‘She will go down as one of the best’: the rise of Jessie Buckley | Jessie Buckley

HChloé Zhao’s film adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s bestselling novel about William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes (or Anne) Hathaway, is a sensitive meditation on love and grief. The film, which depicts the couple’s pain over the death of their 11-year-old son, who is said to have inspired the play Hamlet, moved the audience to tears and united critics in praise.

The film’s emotional power is carried by Irish actor and singer Jessie Buckley, who portrays Hathaway (opposite Paul Mescal’s Shakespeare) with a rawness and sincerity that has already earned her the Critics Circle Award for best actress and has her as a leading contender for the Golden Globes, Baftas and Oscars. Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw called it “unconsciously seductive”. Rolling Stone predicted viewers “will be talking about Jessie Buckley’s performance for years to come”.

“[Agnes] It was the exact story of how I realized what a woman should be,” Buckley, 36, he said recently. “And their capacities as women, as mothers, as lovers, and as human beings with their own language alongside literary greats like Shakespeare.”

Agnes’s sense of being an impregnable presence finds its most devastating expression in one of the film’s most important scenes. When Agnes realizes Hamnet has died in her arms, Buckley lets out a scream so unfiltered that it breaks the careful silence of the film. The moment comes from “beyond the past, present and future,” Zhao said.

Buckley’s ability to handle extreme emotions has improved over the years on stage and screen. He was born in Killarney, County Kerry, the eldest of five children. She attended an all-girls convent school before studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Rada) in London.

Her career began in 2008 as a contestant on the BBC talent show I’d Do Anything, where she competed to portray Nancy in the West End adaptation of Oliver! (She finished second to Jodie Prenger and recently called the experience “brutal”).

After graduating from Rada in 2013, Buckley’s stage career took off; Her credits include starring in The Tempest at Shakespeare’s Globe and appearing opposite Jude Law in the West End production of Henry V. Her first on-screen roles were in BBC television series such as War & Peace, Taboo and The Woman in White.

Her film debut came with the psychological thriller Beast, in which she played Moll, a troubled young woman who falls in love with a poacher suspected of murder. The film’s director, Michael Pearce, told the Guardian that Buckley gave “every ounce of himself” to the role. “Because of this commitment, you encounter many incredible surprises in your performance.

“The first version of Moll was a little colder and more reserved, and Jessie instinctively pushed the character into a much more vibrant place, like she was a raw nerve feeling everything intensely and constantly trying to keep that intensity in check.” Pearce’s editor was also impressed. “The first thing he said was, ‘Where did you find this incredible actor? He’s so emotionally alive on screen.'”

Buckley’s career progressed with leading roles in the TV series Chernobyl and Fargo and roles in films such as Wild Rose, The Courier and I’m Thinking of Ending Things. She played a younger version of Olivia Colman’s character in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s 2021 directorial debut, The Lost Daughter. He was critically acclaimed for this performance and received his first Oscar nomination for this performance. Buckley then directed Alex Garland’s folk horror film Men the following year, playing a widow who travels to a village and is tortured by strange men, all played by Rory Kinnear. Kinnear told the Guardian: “Everyone who works [Jessie] “He knows he will go down as one of the best to ever do it.”

Buckley’s other recent films include adaptations of Women Talking (2022) and Wicked Little Letters (2023). Meanwhile, on stage, her portrayal of Sally Bowles in the 2021 West End revival of Cabaret earned her an Olivier award for best actress in a musical. The following year, with former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler, he released the Mercury Prize-nominated album For All Our Days That Tear the Heart.

Cabaret director Rebecca Frecknall recalled the first time they rehearsed the scene leading up to the show’s title number. “Everyone in the room gradually stopped what they were doing and focused on him. I don’t know what he was channeling in that moment, but it was one of the most exciting moments I’ve ever experienced in a rehearsal room.” Fracknall said Buckley “was always so lively, as if he had fewer layers of skin than everyone else.”

Ben Whishaw, who starred with Buckley in Fargo and Women Talking, said it was fascinating to watch her work on set. “It was like observing an animal in its natural habitat: it was obeying a natural instinct that it barely understood, it was very beautiful but it could also bite if something got in its way,” he said.

“There are days when Jessie is writing a song, recording an album, making lunches for 12 and having a baby before I even manage to get out of bed.

“His performance in Hamnet is now among my all-time favourites, along with Gena Rowlands, Maria Falconetti and Anna Magnani, people we both love and respect.”

Buckley and her husband, a mental health worker, live in Norfolk and gave birth to their first child last year after playing Agnes. gave him a “deep need” being a mother.

She’s up against a host of acclaimed artists this awards season, including Chase Infiniti (One War Then Another) and Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value). Whether he wins or not, Buckley stated his intention “to enable people to feel themselves instead of being disembodied, disconnected, disconnected.”