Why Caroline Warner From Yellowstone Season 4 Looks So Familiar
This article contains spoilers for "Yellowstone" Season 4
It was a power vacuum that was never going to last very long.
With Roarke Morris' (Josh Holloway) exit from "Yellowstone," Season 4, Episode 1 was going to need a new pair of greedy hands trying to wrestle control of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch and its land away from the family whose name hangs on its shingle.
Enter Caroline Warner (Jacki Weaver), the relatively new CEO of Roarke's company Market Equities. Caroline's first appearance on the series seems to indicate a change of tact for the firm; she hints that they're going to win out over the Dutton family not with guns and violence, but rather by bringing the full pressure of their financial resources to bear on the ranch and its owners to make them sell up. Part of Caroline's plan includes buying off neighbors like Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) to isolate the family and force them to give up the ranch. But things rarely stay peaceful on "Yellowstone" for long. If Caroline is really going to be the new big bad of "Yellowstone," then chances are she's not going to be afraid to get her hands dirty when push comes to shove.
When the time for intimidation arrives, you can trust the Australian star playing the Dutton's latest foe to bring the necessary firepower. Here are some places you might recognize her from.
Jacki Weaver was lauded for her debut in Stork
Jacki Weaver's career in film and television can be divided into two halves. In her first foray, she was a young theater actor in her native Australia, making the jump from the stage to the screen with great success. After appearing in a number of small parts on Australian television in the late 1960s, she was cast as the female lead of the 1971 comedy "Stork," playing Anna, the promiscuous love interest of the naive title character.
Weaver's portrayal of Anna, her first-ever role in a feature film, would wind up winning her the Australian Film Institute's award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, per IMDb. The film would also mark the screen debut of Australian legend Bruce Spence, who played Stork and would go on to appear in "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior," "The Matrix Revolutions," and "Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith."
"Stork" was merely the first in a series of parts Weaver landed in films that would become known as the Australian New Wave, according to AV Club. She had a small part in Peter Weir's 1975 classic "Picnic at Hanging Rock" (shown above) and would win a Supporting Actress award from the Australian Film Institute for her role as Josie in 1976's "Caddie."
Jacki Weaver reigned over Animal Kingdom
After Jacki Weaver's initial success Aussie indie films, she spent decades primarily working in the theater of her native country. "The parts got a bit lean for me after a while in movies, but I never wanted for work at all," she told the AV Club. "And that suited me fine; I love working in the theater."
"Animal Kingdom" in 2010 wasn't her first film back, but it was the one that launched her late-career resurgence. In it, Weaver played the Australian crime matriarch "Smurf" Cody, who sits at the center of a sprawling web of corrupt cops and armed robbers, keeping the family thriving and out of trouble. The part saw Weaver lord it over a cast chock full of talented Australian exports: Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, and Guy Pearce the biggest names among them. It also earned her a second Australian Film Institute Best Actress award, and earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
"It was a gift, it was a huge gift. And it speaks to the generosity of Americans, how warmly I was embraced," Weaver told AV Club, speaking of how the film became her American breakout role, and led to the busiest portion of her professional career. "I was at no shortage of offers after the first Oscar nom, but after the second, well, I've never really looked back! Like, I can't do everything I'm offered."
Jacki Weaver brought the crabby snacks to Silver Linings Playbook
Jacki Weaver's second Oscar nomination came two years after "Animal Kingdom," when she played a kindly, gentler mother figure in David O. Russell's "Silver Linings Playbook."
Weaver's dyed-in-the-wool Philadelphian Dolores Solitano was occasionally harried and often opinionated, but she still functioned as the (relative) calm in her tumultuous family's storm. The film gave Weaver the dual challenge of acting opposite Bradley Cooper as her son battling bipolar disorder and Robert De Niro as her husband who makes ill-advised bets on the Philadelphia Eagles. Dolores is pulled between the pair, and by doing so manages to keep the family unit tight in a way that benefits them all.
"It was wonderful," Weaver told NPR of working with her legendary co-star. "I was of course apprehensive at first, because to not just my generation but every generation, Robert De Niro is a giant. ... I had to sit in my trailer the first morning and give myself a talking-to and say, 'Look, it's not Robert De Niro, it's your husband whom you love, that's who it is.' And luckily, Robert De Niro is such a generous actor and such a kind man, that it was no problem at all."
Jacki Weaver tried to keep her eyes shut in Bird Box
Jacki Weaver spent much of her post-"Silver Linings Playbook" period showcasing her range, alternating between comedies including "The Disaster Artist," "Poms," and "Stage Mother," and horror films that include "Stoker," "The Voices," and "The Grudge."
In 2018, she took a role in Netflix's smash hit horror-thriller "Bird Box," starring Sandra Bullock. Weaver played Cheryl, one of a group of survivors Bullock's Malorie finds in a house shortly after the arrival of the mysterious entities that drive all who look upon them to suicide. The relative stasis the group finds in the blacked-out house is interrupted by the arrival of Gary (Tom Hollander), who one by one forces many of the occupants to look outside at them, causing their death. Cheryl fights his attempts, but he pries her eyes open, leading her to kill herself by stabbing her own neck with a pair of scissors.
But though the genre has been good to her career, Weaver herself told The Sydney Morning Herald that she rarely watches horror movies, even ones she appeared in. "I always say my idea of recreation is not being terrified. ... I have enough terror after they yell 'action', so I don't want it in my leisurely pursuits too." Speaking of "Bird Box," she admitted, "I don't think I'll be able to sit through it because I hate being frightened. ... "I made a [2014] horror movie called 'Haunt' and never saw that and I probably won't see the [upcoming] movie 'Grudge,' either."