In an extraordinarily unpredictable Oscar race, only one moment experts agree on is a dead cert — Jessie Buckley, once again on stage, to collect the Best Actress award.
Great honors a Critics’ Choice Award in January. Then a Golden Globe, then a BAFTA, and most recently, a Statuette at the Actor Awards.
Buckley It’s the only acting nomination that all four took home this year, and they’ve also picked up other minor awards. The OscarIt seems, hers to lose.
Latest Updates – Oscar Awards
Hamnet stars Jessie Buckley as Agnes and Joe Alwyn as Bartholomew. Image: Agata Grzybowska/ Focus Features
The Gold Derby, an LA-based authority when it comes to awards predictions, rates the chance of winning at an almost unbeatable 97%. “This has been a truly extraordinary awards season, unprecedented,” says Debra Birnbaum, the site’s editor-in-chief. But Buckley, he says, “is a sure thing… a pretty safe bet.”
If Buckley wins, she will make history – the first Irish actress to win the award.
The 36-year-old is best known for her role as Shakespeare’s wife Agnes in Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet. The film chronicles a couple’s grief after the death of their young son, and puts the Bard, played by Paul Meskal, in the back seat while Agnes’ story takes center stage. Buckley’s raw, emotional performance moved audiences to tears.
Jesse Buckley is proving to be unbeatable this awards season. Image: Reuters
Among a sea of A-list Oscar nominations, including two-time winner Emma Stone, critics singled her out as “one of the finest actresses of her generation.”
“Being in a room with all these incredible artists, that’s the biggest thing for me,” Buckley told Sky News last month, speaking about his awards and nominations. “That and being a mother.”
The actress gave birth to her first child, a baby girl, last year and has paid tribute to her in speeches so far. “I want to share this with my daughter,” she said of her BAFTA. “I promise to remain defiant, so that you can join the world as a young woman in all your crazy, complicated wildness.”
Jesse Buckley, and Renee Zellweger at the premiere of Judy in London in September 2019. Image: Joel C. Ryan/ Invision/ AP
This is Buckley’s second Oscar nomination; In 2022, she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for the first time for her performance in The Last Daughter, starring Olivia Colman. He starred in other Oscar-nominated films, For example Women Talkingalongside Rooney Mara and Claire Foy, and Judy opposite Renée Zellweger, and won several awards for her lead performance in the West End revival of Cabaret.
But she grew up quietly in Killarney, Co Kerry from a young age. As a teenager, she appeared in the BBC reality show I’d Do Anything, a 2008 adaptation of the musical Oliver! tried to find an unknown actor to play Nancy in the West End revival of .
Jesse Buckley (right) and Jodi Prenger in I’d Do Anything in 2008. Image: BBC
Buckley finished second, but continued to love stage and screen. He appeared in series including Taboo and The Last Post, before landing breakout roles in the British films Beast and Wild Rose and the critically acclaimed HBO/Sky series Chernobyl.
When Wild Rose was released in 2019, Buckley said he grew up without a TV at home Until she was “about eight or nine years old”, and her first experience of wanting to act was “seeing a Vincente Minnelli and Judy Garland film … it was like my mind just kind of magically exploded”.
Now, she’s reached the highest accolades for her achievements on screen, but she’s also a Mercury Prize nominee – shortlisted in 2022 for her collaborative album For All Our Days That Tear the Heart with former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler.
Jesse Buckley and Bernard Butler at the Mercury Prize in 2022. Image: Ian West / PA Archive
“You couldn’t take your eyes off her”
For those who knew her at Ursuline Secondary School in Co Tipperary, her success came as no surprise. Joan Butler, a music teacher who joined the school in 2006, Buckley’s final year, says it was clear she was headed for big things.
“We’re very proud of all of our students here, but Jesse stands out as someone with special talents even as he’s just starting out on his career path,” she says. “She was in a production of West Side Story my first year of teaching … Spellbinding is something we use here because we’re talking about her and remembering her time here.
“You couldn’t take your eyes off Jessie on stage or when she was singing or at the piano. It’s a very rare star quality. I still remember playing violin in the pit orchestra, looking up at the stage.
Now, Buckley may well achieve that dream.
Chloe Zhao with actors Paul Meskal and Jesse Buckley on the set of Hamnet. Image: Agata Grzybowska/ Focus Features
After watching the actress tackle physically and emotionally demanding scenes while filming Hamnet, her cast and crew say it’s incredible that her hard work and talent have been recognized.
Hamnett set decorator Alice Felton, herself nominated for an Oscar in the production design category, says “everyone was in tears” watching Buckley accept his awards.
“Because we saw her throughout the shoot give it her heart and soul,” he says. “We were crying on the edge of the set before the music was put on, before everything was done.
“She’s a beautiful person. She gave everything to the role and she’s part of the team. She was sleeping in a bed in the attic (at their house in the film). So I’d go to fix the set and she’d fall asleep. She just lived in the space and we were all so happy for her.”
Irish stars show support in LA
Domhnall Gleeson at the Oscar Wilde Awards in LA ahead of the Oscars
In the days leading up to the Oscars each year in Los Angeles, the US-Ireland Alliance hosts the Oscar Wilde Awards, which celebrate Irish talent.
He’s had plenty to toast in recent years, including nine nominations for 2023’s The Banshees of Inisharyn (starring another former Ursuline pupil, Kerry Condon). And in 2024, Cillian Murphy became the first Irish star to win Best ActorFor his performance in Oppenheimer.
Read more:
Warner Bros. is poised for Oscar success amid acquisition plans
One war after another ‘disastrously timed’
Oscar – a traditional look that broke the rules
This year, Buckley is the man everyone is talking about.
Gleeson, who starred alongside her in the animated Christmas special The Scarecrow’s Wedding, told Sky News: “We’re already celebrating Jesse Buckley.
“She’s an absolutely amazing actor. She’s so incredible in the film and I’d be delighted, delighted if she won. But we celebrate her all the time.”
Singer-songwriter Dermot Kennedy also highlighted Buckley’s musical talent. “I think people don’t know what a great singer she is,” he said. “She’s just an incredibly talented person, so we’re very excited for her.”
And speaking at the premiere of Peaky Blinders earlier this month, Murphy himself showed his support. “She’s incredible,” he told Sky News. “I’m so happy for her, she looks incredible in that movie.”
Cillian Murphy became the first Irish star to win the Best Actor Oscar in 2024. Image: AP
The actress is an inspiration to young students at Ursuline hoping to follow in Buckley’s footsteps.
“We’re very excited to see everything that comes after this,” says Ms Butler. “Many thanks to her for all she has done to inspire our students and show them what is possible.”
