{"id":197276,"date":"2025-10-13T14:50:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T14:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/197276\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T14:50:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T14:50:09","slug":"i-only-want-to-make-films-as-brave-and-as-human-as-this-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/197276\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I only want to make films as brave and as human as this\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Actors Jessie Buckley<\/a> and Paul Mescal<\/a> went on a transformative journey in Hamnet, a film that has received rave reviews and early award season buzz.<\/p>\n

Directed by Academy Award-winning Nomadland film-maker Chlo\u00e9 Zhao<\/a>, the drama offers a fictional account of the relationship of William Shakespeare<\/a> and his wife Agnes and the death of their 11-year-old son Hamnet in 1596.<\/p>\n

Set in Stratford-upon-Avon and London, it sees the young Shakespeare teaching Latin to pay off his father\u2019s debts and falling in love with the free-spirited Agnes, described by locals as the daughter of a forest witch.<\/p>\n

With a focus on their family life, the emotion-filled film follows the highs and lows of their love story as well as the grief over the loss of their son, which leads Shakespeare to write Hamlet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was revealed to me through her (Agnes) was a tenderness that I didn\u2019t know I needed to learn and live in. And that tenderness has changed me,\u201d Buckley said on Saturday at the movie\u2019s BFI London Film Festival premiere.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really reminded me of how potent and powerful storytelling can be. And it\u2019s kind of set a bar, like, I only want to make films that are as brave and as human as this from now on,\u201d the Irish actor said.<\/p>\n

Normal People<\/a>, Aftersun<\/a> and Gladiator II<\/a> star Mescal said the movie gave him an opportunity to portray a maturing man. Its depiction of love that transforms through time was \u201cvery moving\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the first time that I\u2019ve spanned the real length of time with him, early 20s all the way through to even a little bit in later life. It was lovely,\u201d Mescal said.<\/p>\n

The film is adapted from Maggie O\u2019Farrell\u2019s<\/a> bestselling 2020 novel<\/a> of the same name, with the author and Zhao co-writing the screenplay. It acknowledges that the names Hamlet and Hamnet were interchangeable in Shakespeare\u2019s day.<\/p>\n

\"PaulPaul Mescal and Jessie Buckley at the Hamnet gala screening during the BFI London Film Festival at Royal Festival Hall in London. Photograph: EPA \"PaulPaul Mescal and Jessie Buckley at the Hamnet gala screening during the BFI London Film Festival at Royal Festival Hall in London. Photograph: EPA \"PaulPaul Mescal and Jessie Buckley at the Hamnet gala screening during the BFI London Film Festival at Royal Festival Hall in London. Photograph: EPA <\/p>\n

The project was an emotional one for Zhao, who was overwhelmed as she arrived at the premiere.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you see your DP (director of photography), your production designer, your costume designer and just start balling on the red carpet for like 20 minutes, I can\u2019t keep it together, I think it speaks for itself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Hamnet, which is produced by Steven Spielberg<\/a> and Sam Mendes<\/a>, will be released in cinemas globally in late 2025 and early 2026. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Actors Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal went on a transformative journey in Hamnet, a film that has received…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[46821,96,46823,388,85961,2839,46825,10108,7198,56,54,55,73066],"class_list":{"0":"post-197276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-chloe-zhao","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-jessie-buckley","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-maggie-o-farrell","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-paul-mescal","15":"tag-sam-altman","16":"tag-steven-spielberg","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom","20":"tag-william-shakespeare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197276","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=197276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}