The Guardian (USA)

Post your questions for Jacki Weaver

- Catherine Shoard

Does Jacki Weaver have authority here? Unlike her namesake Jackie Weaver – the council official who became a viral star – no one would ever dare question the credential­s of this formidable Aussie actor, twice Oscar nominated and almost 60 years in the business.

Weaver was an establishe­d star in Australia, better known for her work in the theatre and on film than on TV (amazingly, she never ventured into soaps) long before she shot to internatio­nal fame for her performanc­e as a terrifying matriarch in 2010’s film Animal Kingdom.

Two years later, she received her second Oscar nod, this time for playing Robert De Niro’s wife – and Bradley Cooper’s mother – in Silver Linings Playbook.

Next up: another high-profile role, as the mother to Mark Wahlberg’s boxer-turned-priest in Father Stu, this time married to another challengin­g fella: Mel Gibson.

Weaver had an early role in Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock and was mentored by Michael Powell. Recent movies have included The FiveYear Engagement, Park Chan-wook’s Stoker, Steve McQueen’s Widows, Netflix smash Bird Box, plus Melissa McCarthy vehicle Life of the Party and a couple of James Franco-directed films about film-making, The Disaster Artist and Zeroville.

So post your questions for this star of stage and screen and robust romantic, who wrote in her memoir: “‘Promiscuou­s’ implies that I’m not choosy. In fact I’m very choosy. I just happen to have had a lot of choices.”

Comments will close at midnight UK time (11pm GMT) on 1 May and Weaver’s responses will be published in Film & Music next Friday.

• Father Stu is released on 13 May.

 ?? Photograph: Aude Guerrucci/Reuters ?? Frank and formidable … Jacki Weaver.
Photograph: Aude Guerrucci/Reuters Frank and formidable … Jacki Weaver.

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