During the devastating final scene of Hamnet, Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal found themselves fighting through the emotions—and even the equipment.
“There were moments when the camera was in the way,” Buckley says, remembering the shoot. “We kept saying, ‘We need to see each other.’”
Mescal laughs, recalling what transpired once the obstacle was cleared. “The second we made eye contact, we both went, ‘Oh no.’ It was overwhelming—in a really great way.”
Their connection is the foundation of Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s prize-winning novel, a lyrical and speculative reimagining of the Shakespeare family’s greatest tragedy: the 1596 death of 11-year-old Hamnet, followed years later by the creation of Hamlet. It has long been noted by scholars that “Hamnet” and “Hamlet” were used interchangeably in 16th-century England, providing an interesting historical anchor for Zhao’s film.
A Story of Marriage, Grief, and the Birth of a Masterpiece
Opening in theaters Wednesday, Hamnet mines the inner space between William Shakespeare – played by Mescal – and Agnes, his fiercely intuitive wife, played by Buckley. Zhao uses their bond – and their shared sense of being misunderstood outcasts – to construct a potent meditation on art, grief, and companionship.
William is referred to as a “pasty-faced scholar.” Agnes is whispered about as a “forest witch.” In Hamnet, love bridges those gaps—until loss reshapes everything.
Critics have already praised the duo’s performances among the year’s best. As for Buckley and Mescal, this constitutes their very first proper on-screen collaboration, even though both actors appeared in separate storylines in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter.
“We met the film at the perfect moment,” Mescal says. “There was mutual respect, but also this mystery between us.”
Buckley agrees: “There was such kinetic energy. It all felt possible.”
A Chemistry Test That Was Almost Too Good
Before filming, Zhao arranged a chemistry read—something that very quickly proved unnecessary.
“We’d forget we were even saying lines,” Mescal recalls.
“It was like the air shifted,” Buckley adds. “There was already a current between us.”
It is through their connection that much of the film’s emotional poles are negotiated—scenes of grief, reportedly that have sent audiences into tears at Hamnet’s prize-winning premiere in Toronto’s International Film Festival.
Entering the Characters Through Dreams, Meditation, and Vulnerability
Buckley and Mescal admit filming the project shook them emotionally; both drew deeply from their own lives, working closely with subconscious-based acting coach Kim Gillingham.
“Kim asks these enormous questions before you start,” Mescal says. “One was: ‘Why are you making this film?’ I had an answer at first. Then two weeks in, sitting under the stars with Jessie, I realized my original answer was far too small.”
Zhao encouraged the cast to shed protective layers rather than build performative ones.
“What Chloé wants is for you to reach deeper inside yourself,” says Buckley. “It’s not about masks–it’s about stripping them away.”
As she does on all her films, Zhao opened each day with a guided meditation, a ritual she now brings to festival screenings as well.
Zhao’s Vision: “Extreme Masculine and Extreme Feminine”
Known for her authentic, grounded filmmaking, Zhao pushed Mescal and Buckley in new directions.
“I asked them to embody the extreme masculine and extreme feminine,” says Zhao. “What artists do is reach across time to find that part of a historical figure that still lives inside us.”
For Mescal, that meant reimagining Shakespeare not as a walking sonnet machine, but as a man torn between the desire to escape his life and the desire to honour it.
“How dull would that be if he just walked around spouting in rhyme?” Mescal says. “I saw him as restless, enjoying his life but wanting more from it.”
Buckley interjects, “That’s you.”
Mescal shrugs. “It was the version of him that made most sense. And yes, someone at Oxford will probably complain about his accent. But honestly? I don’t care.”
The Climactic Scene That Nearly Broke the Film—and the Cast
The film’s finale, a performance of Hamlet at the Globe, has already sparked acclaim as one of the year’s most powerful closing sequences. Yet Buckley admits the cast and crew initially felt lost.
“We’d gone through this massive emotional journey,” she says. “By the time we reached the Globe, none of us knew how it should end. And then the Globe flooded. Two days of rain. It was like the world was saying, ‘Not yet.’”
The turning point was unexpected: Buckley put on Max Richter’s On the Nature of Daylight and played it for Zhao.
“It reminded me I wasn’t alone,” Buckley says. “Sometimes you feel, as an actor, like you have to carry the whole thing. But that day, I realized we were a community. I had to surrender to that.”
“It’s one of the most important collaborations of my life. It’d be madness if it was our last,” agrees Mescal.
The Long-Lasting Impact of “Hamnet”
The final moments of Hamnet—anchored by hundreds of extras and the electric energy inside the Globe—remain etched in the actors’ memories. “At the edge of the stage,” Buckley says, “I could feel a tsunami of emotion behind me. That’s why we go to the theater, why we tell stories. To place the parts of ourselves we can’t hold alone into something bigger.” Mescal nods. “We just looked at each other, and it all made sense.
