Irish actress Jessie Buckley celebrated a historic Best Actress win at the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday for her role as Agnes in Focus Features’ ‘Hamnet’, marking her as the first Irish actor to receive the accolade.
Speaking backstage, Buckley reflected on the intertwining of motherhood and her award-winning role. “It feels like some kind of crazy alchemy that all of these things are colliding on a day like today,” she said.
“My daughter got her first tooth this week. I woke up with her lying on my chest, snuggling me. And I feel like what a gift to get to explore motherhood through this incredible mother that Agnes is, and then to become one myself and then to receive this recognition of the incredible role mothers play in our world. This day is something I will never, ever forget.”
Buckley’s performance had already earned her recognition at BAFTA, Critics Choice, the Golden Globes, and the Actor Awards, formerly known as the SAG Awards. She described her role as a journey into the tenderness and complexity of womanhood.
Reflecting, she said, “All my roles stay with me. I don’t ever want to let go of the incredible women that have really given me an education that I’ve been looking for as a woman. But I think this role cracked a kind of tenderness in me. Sometimes if you’re a strong woman, you’re perceived as just being strong, but actually tenderness is as vibrant and strong as strength. Agnes held strength and vulnerability, tenderness, grief and love in all its epic colours. Why would I ever want to let that go?”
Buckley’s Oscar win coincided with UK Mother’s Day, adding a personal and symbolic layer to her achievement.
