Jessie Buckley overwhelmed by Oscars buzz

Jessie Buckley finds it surreal that she is expected to win an Academy Award for her performance in Hamnet.

Jessie Buckley finds it “hard to take in” the Oscars buzz surrounding her.

The 36-year-old star is widely expected to win the Academy Award for Best Actress at Sunday’s (15.03.26) ceremony for her performance in Hamnet and confessed that she is finding the acclaim surreal.

Jessie, who welcomed a baby daughter with her husband Freddie Sorensen last year, told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “It’s kind of hard to take in. I think probably when I’m 80, I’ll have a really good answer.

“But, you know, going to the Oscar nominee luncheon and, being completely honest, sometimes you’re getting in the car and you’re like, ‘Oh god, I’m tired. And I have a six-month-old, and I should be changing her nappy. What am I doing? And I don’t know anybody there, I’m scared.'”

Buckley – who rose to fame on the BBC talent show I’d Do Anything as a teenager – admits that it is overwhelming to be rubbing shoulders with Hollywood’s great and good at the awards ceremonies.

The Bride! star said: “It is a heightened moment and you do this kind off… class photograph. It’s just so cute and also insane.

“I was watching everybody get up and you’ve got, like, Guillermo del Toro and Rose Byrne and Timothee Chalamet and Emma Stone and incredibly costume designers and production designers and I (am) like, ‘God, I cannot take this for granted, this moment.’

“It’s something that I never, ever expected. I thought I would be lucky enough to peep behind the curtain and be in a play. This is beyond my wildest expectations.”

Hamnet tells the story of Agnes (Buckley) and William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and how the death of their son Hamnet inspired the playwright’s famous story Hamlet and Jessie hopes that she gets the chance to work with the Gladiator II star again in the future.

She said of her co-star: “I think he’s the most extraordinary man, an incredible actor. He’s only 30. And he’s gone from playing Shakespeare to Paul McCartney (in Sam Mendes’ upcoming Beatles biopics). The breadth of this man is ginormous.”