From Woody Allen to Barack Obama, everybody loves Jacki Weaver Australian actor Jacki Weaver, who was surprised to find herself recommended for a Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars. EVERYBODY loves Jacki Weaver these days. Woody Allen. Bradley Cooper. The folk who hand out Academy Awards. The President of the United States ... Yes, such is the extent of the Aussie acting veteran's Hollywood invasion, even Barack Obama is a card-carrying Weaver fan. "When she was doing Silver Linings Playbook she forwarded me a text," David Michod, the writer-director of Animal Kingdom, recalled this week. The producer of Silver Linings had just had dinner with Barack Obama, who wanted him to pass onto Jacki how much he loved her in Animal Kingdom ... Jacki Weaver with Bradley Cooper and Chris Tucker in . "The Leader of the Free World," Michod marvelled. After that text, nothing surprises me. Weaver's Oscar nomination in 2011 for her role as matriarch of a Melbourne crime family in Animal Kingdom could simply have been simply a surprise blip on the radar of an acting career that had begun on an Australian stage almost 50 years prior. Australian actor Jacki Weaver who is going from strength to strength. "This is a different ball game now," Weaver told News Corp Australia in the post-Oscars glow. And it could all evaporate tomorrow. Far from drying up, Hollywood has offered a flood of new opportunities for Weaver, who turned 66 in May. Actor Jacki Weaver with 'Animal Kingdom' producers David Michod and Lizz Watts in Sydney. In January-February, she was in Texas playing Lee Harvey Oswald's mother in Parkland, a film produced by Tom Hanks. Later in February, she tried her hand at TV, shooting a sitcom pilot, The McCarthys, for US network CBS. In April-May, she was in Berlin shooting a horror movie, The Voices, with Ryan Reynolds. After that she went to Hungary to make a film based on a hit play, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks. And then came Woody. Actor Jacki Weaver at The Sydney Theatre in Walsh Bay, Sydney. Earlier this week, it was announced Weaver had joined the cast of Woody Allen's new film. It's a coup, no doubt. Big-name actors dream of working with the writer-director of Manhattan, Annie Hall and Midnight in Paris. Allen is on that rarefied list with Scorsese, Spielberg and Coppola. Michod reacted to Weaver's good news with a laugh: "It never seems to end now. Every few weeks she's sending me a message about some amazing new job she's got. One minute she's doing bedroom scenes with Robert De Niro and the next she's in a Woody Allen film. She's working with cinema royalty. Weaver is certainly determined to make her big second wind count. After playing so magnificently against type in Animal Kingdom, her Sydney agent was flooded with offers from the US to play more baddies. But the veteran kept her bar high. Australian actor Jacki Weaver is going from strength to strength. "I love when I am not typecast," she told The Wall Street Journal in January. I've been acting for 50 years. I was such a baby face; I was playing children until I was in my 30s, which frustrated me enormously. Now that I am 65, and getting to play women in their 50s, I am getting paid back for having to play children for so long. Weaver's second Best Supporting Actress Oscar honour came this year via David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook - a film she auditioned for while performing with the STC's production of Uncle Vanya in Washington DC in August 2011. "She's making smart choices, but it's a testament to her talent that the people who are casting her are obviously smart people - David O. Russell, Woody Allen," says Michod. For an actor it makes your life a lot easier when your fans are very talented filmmakers. Silver Linings Playbook became the first film in 31 years to score Oscar nods in all four acting categories. Co-stars Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence joined a surprised Weaver on the list of nominees. For Cooper, who played Weaver's mentally-ill son, it was his first Oscars whirlwind and he treasured having Weaver by his side. "Jacki Weaver is an amazing actress," Cooper told News Corp Australia. To go through that whole experience of the film, from its success to the Oscars, with that group of people - Jennifer, Bob and Jacki - was wonderful. I cherish it. Another Silver Linings star, comedian Chris Tucker, enjoyed working with Weaver so much he's trying to come up with an idea for another movie they could do together. ``She's so great, I love her," Tucker said. She's such a funny, warm person; a beautiful person inside and out. We had too much fun together. English actor Matthew Goode echoes Tucker's thoughts on working with the Australian - "We had a really good laugh," he said - albeit on a much darker project, Korean director Park Chan-Wook's thriller Stoker (which opens on August 29). The film, Stoker, starring Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska, Jacki Weaver and Matthew Goode. Picture: Sydney Film Festival Source: Supplied Michod is not surprised that the international filmmaking set has taken so warmly to his leading lady. Jacki is a perfect mix of groundedness that comes from experience but also delightful personality. She's not denying herself the pleasure of enjoying it all," he said. And while we as a nation can get carried away with how well our actors are doing on the international stage, Michod believes we should all be enjoying Weaver's later-in-life success (and that of her Animal Kingdom castmates including Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton and Sullivan Stapleton). "Basically, all that's happening is a vastly bigger pool of people are recognising the talents of these people and that's something worth celebrating," Michod said. Sometimes you can be down here at the bottom of the world feeling like you're working in a vacuum. Then one little crack opens and suddenly everyone can see what you're capable of. I just love that it's happening for people like Jacki. Next stop, Woody. Little is known about the tale Allen is just beginning to shoot in France, which co-stars Colin Firth, Emma Stone and Marcia Gay Harden. The big question is whether the as-yet-untitled film will be good Woody, or bad Woody. The writer-director is notoriously hit or miss these days, but the last time he went to France - for 2011's Midnight in Paris - he created his biggest hit yet and picked up his first Oscar. No doubt, hiring Jacki Weaver is a step in the right direction.