Los Angeles got a little Shakespearean and a lot emotional on Tuesday night when Chloé Zhao and Jessie Buckley brought their tear-jerking film Hamnet to the Academy Museum with a special cheer from producer Steven Spielberg.
Hamnet, adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel, imagines the private life behind the famous name: Paul Mescal plays William Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley is his wife, Agnes. The story follows the family through the heartbreak of losing their young son, Hamnet an event that, in the movie’s telling, helps spark the writing of Hamlet.
Spielberg set the tone before the screening. He told the audience that sometimes a story seems to choose its director, and that O’Farrell’s book found its perfect match in Zhao. He praised the film as the kind of quiet, powerful storytelling that deserves big screens alongside the usual blockbusters, calling Hamnet “a little miracle of a movie” and saying he was proud to be part of getting it made.
Zhao and the cast admitted making the film was emotional. Zhao said everyone on set felt deeply moved while filming and hoped audiences would feel that same pull “It would suck if we were the only ones feeling that,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. Buckley said she didn’t know how viewers would react but hoped the film would capture the feeling they had while making it “that magic thing that makes people feel something.”
Co-star Joe Alwyn called the film heartbreaking but also full of hope, saying it’s ultimately uplifting and healing. He even shared a lighter on-set detail: after heavy scenes Zhao would do what the cast jokingly called “dance takes,” blasting music and getting everyone to jump around to shake off the emotion.
Buckley described how close she and Zhao became during the shoot crying, laughing, sharing secrets, and even jumping into rivers together. For her, playing Agnes was a rare chance to peek behind the curtain of a giant like Shakespeare and imagine who he might have been in private, and who the remarkable woman beside him was.
The L.A. premiere left little doubt: Hamnet is aiming for audiences who want films that hit the heart as much as they stir the mind.
