Jessie Buckley beat Oscar winners to win the Best Actress award at the Critics Choice Awards. Then she made her costar Paul Mescal tear up with sweet words.
Buckley showered Mescal with praise during her acceptance speech for the Best Actress nod. She plays Mescal’s William Shakespeare’s wife Agnes in Hamnet, which follows the couple grieving the loss of their son and the birth of the playwright’s famous play Hamlet.
Taking to the podium, she told the Aftersun star, “I bl**dy love you, man, and I know loads of other women do in this room too, but tough s**t!”
“You’re a giant of the heart and thank you so much for making me a little bit more human,” she added, making the actor go from laughing to holding back tears.
Buckley beat Oscar winner Emma Stone (Bugonia), Amanda Seyfried (The Testament of Ann Lee) Rose Byne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You) Chase Infiniti (One Battle After Another) and Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value).
Wicked star Jeff Goldblum presented the award to the actress. She first thanked Hamnet’s writer-director Chloe Zhao
“Chloe Zhao, you have reminded me of the power of telling a story and the journey that you can go on to touch the deepest parts of what it is to be alive,” she said.
She also thanked her costar Emily Watson, noting that she was her “north star from the beginning.”
Buckley then thanked the child actress who play her and Mescal’s onscreen children, saying,
“To my kiddywinks, Jacobi [Jupe], Olivia [Lynes], Bodhi [Rae Breathnach]. Thank you for reminding me what it is to have a ball again,” she said.
Jessie Buckley’s beloved costar Paul Mescal was also nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category but lost to Jacob Elordi for his performance in Frankenstein.