Ok, I'll say it: awards season is proving to be a bit of a slog. A sea of tight, poreless faces and laborious, trudging jokes that could not have been more effortfully delivered, it is sometimes hard to remember that we were supposedly celebrating film and the artists who make it. That is, until Jessie Buckley takes the stage to collect all of her well-deserved awards for her astounding performance in Chloe Zhao's Hamnet.
A breath of fresh Irish air, Buckley is all warmth and vivacity. Collecting her Best Actress Award at the Golden Globes on 11 January, the actress kept it refreshingly real: "Whoa! This is not a normal feeling or situation to be in, but thank you, Golden Globes,” she said as she mounted the stage, before fondly recalling raving in the Globe Theatre with the 400 extras in the film. As you do.
This came after an equally endearing Critics' Choice speech. “Paul, I bloody love you, man,” Buckley said to her Hamnet co-star, Paul Mescal, when accepting the award last weekend. “I know loads of other women do in this room too – but tough shit,” she went on. “I could drink you like water, working with you every single day. You’re a giant of the heart and thank you so much for making me a little bit more human.”
And now, a BAFTA to add to her growing list of accolades.
Accepting the award, Buckley joked that when she first arrived in the UK, she was sporting a “nuclear fake tan,” hoop earrings and a red polka-dot skirt.
She thanked her agent, Lindy King, for encouraging her to be “disobedient” and “curious,” and paid tribute to director Zhao for her “uncompromising artistry,” as well as writer Maggie O'Farrell for the “gift of a role.”
Buckley said she shares the award with her daughter, and promised to “keep being disobedient.”
The same could be said for Buckley. It's safe to say we could all drink her like water. If you've seen her mesmerising performance in Hamnet (or even her charismatic 30 seconds onstage at the Critics Choice Awards, Golden Globes or BAFTAs) you already know what I'm talking about. Not only is she, seemingly, a total and utter Kerry-accented delight, she's a true titan on the screen.
The Jessie Buckley Oscar buzz is so deserved
Having nabbed both the Critics' Choice Award and the Golden Globe for her performance Hamnet, the star has well and truly established her place as an Oscars Best Actress frontrunner. It's quite the feat – her competition includes heavy hitters like Emma Stone, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence and Amanda Seyfried. Then again, once you see her in the film, it's hard to imagine anyone else taking home the award.
Jessie Buckley gives a remarkable performance in Hamnet
Buckley plays Agnes, an imagined rendition of the real-life Anne Shakespeare, wife of the famous playwright. Based on Maggie O'Farrell's heart-wrenching novel of the same name, Hamnet traces the Shakespeares' lives through their unconventional, soulful courtship, through to their marriage and the birth of their three children. When their son, Hamnet, dies a sudden, brutal, unforgiving death, the couple are stricken with grief – and their very different ways of expressing that grief threaten to tear them and their family apart for good. William Shakespeare channels his grief through his writing of, you guessed it, Hamlet, a play that may not be directly influenced by Hamnet, but rather reflects on the crippling nature of grief itself. When Agnes sees the play, she finally has the chance to bid farewell to her son – and to see and accept her husband's grief for what it is. Cue Max Richter's “On the Nature of Daylight” and general weepiness in the audience.
Mescal does a very good, very valiant job in the film, but it is Buckley who turns what could be a soppy slog of a film into such a poignant piece. From the film's opening moments, Buckley brings a soulfulness and thoughtfulness to Agnes. She's just a young farm girl at the start – a woodsy sort of girl who shirks any ladylike duties and prefers to spend her time cooing to her hawk in the woods or mixing up herbal remedies with her mortar and pestle.
Agnes has a raw, animalistic connection to Will and his ability to spin a good tale. Throughout all of this, Buckley brings a raw, hungry energy to the role that keeps it from veering into too many witchy woman stereotypes.
Buckley's performance really shines as we see Agnes harbouring the pain and pleasure of motherhood – first, the brutality of giving birth in the 1500s and, later, the pain of losing a child. Hamnet's death is one of the most harrowing, gut-wrenching moments on screen this year, thanks to Buckley's tortured cry. Without saying a word, she evokes the pain of a mother who has lost a child, the joy of a mother recognising something of that lost child onstage, as well as the dawning realisation that her husband has been going through the same grief as she has in a very different way. It's quietly, poetically epic.
It's going to be a good year for film, especially if you're Anne Hathaway.
Naturally, people are losing their minds over Jessie Buckley's performance in Hamnet
All of this being said, it's hardly surprising that the fan reaction to Hamnet has been intense.
“Jessie Buckley’s performance in Hamnet knocked me on my ass,” one viewer wrote on X.
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“moved to tears by jessie buckley in hamnet,” wrote another.
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A third wrote, “Never cried harder during a movie than Hamnet. I’ve never seen grief after tragedy portrayed as accurately as this. So full of sorrow, joy & primal reaction. Jessie Buckley is one of the greatest actors of all time.”
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Who is Jessie Buckley?
Could this be Buckley's year? It very well could and perhaps should be. While she may not be a “big name” like some of the other contenders, she has more than proven herself. And not only in her blistering turn in Hamnet.
Born in Killarney, County Kerry, Buckley first found fame on the show I'd Do Anything in 2008, where she competed for the role of Nancy in Oliver!, finishing in second place. She went onto study at RADA, graduating in 2013.
Jessie Buckley's career and awards so far
For the past decade, Buckley has been quietly establishing herself as one of her generation's finest actors. She made her first appearances in British TV fare: Endeavour, Doctor Who and War and Peace. In 2017, she gave a visceral, captivating turn opposite Johnny Flynn in Beast. In 2019, a heartbreaking performance in Chernobyl. In 2020, an anxiety-fuelled trip of a performance in I'm Thinking of Ending Things. Then came her assured turn in Maggie Gyllenhaal's 2021 The Lost Daughter, a role that earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Oscars. One year later, a Critics' Choice nod, this time for her sharp, unflinching performance in Women Talking. That same year, she also took home an Olivier award for her electric take on Sally Bowles onstage in Cabaret.
All of this being said, if you haven't heard of Buckley yet, perhaps you should have – and with the Oscar nominations announcement fast approaching, you will certainly be hearing about her a whole lot in the next few months.
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