ll all tell you, \u2018Yes, she\u2019s an introvert\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n The same could be said of her character in Holy Days. Sister Mary Clare is astute, wise and determined \u2013 yet her quiet nature means these virtues are often overlooked by others. \u201cShe\u2019s a shrinking violet for much of the film, because she\u2019s been put upon by stronger people her whole life,\u201d Weaver explains. \u201cShe\u2019s one of those people who\u2019s been hiding her light under a bushel, but then she comes into her own because of the circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n When Mary Clare was young, her convent was the heart of the local community. But as broader social shifts led to the diminution of religion in people\u2019s daily lives, it fell into disrepair. Mary Clare is left feeling daunted and overwhelmed, as though the ground is shifting beneath her feet.<\/p>\n \u201cI think people will identify with that,\u201d Weaver says. \u201cA lot of us tend to live quiet lives and then suddenly change is thrust upon us. How we cope with that is a measure of our character.\u201d<\/p>\n For Weaver, the chance to work with Davis, 71, and Margolyes, 85, was too good to pass up.<\/p>\n \u201cThese three nuns [we play] don\u2019t have blood family; they are each other\u2019s family and I find that very, very moving,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I wouldn\u2019t be a good proselytiser for the church because I\u2019m sort of like a boundary rider. I\u2019m in and out of the church because the politics bothers me. I grew up Anglican and I find the Episcopalian church [as the Anglican Church is known in the US] very wise and sensible in America. Having female priests and allowing priests to marry is really important, and I think that\u2019s where the Catholic Church is treading on its own toes.\u201d<\/p>\n Weaver was born in 1947 in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville. So speedy was her arrival that her mother gave birth to her in the hospital foyer.<\/p>\n Her father, Arthur, read Shakespeare to his daughter from a young age. \u201cI learned to read from about three or four,\u201d says Weaver, who has a younger brother, Rodney. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved to tell stories; pretending to be someone else and looking and speaking differently.\u201d<\/p>\n She believes her parents knew she\u2019d become an actor before she did.<\/p>\n \u201cI was an odd and eccentric child from the moment I could speak, and I think they just accepted that\u2019s what I was going to do,\u201d she recalls. \u201cIt was a foregone conclusion from when I was a toddler.\u201d<\/p>\n Weaver scored her first professional role in a 1962 pantomime at the Phillip Street Theatre, earning \u00a330 a week to play Cinderella, an enormous sum for a schoolgirl. But it wasn\u2019t the money that dazzled her; she simply fell in love with performing.<\/p>\n A decade later, she was cast in David Williamson\u2019s play The Removalists, a brutal commentary on male violence. Weaver, who also starred in the 1975 film adaptation, played a woman mercilessly beaten by her husband.<\/p>\n \u201cThe audience was very close to the stage, and there was a violent fight where fake blood was being thrown around,\u201d she says. \u201cIf you were too close, you\u2019d get hit with blood, which was quite nauseating. And this poor woman who was pregnant rushed downstairs and vomited in the foyer.\u201d<\/p>\n Weaver happened to be the only cast member not on stage at that moment, so it fell to her to clean up the mess. \u201cThe cast used to sell the tickets, make the costumes, clean the toilets \u2013 everything,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n To describe Weaver\u2019s creative output as prolific is an understatement: she has appeared in more than 50 films (including Australian classics such as Alvin Purple and Picnic at Hanging Rock); more than 50 TV series (from Homicide to the American neo-Western drama Yellowstone); and almost 100 stage productions (including A Streetcar Named Desire, Ben-Hur and Death of a Salesman).<\/p>\n![\"\u201cI\u2019m](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ff8d53ba19dc544c6704b65dd3a918ee94d4f946.jpeg\")
\u201cI\u2019m in and out of the church because the politics bothers me,\u201d says Weaver, who plays a nun on a mission in her new film, Holy Days.Dean MacKenzie<\/p>\n![\"We](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0735b45ca91928ecd0e26126f096ffd640f8c9c531bd42fed1ba566ada6b2550.gif\")
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After playing a woman with postnatal depression in a Logie-winning telemovie, Weaver was stopped on the street by mothers who told her: \u201cI thought I was the only one.\u201dNine Network<\/p>\n![\"Weaver](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/f040547112e3f799b7997aa12c29c1fe0c581f61.jpeg\")
Weaver in the early 1970s.Lee Pearce<\/p>\n![\"Colson](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fb512f65cdc27ef9498bc3418322758648b29342.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/7b0a03c064ce694928c155d15c9fd12f78fc0955.jpeg\")
From left: Judy Davis, Eiljah Tamati,\u00a0Miriam Margolyes and Weaver in Holy Days.Kismet<\/p>\n![\"Weaver\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/7e516a57076e13a7e0c275915b7f91e1ee9832e7.jpeg\")
Weaver\u2019s chilling portrayal of crime matriarch Janine \u201cSmurf\u201d Cody in the 2010 Australian film Animal Kingdom helped launch her Hollywood career.Sony Pictures Classics<\/p>\n![\"Weaver](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/33b909aea31754568fe55688f108a393c46ee7c6.jpeg\")
Weaver has appeared in almost 100 stage productions including The Blonde, The Brunette & The Vengeful Redhead in 2005.Stuart Campbell<\/p>\n
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