Jacki Weaver doesn’t consider herself a dog person, although she admits her attitude changed when she filmed Gracepoint in Victoria this year.
The two-time Oscar nominee said it didn’t take long for her to fall for Nayla, “the beautiful Belgian shepherd” who became her onscreen companion, Archie.
“She’s such a good girl and very affectionate. She’d lick my face,” says Weaver, laughing. Her hair, when she shows up for our interview, is immaculately coiffed, elegantly augmenting a black dress that is not at all dog hair-friendly.
Weaver’s appearance is in stark contrast to her Gracepoint character, Susan Wright, a peculiar and reclusive woman who lives in a trailer with her dog. To play the dishevelled character originated by Pauline Quirke in Broadchurch, the British crime series that inspired the U.S. remake, Weaver’s hair was matted and as unflattering as Susan’s dowdy costumes as she shuffled suspiciously around town.
“She is a weird, scary old woman, there’s no doubt about that,” the Sydney-born actress says in her sing-song voice, with a laugh and a mischievous glint in her eye.
Susan becomes a prime suspect when Emmett Carver, the homicide detective played by Scottish actor David Tennant, rolls into the coastal northern California town to investigate a local boy’s murder in Shine America’s 10-part series. It premières on Oct. 2 on Fox and in Canada on Global.
“There is something ambiguous about her mysteriousness,” Weaver, 67, explains. “There are some very unpleasant scenes, so she could well be the murderer. None of us know.”
Playing such a character doesn’t seem much of a stretch for the veteran stage and screen actor. Weaver earned her first Oscar nomination for her chilling portrayal of the lethal matriarch of a Melbourne crime family in Animal Kingdom. Her second was for her portrayal of the mother of Bradley Cooper’s character in David O. Russell’s romantic comedy Silver Linings Playbook.
Weaver also unleashed her devilish streak as Lee Harvey Oswald’s deranged mother, Marguerite, in Parkland, Peter Landesman’s docudrama recounting the John F. Kennedy assassination and its aftermath.
While being in the company of canines for Gracepoint increased her tolerance, the actor jokingly insists it didn’t make her as dog-crazy as her husband, actor Sean Taylor.
“He’s one of those people who goes up to every dog in the world and kisses the dog on the mouth,” she says, shuddering. “I’m just not that kind of person.”
While Weaver has owned dogs “and loved them,” she says animals are like people.
“Some of them are adorable and some are vile,” the L.A.-based actor declares. “I’ve met cats that have had a very nasty attitude and dogs that were absolutely the creeps.”
Her Gracepoint dog is “very sweet,” says Weaver, who also developed a soft spot for Nayla’s predecessor. “They had to sack the first dog because she was too enthusiastic,” she laments. “I felt very sorry for her.”
The Aussie actor affects an American accent again for her Gracepoint role. It was a bit of a challenge since she was surrounded by so many Canadians, she jokes.
“I worked very hard to do the Philadelphia one [for Silver Linings Playbook]” Weaver recalls.
“For Parkland, I just tried to emulate the real woman and hers was a real hybrid — a bit of the South, a bit of New York, a bit of Texas. So if anyone thinks I wasn’t doing it right, I was doing it exactly the way she speaks.”
After Gracepoint wrapped, Weaver returned to Australia to use her natural accent for the first time in six years to play a compassionate doctor in the dying-with-dignity drama Last Cab to Darwin.
Weaver says she has received even more offers since earning her Oscar nomination for Playbook.
“Do you know what your second Oscar nomination means? It means your first one wasn’t a fluke,” she says, recalling what someone told her. “Isn’t that sweet?”
During dinner one night, Weaver and Gracepoint co-star Michael Pena, who played the fake sheik in American Hustle, shared fond memories of working with Russell.
“We were saying how much we both loved him,” she says. “David is very unusual.”
Another director Weaver loved working with was one she has idolized for decades.
“Working with Woody [Allen] in the south of France was great,” she says, recalling her experiences playing a wealthy widow who falls under the spell of a charming clairvoyant (Emma Stone) in Magic in the Moonlight.
Filming in dreamy French Riviera locales with Colin Firth, Marcia Gay Harden and Eileen Atkins was like “summer camp,” Weaver says.
“We weren’t given scripts for scenes except the ones we were in, so it was a bit like this,” she adds, referring to limited access to Gracepoint’s final script pages.
“We didn’t know what was going on, which is a perfectly legitimate way to work, because that’s how life is.”