In one of 2025’s most searing dramatic screen performances, Jessie Buckley embodies Agnes (the wife of William Shakespeare) with such fierce passion and unguarded grief that it wouldn’t be unfathomable to think that Chloé Zhao’s filmmaking presence is right beside her, guiding every raw, immediate impulse. While we wonder about what kind of parameters, or exercises that were put in place by the filmmaker who gave us Songs My Brother Taught Me, The Rider and Nomadland, we figure that this alchemy between director and player allowed for them to transform Hamnet from a simple historical adaptation into a living, breathing meditation on love, loss, and the fragile spaces that exist between those who are here, and those who are not.
There is this behind the scenes production still floating around of Jessie and Chloé nestled in the forest ground together and this stuck with me, so during a virtual roundtable I had the chance to ask the tandem if they could recall one instrumental moment that went beyond simple chemistry or the hand holding process and that helped bring them closer together. You’ll see in the answer that fragility of cinema, and a sort of maternal companionship and support structure which allowed them to move into the film with less fear. Focus Features release Hamnet on November 27th.
