The Untold Truth Of Jessie Buckley

Jessie Buckley isn't just a great actor; she's a once-in-a-generation talent. The Irish-born Royal Academy of Dramatic Art thespian can also hold a tune and command a West End stage. She's triumphantly played a villainous Midwestern nurse in TV's "Fargo," a Scottish singer who dreams of becoming a country star in "Wild Rose," and a grieving mother in "Hamnet." When Buckley is in a scene, it's impossible to look at anything or anyone else.

The Golden Globe winner and two-time Oscar nominee has a wealth of famous admirers. "She calls bulls**t," said Buckley's "Cabaret" co-star, Eddie Redmayne (via British Vogue). "She doesn't suffer fools. She adores a negroni, or a martini, depending on the establishment ... She's just one of my favorite human beings in the world." Her "Hamnet co-star, Paul Mescal, told Extra that her portrayal of a grieving mother was a "forever performance." Mescal added, "They come by very infrequently in our industry, especially at this scale, this level." Bradley Cooper also praised Buckley's performance in "Hamnet" on the "Joe Rogan Experience" in 2026. "Jessie Buckley in this movie is basically playing the most difficult role ever, the loss," he said. "And I'm watching, sitting there, fully believing that this person is going through this." The Academy agreed with Cooper, and gave Buckley an Oscar nod for Best Actress.

The movie and film world is finally getting to know the award-show darling. However, Buckley's life has had its share of highs and lows. Find out some little-known facts about the actor's childhood and personal life that will only make you appreciate her work even more.

Jessie Buckley was born in Killarney, Ireland, to a poet father and an opera singer mother. When the oldest of five children was 11, she became a boarding student at an all-girls convent school called Ursuline Secondary in Tipperary, Ireland. The "Wild Rose" actor performed in musicals at the school and also had the opportunity to learn the piano and harp.

Despite being surrounded by the arts, her years at Ursuline were difficult. The budding actor struggled to find her place. "All of a sudden what kind of commodity you had, wearing Buffalo shoes or fake tan — both of which I did — that was kind of your ticket into the world," Buckley told British Vogue in 2026. The actor revealed she was "depressed" and "lost." "When you become a 12-year-old little woman, a lot of what you're told — or what I heard, anyway — was that you need to be small, in every sense," she added. "But I felt like I was on fire, and then sort of imploded rather than exploding."

When Jessie Buckley was 17, she traveled to England to audition for the Guildford School of Acting, but got rejected. However, while in the U.K., she also had the opportunity to audition for an open casting call for Andrew Lloyd Webber's BBC reality talent TV show "I'd Do Anything." On the series, contestants competed for an opportunity to play Nancy in the West End revival of "Oliver!"

Buckley, who is also a talented singer, made the cut and then slogged through 12 weeks of televised competition in 2008. She made it all the way to the top two, but in the end, the "Fargo" actor lost the public vote to Jodie Prenger. However, being runner-up was the least of her problems. Buckley did not enjoy the experience of the reality TV world and admitted she was depressed during that time.

The Golden Globe winner said she experienced "a lot of body shaming" while competing on the reality series. "I really hope that a 15, 17, whatever-age woman never has to be brutalized quite like what happened on that show," Buckley told British Vogue. "But I didn't recognize it fully at the time. I just felt it, which was difficult."

Jessie Buckley dealt with depression for a long stretch of her life, especially after landing a spot competing on Andrew Lloyd Webber's reality TV show "I'd Do Anything." Buckley did not win the opportunity to play Nancy in the West End's production of "Oliver!" but came in second place. After the reality show wrapped, she needed to take some time off to concentrate on her mental health. 

"The adrenaline rush of being in that show got me through and for a little while I could forget all [the sadness], but after the show finished, I really hit that low point again," she told RadioTimes in 2018. "I was in London, in a big city by myself, and still not well because I'd just put a plaster over it."

Buckley is one of the many brave public figures who have talked candidly about their mental health and depression. Looking back on that tumultuous time, the actor knew it was the arts that helped her find her way. "That age, it's a funny time in life, becoming a woman," she added. "I suppose my way of channeling that was singing, and that was a savior in many ways. I felt like I needed it. I was sad. I was really sad."

Move over Meryl Streep, Jessie Buckley may have a heavy Irish brogue, but she's proved to be an absolute master of different accents. "I love doing accents — I don't think I've not done one. I don't think I've ever used my own accent," Buckley said in 2020 (via What's On).

The Irish actor handled a Scottish accent in the musical drama "Wild Rose," a midwestern accent for TV's "Fargo," and different British dialects for her television work in "Taboo" and "The Last Post." In "Wild Rose," she not only had to master how to speak with a Glaswegian accent, but she also had to play an aspiring Scottish country artist who sings with a Nashville twang. "I worked my a** off [to] get that accent!" Buckley confessed to MovieMaker in 2023. "It was so crucial to the whole story of her identity and her running away from who she was, only to realize that who she was and where's she from were the most powerful things about what she wanted to sing."

Jessie Buckley spent about a decade living in London, however, during the pandemic, she wanted to escape city life for greener pastures. "I realized I was almost addicted to the city, consumed by it, constantly in a race with it," Buckley told The Irish Times in 2021.

The actor decided to purchase a house in Norfolk (about 100 miles northeast of London) and keep the dwelling in all of its 17th-century charm. "It's been there since the 1600s. Some of the walls have the original paint, pig's blood mixed with lime, I think," Buckley revealed. But it's not just archaic pig's blood that makes the property unique. "And there are marks all over the walls, from when people in the 17th century were told to write Ws above the fireplaces to stop witches coming down the chimneys," Buckley added.

The "Wild Rose" star thinks that her country home has "character and soul." The house's property is also distinct. In her 2026 interview with British Vogue, she revealed that the property is littered with rosemary, marjoram, a tree orchard, and honeysuckle. Buckley's touches were inspired by Anne Hathaway's (William Shakespeare's wife) childhood home in Warwickshire.

Jessie Buckley played the younger version of Olivia Colman's character Leda in Maggie Gyllenhaal's 2021 film, "The Lost Daughter." Prior to landing the role, Gyllenhaal asked Colman if there was anyone she had in mind for the part. Despite their physical differences, Colman recommended Buckley. "I felt like we're sort of kindred spirits — there's a naughtiness we both have," Olivia Colman, who famously played a younger version of Queen Elizabeth II in "The Crown" on Netflix, told Vanity Fair in 2022. "We have a very nice time when we're together."

The leading ladies first met in 2019 at the Wilderness Festival. "I was p***ed enough to think I could sing [karaoke] with Jessie," joked Colman (via British Vogue). Buckley has her own take on the evening. "I have no idea what Olivia saw in me," said Buckley, per Vanity Fair. "We had a very fun night out at a festival the summer before [filming] and sang Adele and Amy Winehouse in an Airstream 'til 7:00 in the morning, so maybe it was my karaoke that made her think I fit the bill."

The Irish actor and British Oscar winner have maintained a close friendship. "She's great, such a great human," Buckley said of Colman (via The Sun). "We've become good friends and it just feels so fun. And she is the naughtiest person. You don't know what she's going to do. She might fart or burp in the middle of a scene." Buckley received her first Oscar nomination for her unsettling performance in "The Lost Daughter."

There's a reason why the general public doesn't know Jessie Buckley's husband's last name; she refers to him only as Freddie. The mystery man rarely joins his movie star wife on the red carpet. Freddie is a mental health professional who stays under the radar. "Given his profession, his anonymity is crucial," Buckley told British Vogue in 2026.

But where did the "Hamnet" actor meet this mystery man? Buckley told the magazine that she met her husband on a blind date. The setup worked out so well that the pair got married in 2023. "The Lost Daughter" actor revealed some bits of information about Freddie during an interview on the "Table Manners" podcast in 2024. "He's English, yeah. He's from Islington."

The pair married at their 16th-century house in Norfolk. "One of my favorite memories of the day was like — we — I wanted a keg of Guinness and I definitely wanted their cheese toasties at a certain hour," Buckley said of their wedding day. Just a couple of years after the couple tied the knot, Buckley gave birth to their daughter. "Everything's new," Buckley said during a 2025 interview on the "Modern Love" podcast. "This little human's new. You're new. Your relationship's new. Your whole relationship to the world is new. It's intense, but it's just — I just love it. I love it so much."

Successful showbusiness veterans internalize the old adage that the "show must go on." But sometimes, an artist needs to take care of themselves first and foremost. Jessie Buckley's history with depression was not something the "Wild Rose" star took for granted. "I had depression and I wasn't very well and I wanted a lot from life," Buckley said (via The Sun), following a taxing six-month stint playing Sally Bowles in "Cabaret" on the West End. "I was really hungry for it. And I felt like there was no place for that."

Buckley knew she would need to go deep emotionally to play a grieving mother in "Hamnet," so she escaped to the country in North London for two weeks to get ready for the film's most challenging scenes. "I just needed to be in nature and start my day and wake up that way, and then go to set," the actor admitted. The star-making performance has made Buckley a 2026 award-show darling.

In the 2025 critically acclaimed movie "Hamnet," Jessie Buckley and fellow Irish actor Paul Mescal play fictionalized versions of the married couple Agnes (Anne Hathaway) and William Shakespeare. Although Buckley and Mescal are both from Ireland, they found they had much more in common than just their heritage.

Before production began on "Hamnet," the dual Oscar nominees were both filming projects in New York City. They felt they should get to know each other and found a common interest. "We'd go to a club called Joyface in the East Village and dance to Abba," Buckley told British Vogue. The film's director, Chloé Zhao, also sent her lead actors to a tantric workshop to get their bodies in sync. "The first three minutes of it were excruciatingly embarrassing," Buckley admitted. "You're like: 'We've been a penis and a vagina in front of each other, so let's just go.'"

At the London Film Festival, Mescal called his co-star's work "full-bodied, like raw, and she goes well every time the way that she works" (via the Independent). The "Normal People" actor also said that he would work with Buckley, "until the cows come home."

Chloé Zhao, who made Oscars history as the first woman of color to win the award for Best Director, has once again become an award-show darling with her 2025 drama, "Hamnet." In the tragedy, Jessie Buckley plays Agnes Shakespeare, who is married to a writer you may have heard of named William Shakespeare. "Hamnet" is considered historical fiction based on a true story. In the movie and in real life, Shakespeare and his wife had three children. Additionally, their only son, Hamnet, tragically dies at the age of 11.

While there are plenty of stories written about William Shakespeare, his wife Anne Hathaway (renamed Agnes in the movie) has not received a ton of attention. With Zhao's beautifully shot film, bound to be a success with Shakespeare buffs around the world, Agnes finally takes center stage. Buckley told British Vogue that she wore a prosthetic belly while preparing for the role "to feel the weight of it." The actor added that she would walk around her house wearing the prop, even though her husband thought it was a bit strange.

For Buckley, playing a grieving mother turned out to be a life-changing role. The "Women Talking" star said it created a "deep need" for the 30-something-year-old to want to become a mother herself. The Irish actor became pregnant a few days after "Hamnet" wrapped production. By the time Zhao finished editing the movie, Buckley's daughter was born.

Jessie Buckley was up against some heavy hitters for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama. Three-time Globe winners Julia Roberts and Jennifer Lawrence were also nominated for the coveted accolade. However, it was Buckley's emotionally devastating performance in "Hamnet" that captured the 2026 prize.

The Irish actor accepted the award with tears in her eyes. "This is not a normal feeling or situation to be in," uttered Buckley (via YouTube). The "Women Talking" star went on to thank all the usual suspects, including director Chloé Zhao and several of her co-stars. However, there was one person in particular that she spent a chunk of her speech time thanking.

Buckley told a story of how the film's grip, Tomasz Sternicki, "started to disappear" during production. "And I found him one day at the back of his truck, and he was chopping up potatoes and onions and meat ... and he brought his ginormous cast-iron pot over from Poland," Buckley shared. "And he was making soup. And this soup started turning up on set. It was delicious. Thanks Tomasz for bringing your pot to set!" Buckley had the room laughing, and brought her warm, Irish storytelling skills to a ballroom full of Hollywood bigwigs. That night, Jessie Buckley wasn't just a Golden Globe winner; she also showed off a keen fashion sense, wearing a stunning powder-blue Dior gown. Her chic style thankfully kept the actor off the list of the worst-dressed stars at the 2026 Golden Globes.