:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2)/jessie-buckley-1-112425-fc3ec1a7cf174d9fa969d27f11d6bb01.jpg?ssl=1 "‘Most of the Time I’m Changing a Nappy’ (Exclusive)")
NEED TO KNOW
- Jessie Buckley stars in Hamnet, director Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of the hit novel about William Shakespeare, his wife, Agnes, and their family
- Speaking to PEOPLE at the New York premiere about the Oscar buzz surrounding her performance, Buckley said she’s “so happy that it’s been responded to in the way it has”
- The Irish actress also commented on becoming a new mother, quipping, “most of the time I’m changing a nappy”
Jessie Buckley is juggling a career high with an even bigger milestone: being a new mom.
Speaking to PEOPLE at the New York premiere of her new movie, Hamnet, on Friday, Nov. 21, the Irish actress, 35, says she’s “just trying to be present in” the moment. “I’m also a new mom so, like, most of the time I’m changing a nappy and coming to things like this,” she adds.
Hamnet, from director Chloé Zhao and cowriter Maggie O’Farrell, who wrote the hit 2020 novel it’s based on, stars Buckley as Agnes Shakespeare, wife of the famous English playwright portrayed by Paul Mescal. The Steven Spielberg-produced period piece imagines the couple’s life in the country with their three children — including son Hamnet, who would inspire Shakespeare’s enduring tragedy Hamlet.
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“I’m really proud to be putting this film out in the world, and I’m so happy that it’s been responded to in the way it has,” Buckley tells PEOPLE with a smile. “I mean, to make anything at all is a triumph. The other stuff is extra.”
The other stuff, as awards season approaches, may include more accolades for Buckley following her Academy Award-nominated turn in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s 2021 drama, The Lost Daughter. “I haven’t fully worked out how I feel about that,” says the actress when asked about ongoing Oscar buzz.
“I don’t think any of us take for granted what our jobs are, and there’s been so much extraordinary work put out,” Buckley adds. “I’m trying to just sit in it all and feel it out and just step into the river and see where it goes.”
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Buckley has kept details about becoming a new parent under wraps. The Men star revealed she’d married a man named Freddie in a January 2024 episode of the podcast Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware. In an August 2025 interview with The New York Times she confirmed that she was pregnant.
Joe Alwyn, Emily Watson and brothers Noah and Jacobi Jupe costar in Hamnet. “It was so light on set,” Buckley tells PEOPLE of filming. “I think we all approach it with intention, but with the lightest of touches, and we just loved each other, you know, we really were like a family.”
The cast and Zhao, 43, “laughed a lot,” she adds — “amongst all the other stuff,” like the darker parts of the Shakespeare family’s story. “So it felt alive.”
Agata Grzybowska / © 2025 FOCUS FEATURES LLC
Among Buckley’s upcoming projects is leading The Bride!, which reunites her with Gyllenhaal, 48, as her director and costars Christian Bale. The gothic drama hits theaters March 6, 2026,
Hamnet is in select theaters Nov. 27 and opens nationwide on Dec. 12.
