Maggie Gyllenhaal needed to fight to cast Jessie Buckley: “These things cost lots of money”
You wouldn’t think that an Oscar winner would ever get their start on a British talent competition, but that’s exactly what happened for Hamnet star Jessie Buckley.
The Irish actor first tried her luck in the industry at 17 when she competed in the BBC show I’d Do Anything, which featured Andrew Lloyd Webber as one of the judges set on finding the perfect Nancy to star in the West End production of Oliver!.
She ultimately lost out to Jodie Prenger, who has since gone on to make workout DVDs and star in Coronation Street, so clearly, winning isn’t everything, and it’s often the case that the runners-up find more success than the actual winner, like One Direction on The X Factor; what has Matt Cardle done since 2010 anyway?
Buckley went on to appear in A Little Night Music both on and off the West End between 2008 and 2009, but it would be a few more years until she’d truly break into the realm of the silver screen. After a few television roles across the likes of War & Peace, Chernobyl, and Fargo helped boost her presence in the industry, it took until around 2020 for her to appear in more prominent movie roles, such as Charlie Kaufman’s Netflix outing I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter, and the Oscar-nominated Women Talking.
All of them showcased Buckley’s talents, even if it was over a decade since she’d first appeared in the public consciousness in I’d Do Anything, but then, sometimes, certain actors just find it harder to score opportunities than others. Look at the likes of Margot Robbie, for example, who, as soon as she entered Hollywood in the early 2010s, became one of the biggest stars, finding it incredibly easy to land a leading role.
She has that magnetic superstar quality, all blonde and smiley, making her a go-to figure for producers, but, of course, sometimes it takes a bit longer for a performer to ascend the ranks and be recognised for the talent they’ve harnessed all along. With 2025’s Hamnet, in which she played the grief-stricken wife of William Shakespeare, Agnes, Buckley finally rose to widespread acclaim, nabbing the Academy Award for ‘Best Actress’.
Before this moment marked her out as a brilliant talent who simply cannot be doubted, Buckley wasn’t a huge star, having appeared in more small-scale movies, like the independent thriller Fingernails and the British comedy Wicked Little Letters, both released in 2023. Thus, when it came to casting the leading role in Gyllenhaal’s second feature, The Bride!, the director actually had to fight to get the studio to agree to hiring Buckley.
You’d think that someone as skilled as Buckley wouldn’t ever be questioned by a studio, but when Gyllenhaal set her sights on the Irish star, having previously directed her as a younger version of Olivia Colman’s character in The Lost Daughter, it soon proved to be a challenge. “There was a real, real moment where Maggie was fighting for me to be a part of this film, which I’m so grateful for,” Buckley told Vogue.
“I understand the studio’s apprehension, because these things cost lots of money. And I do strange indies, and I’m not on Instagram or Marvel, so they’re probably like, you know, crapping themselves,” she added. But it’s a good job that the studio listened to Gyllenhaal, because Buckley played the multiple roles, as Mary Shelley’s ghost and The Bride, impeccably.
