Jessie Buckley shares emotional reaction to being tipped for Best Actress Oscar

Jessie Buckley is finding the whirlwind of Oscars attention both exciting and surreal.

The 36-year-old actress, widely tipped to take home the Academy Award for Best Actress at Sunday’s (March 15) ceremony for her performance in Hamnet, told the Daily Mirror that the acclaim is “hard to take in.”

“It’s kind of hard to take in. I think probably when I’m 80, I’ll have a really good answer,” Buckley said. 

“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 first rose to fame as a teenager on the BBC talent show I’d Do Anything, admitted that being surrounded by Hollywood’s elite at awards events is overwhelming.

“It is a heightened moment and you do this kind of… class photograph. It’s just so cute and also insane,” she said. “I was watching everybody get up — Guillermo del Toro, Rose Byrne, Timothée Chalamet, Emma Stone, and incredibly talented costume and production designers — and I’m like, ‘God, I cannot take this for granted, this moment.’”

Reflecting on her journey, Buckley said she never imagined reaching this stage. “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.”

In Hamnet, Buckley plays Agnes Shakespeare opposite Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare, exploring the grief of losing their son, an event believed to have inspired the playwright’s tragedy Hamlet.

Speaking about her co-star, she praised Mescal’s talent and versatility. “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.”