Paul Mescal, Jessie Buckley on the emotional response to ‘Hamnet’

November 26, 2025

Hamnet is ready to break your heart.

The film, directed by Chloé Zhao and based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell, tells the fictional story of how deep love and a devastating loss in William Shakespeare‘s personal life helped shape his enduring classic Hamlet. Paul Mescal plays a young Shakespeare, who falls in love with a wild spirit named Agnes, played by Jessie Buckley.

Buckley says she’s proud of the emotional response the film has been getting.

“I love that like some people just need to sit in the cinema for five minutes after it, or go and take a walk. And that there is catharsis in that release, you know, to feel,” she says.

“I think we spend so much of our lives walking around just trying to survive,” she adds. “And sometimes those feelings that really need a vessel to be held and to be let go of aren’t available. So I just feel so proud that this story can offer that to people.”

Even though audiences will likely be reaching for the tissues while watching it, Mescal notes that it’s not just a sad film.

“I really don’t want people to think they’re going into this film that is about death,” he says. “It’s a film that’s rooted deeply in Agnes and Will’s love for each other, the love they have for their children. And the only reason that the grief, I think, is so profound is that you can see them battling to hold on to that love in the most impossible of places.”

That depth of feeling is a testament to the relationship Buckley and Mescal built both on and off screen.

“It has been one of the most important collaborations and relationships I have in my life,” Buckley says. “And I feel like it’s just the beginning.”

Hamnet is in limited release now and expands to wider release on Dec. 5.