Jacki Weaver discusses grief, love and acting in new film Holy Days

Australian actress Jacki Weaver, 79, reflects on love, loss and her enduring career after moving to the United States sixteen years ago following the success of David Michod’s Animal Kingdom. Her acclaimed performance as Janine “Smurf” Cody earned her a Golden Globe nomination and an Oscar nod, and she has since appeared in films such as Silver Linings Playbook, The Disaster Artist and Bird Box. In the past fifteen months she filmed three movies, a television pilot and a six‑part series, saying she is still “pedalling away” in her dotage.

Weaver talks about her new comedy‑drama Holy Days, set in 1970s New Zealand, where she plays Australian Sister Mary Clare alongside Judy Davis and Miriam Margolyes. The story follows three nuns protecting an imperiled convent and a young boy coping with his mother’s death. Weaver also notes her lifelong skill with accents, a talent nurtured from childhood elocution lessons, and her occasional church involvement when politics bother her.