Jessie Buckley ‘overwhelmed’ to be starring in Oscar-tipped film

Oscar-winning Hamnet, starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, is a film that shows the full spectrum of human emotions, from joy to despair.

The story begins with young William Shakespeare falling in love with Agnes (another name for the playwright’s wife, historically credited as Anne Hathaway), and goes on to explore the immense pain they experience after a tragedy affects their young family.

But in exploring the sad origins of Hamlet, one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, he never portrays Agnes simply as the playwright’s wife; he is at the center of the film.

“It was the exact story of how I realized what a woman should be,” Buckley told BBC News. “And their capacities as women, as mothers, as lovers, and as human beings with their own language alongside literary giants like Shakespeare.

“It was truly one of the greatest privileges of my life to live alongside and within this amazing woman, Agnes.”

Hamnet is adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s hugely successful book of the same name, published in 2020.

Jessie Buckley’s big break came in 2008 when she appeared on BBC One’s talent competition I’d Do Anything; She came in second place in the search for an actress to play Nancy in the West End adaptation of Oliver Twist.

He has since won acclaim for a variety of roles. She was nominated for a Bafta for Wild Rose, in which she played an aspiring country singer, and received an Oscar nomination for her role as a troubled mother in The Lost Daughter.

In Buckley’s latest film, the relationship between Agnes and one of her children, Hamnet, adds great power to the story. It’s something that takes Jessie Buckley into new emotional territory.

The actor admits he was “conscious and afraid” about whether he could portray the character and the story “as honestly, bravely and humanly as possible.”

Her concern stemmed in part from the fact that “she was not a mother at the time and had not lost her child.”

“But,” she adds, “I know love, I know great love. And I think in everything, with every woman I play or the roles and worlds I enter, I try to be a little more human in the sense that I understand being alive.”

Hamnet is directed by Chloé Zhao, who was last on the awards circuit with her film Nomadland, which won the best director award at the 2021 Oscars.

Zhao co-adapted the book with O’Farrell, and the film also stars Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn and Jacobi Jupe as Hamnet.

It received generally positive reviews from critics and The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin comments He said in a five-star review that the adaptation “couldn’t have been done better”.

Buckley gives “one of the unforgettable performances for years”, Kevin Maher of the Times wroteIt is also awarded five stars, While The Wrap’s Carla Renata says the actor is “nothing short of magical”.

However Time’s Stephanie Zacharek felt The film’s emotional cues were obvious, writing: “Zhao doesn’t know how to take the less-is-more approach.”

And Amy Nicholson of the LA Times concluded: “William Shakespeare would not have been stunned by this domestic drama about home life in Stratford-upon-Avon. Where’s the action? The wit? The wordplay?”

If Agnes and her relationship with her son are at the emotional center of the film, the physical heart of the film is located at the Globe Theatre, site of the first performance of Hamlet, where Agnes is pressed onto the stage in front of the crowd.

The scene, which took several days to shoot, was by far the most challenging scene for Buckley.

“I didn’t have any confidence. I was terrified,” he laughs. “I felt completely overwhelmed preparing for it and even during it.

“For the first four days I was completely lost. I felt tied down. I didn’t know where to go, then I realized that being lost is an incredibly human thing, and this is definitely Agnes’s story of getting lost.”

“The 10-day loss was so deep. There was a midwife on my right, another woman on my left. On the sixth day, they were crying, I was crying, holding them.”

He adds: “There was a man behind me who said he hadn’t cried in four years and he was crying, and he said it was extraordinary to feel the openness and courage of humanity to need play, to need play, to need story, and to reach for it.”

There have been a number of outstanding female performances expected to win awards in recent months – Chase Infiniti in One Battle After Another, Renate Reins in Sentimental Value, Emma Stone in Bugonia.

But it was Jessie Buckley’s performance as Agnes that was many’s favorite for best actress at the Oscars in March. Does this bring him a sense of excitement or a sense of pressure?

“I can’t quite figure out what that question is right now,” he replies carefully, continuing with a smile to say that if he and the rest of the cast and crew manage to make it to the big awards ceremonies of 2026, he’ll just see it as a chance to celebrate the story and have a good time with a team that became extremely close during filming.

“I’m so proud of this movie. I’m so excited to share it with the world,” he reflects. “And the greatest gift ever was feeling the reaction the audience felt.

“You do it for the audience. The rest is my responsibility, you know, I’ll just get in the river,” he laughs. “I hope we can all go and have a great office party.”

Hamnet is released in UK cinemas on January 9.