It was a power vacuum that was never going to last very long. With Roarke Morris' exit
from "Yellowstone," Season 4 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, the relatively new CEO of Roarke's company Market Equities, played
by Australian actress Jacki Weaver. 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.
"They might have met their match with Caroline."
Part of Caroline's plan includes buying off neighbors 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.
"Watch out for the elk scat."
"I cannot wait to pave this place over."
When the time for intimidation arrives, you can trust the star playing the Duttons' latest
foe to bring the necessary firepower. Here are some places you might recognize her from.
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.
"Stork" was merely the first in a series of parts Weaver landed in films that would become
known as the Australian New Wave. She had a small part in Peter Weir's 1975 classic
"Picnic at Hanging Rock" and won a Supporting Actress award from the Australian Film Institute
for her role as Josie in 1976's "Caddie."
After Jacki Weaver's initial success in Aussie indie films, she spent decades primarily working
in the theater of her native country. She told The AV Club,
"The parts got a bit lean for me after a while in movies, but I never wanted for work at
all. 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.
"I feel sick about this. I'm not happy at all. Not one little bit."
The role earned her a second Australian Film Institute Best Actress award, and earned her
an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Weaver told The AV Club,
"It was a gift, it was a huge gift. And it speaks to the generosity of Americans, how
warmly I was embraced. 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'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 was occasionally harried and often opinionated,
but she still functioned as the (relative) calm in her tumultuous family's storm.
"It's game day! I'm making crabby snacks and homemades!"
"Yeah, come on, Dad. Be nice. Come on, she's making crabby snacks and homemades!"
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.
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. She told the newspaper,
"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."
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