Ok, I’ll say it: awards season is proving to be a bit of a slog. A sea of tight, poreless faces and laborious, trudging jokes that could not have been more effortfully delivered, it is sometimes hard to remember that we were supposedly celebrating film and the artists who make it. That is, until Jessie Buckley takes the stage to collect all of her well-deserved awards for her astounding performance in Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet.
Gilbert Flores/Getty Images
A breath of fresh Irish air, Buckley is all warmth and vivacity. Collecting her Best Actress Award at the Golden Globes on 11 January, the actress kept it refreshingly real: “Whoa! This is not a normal feeling or situation to be in, but thank you, Golden Globes,” she said as she mounted the stage, before fondly recalling raving in the Globe Theatre with the 400 extras in the film. As you do.
This came after an equally endearing Critics’ Choice speech. “Paul, I bloody love you, man,” Buckley said to her Hamnet co-star, Paul Mescal, when accepting the award last weekend. “I know loads of other women do in this room too – but tough shit,” she went on. “I could drink you like water, working with you every single day. You’re a giant of the heart and thank you so much for making me a little bit more human.”
And now, a BAFTA to add to her growing list of accolades.
Accepting the award, Buckley joked that when she first arrived in the UK, she was sporting a “nuclear fake tan,” hoop earrings and a red polka-dot skirt.
She thanked her agent, Lindy King, for encouraging her to be “disobedient” and “curious,” and paid tribute to director Zhao for her “uncompromising artistry,” as well as writer Maggie O’Farrell for the “gift of a role.”
Buckley said she shares the award with her daughter, and promised to “keep being disobedient.”
Stuart Wilson/BAFTA/Getty Images