From talent show to leading lady, the rise of Jessie Buckleypublished at 20:49 GMT
20:49 GMT
Rachel Flynn
Live reporter
Image caption,
Jessie competing in I’d Do Anything in 2008, a competition to find a Nancy for Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s West End production of Oliver
If you think you recognise Bafta-winner Jessie Buckley from somewhere, but you can’t quite put your finger on where, cast your mind back to 2008 – and Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s talent competition I’d Do Anything.
She came second in the show to become Nancy and has since become a Hollywood star.
After turning down the role of Nancy’s understudy, she told Vogue that she struggled in the early part of her career.
“I was just lost. When you’re told, culturally, in different ways, that you have to kind of mould yourself into a shape that doesn’t naturally fit you, in some ways you incubate that messaging and then it becomes self-destructive,” she said.
“Once I realised that, my life goal has been to unravel myself from the sort of miseducation, from stories that don’t actually serve me, and just find life,” Jessie added.
She began on the stage, and then starred in hit TV shows – including the BBC’s War & Peace, Chernobyl and Fargo. Buckley received her first Oscar nomination after starring as a younger version of Olivia Coleman’s character in The Lost Daughter in 2021.
The same year, her portrayal of Sally Bowles in a West End revival of Cabaret in 2021 won her the prestigious Olivier award.
Critics have called her performance in Hamnet “one of those performances that is for the ages” and “nothing less than magical”.
Image source, Universal Pictures