{"id":329848,"date":"2026-03-05T07:15:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T07:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/329848\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T07:15:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T07:15:06","slug":"could-jessie-buckleys-problematic-anti-cat-vibes-scupper-her-oscar-bid-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/329848\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Jessie Buckley\u2019s \u2018problematic\u2019 anti-cat vibes scupper her Oscar bid? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Chlo\u00e9 Zhao\u2019s<\/a> Oscar<\/a>-nominated Hamnet<\/a>, Jessie Buckley<\/a> plays a bereaved mother whose cathartic grief has reduced cinemagoers around the world to stunned silence. Many Buckley fans were stunned all over again when they learned that Ireland\u2019s 2026 Oscar front-runner<\/a>\u2026 isn\u2019t all that keen on cats.<\/p>\n

What moggie madness is this? In a recently resurfaced interview for a podcast in November, she boldly declared: \u201cI don\u2019t like cats.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was cheered all the way by her costar Paul Mescal<\/a>, who reminded us that, as befits a former Kildare footballer, his talent for own-goals hasn\u2019t deserted him when he agreed, \u201cF**k cats, honestly\u2026 f**k \u2018em.\u201d<\/p>\n

They could have ended it there. People often speak in haste \u2013 we\u2019ve all said and done things we regret. But oh no\u2026 Buckley had more to share: \u201cThey\u2019re too clever. My husband, when I started to date him\u2026 he had two cats.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the pets, she revealed, took a disliking to her and made their feelings known by pooping all over the pillows \u2013 leaving Buckley to tell her future husband it was \u201cher or the cats\u201d. <\/p>\n

Buckley is an immensely talented actor and singer and a great ambassador for Killarney<\/a> \u2013 where you can expect a statue of her to be unveiled and competitively priced Jessie Buckley T-shirts to be on sale the instant she wins her Oscar (as is the bookies\u2019 expectation).<\/p>\n

But for those of us with cats in our lives, her anti-cat vibes are what Americans would call \u201cproblematic\u201d. I haven\u2019t seen Hamnet \u2013 but if I had, I\u2019d want to build a time machine and go back and give it a skip. As Buckley and Mescal are about to discover, cat lovers take feline-dissing personally. We have, of course, heard it all before: cats are unaffectionate, scheming, only interested in food and pampering.<\/p>\n

Setting aside the obvious point that the same could be said of many human beings, there is the fact that this simply isn\u2019t true. I speak from experience with our family having taken in a cat in 2023 after she was abandoned and left to fend for herself. Agatha was hungry, in dire need of veterinary attention \u2013 but above all, she had been badly affected by rejection.<\/p>\n

Her origins are a mystery to us \u2013 she just appeared on the back windowsill one day, mewing and making big kitty eyes. The theory we have arrived at is that she was a pandemic kitten who was shown the door when the circumstances of her original owner changed. Whatever the truth, she had clearly endured some sort of emotional trauma \u2013 as much as food and shelter, she required love and attention.<\/p>\n

Fair enough, cats will never give you back that love in the demonstrative way that a dog will. But their emotional needs are every bit as real as those of a dog \u2013 the fact they don\u2019t slobber all over you or sniff the bums of other cats doesn\u2019t mean that they don\u2019t have internal lives.<\/p>\n

The other point to make is that cats are absolutely hilarious. Where dogs are big, hairy goofballs, cats are a constant source of chuckles. They take themselves so seriously yet are endlessly funny \u2013 whether attacking your sock, getting trapped inside an open shoebox or demonstrating a sudden need to dangle from the curtains. With a cat in your life, you will never lack for something to laugh about.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley: \u2018There was an undeniable energy and chemistry between us\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It may sound facetious, but could Buckley\u2019s worrying anti-cat views impact her Oscar hopes? You would hope that isn\u2019t the case, but with that Oscar win seemingly just a whisker away, Buckley could do without alienating the feline-fancying votes in the Academy. Cat lovers can forgive a lot \u2013 scratches, constant begging for food, the occasional poo in the flower bed. But throwing shade at cats is just a bridge too far. Fingers \u2013 and tiny adorable paws \u2013 crossed that Buckley doesn\u2019t face some kitty karma further down the line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Chlo\u00e9 Zhao\u2019s Oscar-nominated Hamnet, Jessie Buckley plays a bereaved mother whose cathartic grief has reduced cinemagoers around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[309,93,631,61,60,312,2625,5042,7730],"class_list":["post-329848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-chloe-zhao","tag-entertainment","tag-for-you","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jessie-buckley","tag-oscars","tag-paul-mescal","tag-pets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}