Jessie Buckley Hamnet Role and The Bride Influence

Jessie Buckley reveals how her role influenced Agnes Hathaway in Hamnet.

Jessie Buckley Hamnet Role

Can you play the wife of the world’s most famous playwright if your eyebrows are still bleached from a science experiment?

Jessie Buckley just proved that not only can you do it—you should do it.

The 36-year-old actress recently shared the chaotic reality of her 2025 filming schedule, revealing that she had a mere two weeks to shake off the lightning-strike intensity of playing Frankenstein’s monster’s bride before stepping into the 16th-century shoes of Agnes Hathaway in Hamnet.

While production designers were panicking about whether her eyebrows would grow back in time for the Tudor period, Buckley was busy realizing that the “uncompromising embodiment” she found in the lab was exactly what she needed for the forest.

The Gyllenhaal Correction: Beyond the Scream

Buckley’s take on The Bride! is a sharp departure from the 1935 original. Working with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Buckley sought to give the character a depth that was historically denied.

• The Voice: In previous iterations, the Bride was born to be a wife without an option to say “No.” In this version, the scream is replaced with a demand for truth.
• The “Unpalatable” Love: Buckley views the film as a test of modern relationships. If you want to love someone, can you love the parts of them that aren’t “palatable”?

The “Elemental” Agnes

When Buckley arrived on the Hamnet set, her “creative muscle” was already firing. Playing Agnes—a woman deeply in touch with nature and the supernatural—required a raw, physical presence.

Why the roles are connected:

• Force of Nature: Both the Bride and Agnes are “elemental.” One is born of electricity and science; the other of herbs and the earth.
• The Method Myth: Despite the intensity of both roles, Buckley is quick to quip that she isn’t a “Method” actor. “I have never died and been reinvigorated,” she joked. Instead, she relies on “real” inputs—like the actual midwife who consulted on the Hamnet set to ground the scenes in physical truth rather than textbook theory.

Stop Reading “How-To” Books

Most actors, when cast in a period piece, rush to buy “How to be a Tudor” or “Life in the 1500s.” Buckley’s advice? Save your money.

Why “Academic Research” can kill a performance:

• The Gathering Dust: Buckley admits these books usually end up on a shelf, unread.
• Embodiment Over Information: The performance comes from the “muscle,” not the mind. If you are too busy thinking about Tudor etiquette, you lose the “elemental force” that makes a character like Agnes Hathaway feel human.
• Expertise Over Textbooks: Conversations with the on-set midwife provided more “Agnes” DNA than a library of Shakespearean history could.

The 2026 Trajectory

With The Bride! Redefining the gothic genre and Hamnet set to explore the devastating loss of a child (a role Buckley filmed just before becoming a mother herself), the actress is currently at the peak of her powers.

By refusing to play “palatable” women, she is carving out a niche as the most fearless performer of her generation.

Key Takeaways:

• The Transition: A 14-day gap that fueled, rather than drained, her performance.
• The Themes: Autonomy, elemental power, and the refusal to be a “palatable” wife.
• The Reality: Real-world consultants (midwives) provided the grounding for Hamnet’s most emotional scenes.