{"id":126470,"date":"2025-09-10T01:15:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T01:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/126470\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T01:15:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T01:15:12","slug":"on-hamnet-paul-mescal-and-jessie-buckley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/126470\/","title":{"rendered":"On ‘Hamnet,’ Paul Mescal, and Jessie Buckley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the Labor Day weekend, \u201cHamnet\u201d<\/a> turned the Werner Herzog Theatre at Telluride into a river of tears. And it did the same thing, by all accounts, at Toronto\u2019s 2,600-seat Roy Thomson Hall on Sunday night. (Toronto often waits until after the opening weekend to show Telluride titles. Not this time.)<\/p>\n

Anyone who has seen \u201cNomadland,\u201d which earned Best Picture and Director Oscars<\/a> for Chlo\u00e9 Zhao in 2021, knows that this director is skilled at eliciting emotion, from her actors and her audiences. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve screened any of my films in a theater that big before,\u201d she told IndieWire the next morning on Zoom. \u201cIt\u2019s huge, and because it\u2019s three floors and it\u2019s round, it\u2019s actually like the Globe Theatre.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"'Dust<\/a> \"California<\/a> <\/p>\n

That\u2019s Shakespeare\u2019s Globe Theatre, which Zhao had rebuilt at about 70-= percent scale for \u201cHamnet<\/a>,\u201d a heart-wrenching period family drama based on Maggie O\u2019Farrell\u2019s 2020 bestseller about William and Agnes Shakespeare (Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley). The well-reviewed<\/a> film<\/a>\u00a0tracks their early romance and marriage and the birth of three children, two girls and a boy, Hamnet. Their lives are rocked by grief when they lose Hamnet to the plague, and Shakespeare buries himself in writing the tragedy \u201cHamlet.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Sam Mendes pulled back from developing \u201cHamnet\u201d in 2022, Amblin Entertainment called Zhao to check out her interest in directing. She was driving through New Mexico\u2019s Four Corners on her way to Telluride. She had never read the book, and at first said \u201cno.\u201d A few hours later, she got a call that Paul Mescal wanted to meet her at the festival. She did not know his work (he had done \u201cNormal People,\u201d and \u201cAftersun\u201d was a secret screening at the festival). \u201cI had no idea who he was,\u201d she said. \u201cI Googled him. I see pictures of him, and I saw a clip. \u2018I like his vibe. Why don\u2019t I just meet with him?’\u201d<\/p>\n

During their walk in the woods, they stopped by a creek. Zhao looked at his profile. \u201cHave you thought about playing young Shakespeare?,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2018Hamnet\u2019?,\u201d he asked. \u201cI read the book. You have to read the book.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was exciting to meet him,\u201d she said, \u201cbecause it was not that different than meeting my rodeo cowboy for \u2018The Rider,\u2019 because I didn\u2019t know him as an actor or what he does, I just felt like this person could potentially do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"4238_D045_00238_RJessie Buckley in \u2018Hamnet\u2019Agata Grzybowska<\/p>\n

Then she read the book. \u201cIf I had read the book, I wouldn\u2019t have said, \u2018no,’\u201d she said. \u201cI had never heard of the book.\u201d And she wanted Jessie Buckley to play Agnes. \u201cI knew her work. I had a feeling that she wouldn\u2019t be afraid. There was no vanity in her, which is what Fran McDormand had. I\u2019m neurodivergent, and when there\u2019s dissonance, I can\u2019t function. I can\u2019t look at the person. So I need that authenticity, and vanity is the number-one enemy of authenticity. Actors, their greatest blessing they can give to the world is their authenticity and their humanness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making people cry is not Zhao\u2019s goal, per se. \u201cI never quite know what I\u2019m doing when I set out to do something, and why,\u201d she said, \u201cbecause I never quite know what is real or what is true. Literal truth doesn\u2019t make sense to me. When something is completely present in the moment with no dissonance at all, that\u2019s when I say, \u2018capture that right away,\u2019 because that is truth that can transcend time and space, and that can link everyone together. Every day on set, that\u2019s what we go for. Of course, we have a blueprint of a script based on a beautiful book. That\u2019s the bones, the spine.\u201d <\/p>\n

Early in Zhao\u2019s career, her films were reality-based. They tried to capture something in the real world. And then she directed Marvel\u2019s \u201cEternals,\u201d which is the opposite. While she got her worst reviews<\/a> for that film, it did teach her many skills, including how to build a world. 16th century \u201cHamnet\u201d needed to be created, built from the ground up. It doesn\u2019t exist except in the pages of O\u2019Farrell\u2019s book. That\u2019s one reason why Zhao turned to O\u2019Farrell to write the screenplay with her.<\/p>\n

\"Chloe\u2018Hamnet\u2019 director Chlo\u00e9 Zhao at TellurideAnne Thompson<\/p>\n

If O\u2019Farrell had refused to write the \u201cHamnet\u201d script with her, Zhao wouldn\u2019t have made the movie, because she had built a world in the book. \u201cNot only that, she had also been swimming in that pond for so long that she knows what she didn\u2019t put in the book,\u201d said Zhao. \u201cTo have that book, she must have written 10 of those to distill to that in her research. I needed to know what else isn\u2019t in the book, because things will change. We add scenes. And so without her, I couldn\u2019t have done that.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Farrell did a first pass and arranged everything in chronological order. Zhao did another pass to condense it, pick the things to keep and throw away. And with that spine, they add and subtract \u201cuntil we both go, \u2018OK, this is it,’\u201d Zhao said.<\/p>\n

It helped to have Steven Spielberg on hand to give notes on the script and the edit. After he read the first drafts, he told Zhao, \u201cI\u2019m missing a moment between Will and Hamnet, between father and son.\u201d So she wrote the \u201cwill you be brave?\u201d scene. \u201cHe helped,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As far as Zhao is concerned, she and O\u2019Farrell and the cast and crew contributed to the film every day, from Oscar-winning sound designer Johnnie Burn (\u201cThe Zone of Interest\u201d) and ASC-winning cinematographer \u0141ukasz \u017bal\u00a0(\u201cCold War\u201d) to co-editor Affonso Gon\u00e7alves\u00a0and composer Max Richter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe emotionality of the film was the emotional truth of what we captured as a village,\u201d she said. \u201cWe don\u2019t know how to do it any other way. We were swimming the river together. So this is what we ended up with. And I have a faith that I hold on to \u2014 I\u2019m not a traditionally religious person \u2014 but this faith I have as an artist is that if we do the work and we have conviction and we show up every day, something much bigger and older is going to try to speak through us. And whatever that is, is what the world needs. I just want to trust that. Otherwise, I\u2019m lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TORONTO,Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley attend the premiere of \u2018Hamnet\u2019 during the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival at Roy Thomson Hall on September 07, 2025 in Toronto, OntarioGetty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cHamnet\u201d had to be filmed on a smaller scale than her Marvel movie \u201cEternals.\u201d \u201cThere isn\u2019t another sunset that I could capture more dramatically than \u2018Eternals,’\u201d said Zhao. \u201cCapturing sunsets in ancient places, with 500 people waiting and superhero-like, I\u2019ve done enough sunsets now. In my thirties, I was chasing the horizons like a nomadic person, because for me it was easier to keep running. It\u2019s difficult for me to sit with myself. \u2018Hamnet\u2019 needed depth, maturity. I challenged myself: one frame, one room, one stage. You\u2019re not going to rely on that grandeur and that excitement of movement. How deep can you go? Because once you restrain yourself with these walls, the only place you could go is above or below, and that is extremely uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The day when everyone on set went deep was the death of Hamnet. The night before, Jacobi Jupe came to Zhao and said, \u201cI\u2019m going to break your heart tomorrow.\u201d She said, \u201cGood! I have high expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the day came, \u201cI did not know Jessie was going to scream,\u201d said Zhao. \u201cI didn\u2019t know that. I didn\u2019t know what Jacobi was going to do. I had no idea what the two of them were going to do. We create an environment. By then, we\u2019ve been together for a couple of months, cast crew, everyone knew what today is, it was like a ceremony. It wasn\u2019t doing a scene. The pin could drop. Everyone in that moment was feeling something from the beginning of the day, something they loved they\u2019d lost. So Jessie and Jacobi were channeling what all the people that are their found family in this last few months are feeling as well, and so the truth we capture in the moment is the only thing that we need to stand by. And in the edit, I have to make sure to not betray that, to not be afraid what that might do to the film in public.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the reasons that Zhao initially shied away from the book was to avoid dealing with a mother figure. \u201cWhen you have a deep mother wound, from your own personal life or ancestrally, telling a story about motherhood is triggering,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s why, if you look at my films in the past, that character doesn\u2019t exist. She\u2019s either not present or dead. So when I heard about the synopsis, I said I was not anywhere near doing it. I was also in the middle of going through midlife transition, [I was] turning 40-41, around that time. \u2018If I don\u2019t heal that wound, the second half of life is going to be hard.\u2019 So I was reading the book, seeing how Agnes is losing her mother, losing her connection with nature, her connection with her child. There\u2019s so much there. \u2018How am I going to hold that? I can\u2019t do this!’\u201d<\/p>\n

But then Zhao saw something that she could grasp, \u201ca safe place,\u201d she said, \u201cwhich is actually the William Shakespeare side of the story, because I was writing from myself, too. I escaped into the fantasy world because I didn\u2019t want to sit around the dinner table. It was not safe. So I know that character, that\u2019s my safe place for 41 years. If I can escape to him half the time, I can maybe handle her, and then to allow these two sides of myself who had been at war and caused a lot of suffering to finally see each other. At the end, I went on an incredible healing journey making this film.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\u2018Hamnet\u2019<\/p>\n

Crying together goes back to the Greeks. \u201cIn every indigenous tradition, you come around the fire, and then the shaman would channel a story,\u201d said Zhao, who used daily meditations and dream sessions with her actors, and arranged weekly dance rituals to let off steam. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnimals, dreams, visions. People have strong emotions. Warriors come back from battle. They don\u2019t just take medication. They can go back home. They sit around the fire, and they dance, and they release these emotions, and that turned into theater, these Greek tragedies. You get together, everyone gets angry together, and then they rage, and then they cry. And we have been dealing with this impossible tension to be alive. We so far have not been able to escape the law of nature. We\u2019re going to be born, we\u2019re going to die. And we have been using art and storytelling and a collective communal experience, to grieve, to feel, to deal with that since way before any of these things that are telling us we should be separated even existed. We\u2019re remembering, ready to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Editor\u2019s note: Spoilers for the last act of \u201cHamnet\u201d follow.]<\/p>\n

At the end of the movie, the grieving Agnes, feeling bereft of her child and her husband, and away writing and mounting \u201cHamlet,\u201d comes to the Globe Theatre to see the premiere performance. She stands at the edge of the stage with hundreds of extras behind her. She is riveted as the actor playing Prince Hamlet (Noah Jupe) is onstage with her husband, Will, playing the ghost of his father, King Hamlet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was four of the most difficult, but also life-changing days of my life,\u201d said Zhao. \u201cThere\u2019s barely any dialogue. This language is quite universal for everyone, right? Sometimes our truth can only be felt in silence and maybe with Max Richter\u2019s music playing in the background. All we\u2019re asking is to see each other and be seen without judgment, unconditionally, and that was healing and also difficult to experience. Shakespeare worked hard his entire life to bring people together every day for a few hours: The illusion of separation dissolves.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added after the TIFF premiere, \u201cAnd that\u2019s how I felt yesterday at the theater. Just for that short amount of time, you go to these events, you hold each other\u2019s grief and anger and fear and shame in that short amount of time.\u201d <\/p>\n

Focus Features will release \u201cHamnet\u201d in theaters on Friday, November 27.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the Labor Day weekend, \u201cHamnet\u201d turned the Werner Herzog Theatre at Telluride into a river of tears.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[20267,6491,46821,96,10923,2332,50284,2580,33357,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-126470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-awards","tag-celebrities","tag-chloe-zhao","tag-entertainment","tag-festivals","tag-film","tag-hamnet","tag-interviews","tag-oscars","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}