‘They’re just Two girls Trying to find their space’
Ahead of Wicked Little Letters’ arrival in cinemas, we’re taking a look back at Jessie Buckley’s career so far... By Keeley Ryan
From psychological thrillers to iconic musical revivals, Jessie Buckley’s been a part of some incredible projects on the screen and stage throughout the years. And the Kerry native will next be seen in the movie Wicked Little Letters, which hits Irish cinemas on February 23 and sees her reunite with her The Lost Daughter costar Olivia Colman. The film, which is based on a stranger-than-fiction true story, tells the tale of the residents of an English seaside town in the 1920s, with a particular focus on two neighbours: the deeply conservative Edith Swan, played by Colman, and rowdy Irish migrant Rose Gooding, played by Buckley.
The townspeople begin to receive wicked letters — and ones that are full of unintentionally hilarious profanities — from an anonymous writer.
However, it isn’t long before the foul-mouthed Rose ends up charged with the crime.
The anonymous letters lead to a national uproar, and a trial soon follows.
But the women in the town, led by Anjana Vasan’s Police Officer Gladys Moss, start to look into the situation for themselves.
They soon begin to suspect that something isn’t right, and that there might be more to the situation than meets the eye, and that Rose may not be the culprit after all.
The cast of the film also includes Alisha Weir, Timothy Spall, Joanna Scanlan, and Hugh Skinner. Malachi Kirby, Gemma Jones, Lolly Adefope and Eileen Atkins also star in the film, which was directed by Thea Sharrock.
Buckley told Empire how she felt Edith and Rose were“just two girls trying to find their space and be excessive in some way and just get things out”.
She added,“i’m not a million miles away from Rose. I love swearing and I could definitely relate to her, but she’s such a life-force. Whatever tar people throw at her, she just keeps
going.”the film was screened at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, as was Fingernails, a sci-fi romantic drama which saw Buckley star alongside Riz Ahmed and Jeremy Allen White.
Fingernails, which was released on Apple TV+ in November last year, follows a woman who starts working at an institute that tests whether the love between two people in a couple is real.
Buckley’s rise to fame began in 2008, when she appeared on the talent show programme, I’d Do Anything.
The series focused on the search to find a new, and unknown, lead to play Nancy — as well as three young performers to play Oliver Twist — in the 2009 West End revival of Oliver!.
The programme was commissioned following the success of two similar shows, which sought out people to star in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and The Sound of Music.
While she reached the final of the series, Buckley — who was 18 at the time — ultimately placed second.
She later told Backstage of the auditions,“that kind of happened by accident, in that I was coming over to audition for a drama school and didn’t get in and was completely heartbroken.
“When I was in it, I was so thrilled and excited and ignorant and in shock that I was actually being allowed to peek behind the curtain, [which] I thought would take 50 years. It was such a wild experience.”
That same year, it was announced that she would be making her West End debut in a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music.
The show closed in 2009, and the following year she returned to the screen in the TV series Shades of Love.
In 2013, she returned to the stage when she played Miranda in The Tempest and Kate in Gabriel, both of which ran at Shakespeare’s Globe.
The same year, she also played Katherine in Henry V at the Noël Coward Theatre.
Buckley had a role in the Inspector Morse prequel Endeavour in 2014.
And in 2015, she played Perdita in Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company’s production of The Winter’s Tale, which was broadcast into cinemas.
She then followed it up with appearances in War & Peace, 2017’s The Last Post and Taboo, which she starred in alongside Tom Hardy.
Her film debut came the same year, when she starred opposite Johnny Flynn in the psychological thriller, Beast.
In 2018, she played Marian Holcombe in the BBC adaptation of The Woman in White.
She also returned to the big screen with starring roles in Wild Rose, which had its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September that year.
The film hit cinemas in April 2019 — and for her role as Rose-lynn Harlan, Buckley was nominated for Best Actress at the BAFTAS in 2020.
She also won the IFTA for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
In 2019, she portrayed Lyudmilla
Ignatenko in the historical drama miniseries Chernobyl — and won the IFTA for Best Actress in a Supporting Role — Television — and had roles in the short film A Battle in Waterloo, as well as
Judy.
Buckley starred in the surrealist psychological thriller I’m Thinking of Ending Things, which hit Netflix in 2020.
Based on Iain Reid’s novel of the same name, the Netflix film follows a young women who — despite having second thoughts about her relationship — goes on a road trip with her new boyfriend to his family farm.
But after a snowstorm traps them there with his parents, she be- gins to question the nature of everything she knew or understood about her boyfriend, herself, and the world.
The same year, she starred in Dolittle alongside Robert Downey Jr., and had roles in Misbehaviour and The Courier.
She also returned to telly screens for the fourth season of Fargo, where she played Oraetta Mayflower.
In 2021, she played Juliet Capulet opposite Josh O’connor’s Romeo Montague in Romeo and Juliet.
The production had originally been due to open in 2020.
However, when the pandemic hit, it was turned into a film.
And in May that year, it was announced that Buckley would be joining Eddie Redmayne to star in a new production of Cabaret, with the pair set to play Sally Bowles and the Emcee respectively.
The production began previews later that year and, in 2022, it led the Olivier Awards with 11 nominations — and ultimately won seven, including Best Actress in a Musical.
The same year, Buckley was nominated for a number of awards including an Academy Award, Gotham Award and a BAFTA for her role in The Lost Daughter.
She also won the IFTA for
Actress in a Supporting Role that year. The film, which was Maggie Gyllenhaal’s feature directorial debut, told the story of a woman who’s beach vacation takes a darker turn after she starts to confront some troubles of her past. Buckley, who played the younger version of Leda in the film, previously told the LA Times how it was like a “sisterhood”on the set of the film, which also starred Olivia Colman and Dakota Johnson.
She said in 2022,“It really was like a sisterhood, and Maggie set the tone. She knows what it’s like to be in a film that’s not fun to make, and she knows what it’s like to be in a really great one. We had so much fun making this film. “Every evening after we finished, we’d jump in the sea and then have a glass of champagne, and then we’d sit and have a sing-song, and then you realise, ‘Oh, my God, it’s late; I’ve got to go to bed’.
“I grew up a lot on the set because of the women on it.
“There was kind of an emboldening feeling between us: Let’s not apologise for all of us, the chaos, the beauty, the sexuality, the emptiness, the yearning and the light of us all. It was simply: Let’s go for it.
“It was the story we were in but also because Maggie held that space and really dared us to jump across the cliff.”
Buckley was nominated again for the Best Actress in a Supporting Role in 2023, for her part in Women Talking.
The drama, which was released in 2022, was written and directed by Sarah Polley.
Based on Miriam Toews’ 2018 novel of the same name, the cast also included Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Judith Ivey, Ben Whishaw, and
Frances Mcdormand. The same year, she starred in Men, which followed a young woman who retreats to the English countryside in the hopes of finding a place she can heal after a personal tragedy.
But it soon becomes clear there’s something more to the village than meets the eye — and her simmering dread becomes a fully-formed nightmare, where her darkest memories and fears live.
She teamed up with Flynn and Colman again for Netflix’s Scrooge: A Christmas Carol, where she voiced the character of Isabel Fezziwig.
And in 2022, Buckley released a collaborative album with former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler called For All Our Days That Tear The Heart.
In May 2023, it was announced that Buckley was in talks to star in the adaptation of Maggie O’farrell’s book, Hamnet.
The author is said to be adapting the script alongside Chloé Zhao, who is also set to direct. Paul Mescal is also set to star in the film.
Hamnet is a fictional account that imagines the life of Agnes, William Shakespeare’s wife, as she comes to terms with the loss of her only son, Hamnet, to the bubonic plague.
It tells the tale of the emotional journey that the family goes on — and the creation of one of the most celebrated plays ever written, which shares the same name.
And earlier this year, Mescal told how he couldn’t wait to get started on the project — and praised his future co-star.
The pair had previously starred in The Lost Daughter, but they didn’t actually share a scene.
He toldvogue,“i’ve obviously been in a film with Jessie before but we’ve never shared the screen or a working process together.
“I think she’s one of our present-day greats.
“And Chloé is somebody I can’t wait to get in the weeds with, and get into the heads of those characters.”
One thing’s for sure: this is definitely going to be one to keep an eye out for.
Wicked Little Letters begins screening in Irish cinemas on Friday, February 23.
“I was so thrilled and in shock that I was allowed to peak behind the curtains.”