Jacki Weaver & Sean Taylor met at the Opera House on a David Williamson play called Soul Mates. Sean was playing a celebrity author out to seduce the wife of a literary critic. “He was a method actor,” Jacki says, “he really did seduce me.”
Sean says, “I remember being in rehearsals and if Jacki wasn’t called, I’d miss her. Then I started to think ‘Why am I missing this person?’ It developed from there. I just fell in love.”
But Jacki didn’t make it easy for him. She resisted for months. “He would bang on my dressing room door, eventually I just took the path of least resistance.”
Sean could tell the moment she changed her mind. They were standing at the bar in the foyer after a show. By the look in her eye he saw it click over in her head that ‘they’ might not be a bad idea. During long car trips as the two were driven home together, their relationship blossomed.
When asked if it’s easier to work with each other than with others Jacki says “the kissing scenes are easier, because you’re used to the mechanics.” But despite playing lovers in other productions, The Prisoner of Second Avenue was the first time the two will play husband and wife.
Unfortunately the nature of the industry means they often have to separate. Both stars tour nationally and internationally with some of their productions, but both make an effort to see everything the other does, sometimes taking risks to do so.
Having spent four days in South Africa watching her husband perform, Jacki found herself stuck when workers at the Johannesburg airport went on strike. “I very nearly missed my own show,” she said. “I had the lead role, I was always on stage and there was no understudy.”
“I was in Capetown when she phoned me to say they’d cancelled all the flights.” Sean says. “I was just thinking, ‘Oh no, there goes $10,000’. Because legally, a performer who causes the show to be cancelled is liable for the money.”
“It was very scary.” Jacki says. “I got back the afternoon of my first preview. The producers were very cross. It was very bad behaviour, I should never have gone. But I did get to see him perform and he was brilliant. He won all the awards that year.”
Jacki Weaver & Sean Taylor performed together at QTC's 2008 production of The Prisoner of Second Avenue.
