How Well Do 'Hamnet' Co-stars Paul Mescal & Jessie Buckley Know Each Other?

Variety

Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley pick who is more Irish, who is better at accents, and who reads more Shakespeare.

Transcript

00:00The last time I was playing, I was reaching out to catch a ball.

00:03I just got punched straight across here and it snapped.

00:06That case is expensive, baby.

00:08Yeah, it wasn't expensive then.

00:15Tell me a story.

00:17What story would you like?

00:19Something that moves you.

00:21Who is more Irish?

00:24I think Paul is.

00:25I don't think that's true.

00:27You do, because you do GAA and you're still connected.

00:32You played the harp.

00:36Don't come at me as much.

00:38I think we're both.

00:39We're both pretty Irish.

00:40Proudly Irish.

00:41Who is better at mastering accents?

00:48Both of us, I think.

00:50We're both masters of accents.

00:52I wouldn't say I'm a master.

00:54I try my best.

00:56With that choice of work.

00:58I think as Irish actors though, you're always kind of taught that you're probably not going to be working in your own accent all that much.

01:05And I don't really like working in my own accent.

01:07Yeah.

01:08Glaswegian was pretty hard.

01:09For Wild Rose, I had to get my hero around that.

01:13Edinburgh took a second for me with Aftersun.

01:16Yeah.

01:17Minnesota was quite, it was quite fun.

01:19That was like, such a like, what?

01:22But then once I got into that, I loved doing that.

01:25It was great fun.

01:27What sport did Paul play before an injury forced him to quit?

01:31Yeah.

01:32My face is growing.

01:33Yeah.

01:34Your face is growing.

01:35Gaelic football is like a mix between soccer and rugby, but most like Australian rules.

01:44If people watch that, it's a kind of manic, brilliant sport that I love very much.

01:51Yeah.

01:52The last time I was playing, I was reaching out to catch a ball.

01:54I just got punched straight across here and it snapped.

01:58Broke my nose and my jaw, but not at the same time.

02:01Broke my fingers.

02:02And that ended your football career?

02:04Well, I was about to start third year of drama school.

02:06And I was kind of winging it, like getting away with it.

02:09And then I broke my jaw and I was like, I can't do both of these things.

02:12And that was that.

02:13That face is expensive, baby.

02:14Yeah.

02:15It wasn't expensive then.

02:16In her school production of West Side Story, what lead role did Jessie play?

02:30Yeah.

02:31I'd love to hear you sing that part.

02:33Oh God.

02:35Give us your Tony.

02:36No.

02:37Come on.

02:38I'm so shy.

02:40You'd be lovely Tony.

02:42Tony.

02:43What other ones did you play?

02:44I played Freddie Trumper in chess.

02:47And I think I played like...

02:50Does he sing anthem?

02:52I think so.

02:53I can't remember.

02:54Yeah.

02:55And I think I played God.

02:57Of course you did.

02:59In Children of Eden.

03:01Listen, it was like an all girls convent music school.

03:04So we didn't get a choice.

03:06But I loved playing those parts.

03:08It was great.

03:09We had to like, what deciphered us was between the girls and the girls.

03:12All the girls playing the male part would wear like French plaits in their hair.

03:19And I remember for Freddie Trumper in chess, I had this like oversized red linen suit.

03:27It was fun.

03:30Who's better at crying on command?

03:32Oh.

03:33Oh.

03:34Oh.

03:35Did you play with me there for...

03:36There's no ho...

03:37Shh.

03:38Fuck off.

03:39Yeah, Jacoby Jupe can't cry on cue.

03:46Neither of us can cry on cue.

03:48No.

03:49Kids are amazing with that stuff.

03:50They like...

03:51Know how to do it.

03:52Yeah.

03:53They use it to manipulate things out of battle.

03:55Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

03:56You're never thinking of crying in the scenes at the end of crying.

03:59No.

04:00It's actually always awful when you see in a script and then she cries.

04:03You're like...

04:04I'm always like...

04:05I was gone.

04:06You know.

04:07Who has read more Shakespeare?

04:09Jessie.

04:10Paul and Emily.

04:11I think Jessie's read the most.

04:12Emily.

04:13Emily Watson.

04:14I think we've all read our fair share.

04:15Yeah.

04:16Macbeth.

04:17Don't we, honey?

04:18We love Macbeth.

04:19Don't we?

04:20We just love Macbeth.

04:21We can't get enough Macbeth.

04:22Up late at night just reading it.

04:23Yeah.

04:24Out damn spot.

04:25Yeah, bloody spot.

04:26It's a brilliant line, that.

04:27I think it's like...

04:28Yeah.

04:29Yeah.

04:30Yeah.

04:31Yeah.

04:32Yeah.

04:33Yeah.

04:34Yeah.

04:35Yeah.

04:36I think it's like the first time we've been able to imagine who he was as a person

04:44and who the people that were titanic in his life might have influenced his play.

04:50So I guess if we were to do it again, we'd have that knowledge.

04:53But I think every job is different as well.

04:55Yeah.

04:56Which BBC talent show did Jessie play second on before her first acting role?

05:06How are you getting the time to do Little Pictures?

05:08I was so young.

05:09I was like...

05:10What age were you?

05:1117 when I did it.

05:12I was like such a baby.

05:13Jeez.

05:14I thought I was going to study musical theatre and be part of musical theatre.

05:18And then I didn't get in to the drama school.

05:22And I was over in London that weekend.

05:25And the same weekend that I got turned away from this drama school, they had this open

05:30audition for this show.

05:31And so I just decided I would join the queue and practice for my next drama school audition.

05:38And that's how it happened.

05:39Which Broadway composer has Paul said he would love to sing on stage with?

05:44Broadway?

05:45How...

05:46A Broadway composer?

05:47I assume it's this...

05:49It could be...

05:50Yeah.

05:51I don't remember saying that but obviously that process is so singular.

05:59Like we're...

06:00We've got another...

06:01Over a decade to...

06:03A long time to go with that film.

06:06And the less I say about that the better because I don't want anybody to know about

06:10what that process is like because that's kind of the gift of what it's going to be.

06:14You know?

06:15Well done.

06:16I'm proud of you.

06:17Thanks.

06:18For the first time and knowing I think that they shot that over eight, nine years or something

06:23like that.

06:24Maybe a bit longer.

06:25I think this is the longest feat of like this kind of film making style that in fiction

06:31or in musical and like I love Ben and Beanie and obviously Rick's work is so brilliant.

06:37He's kind of crafted that style and we're in the weeds with it now so it's exciting.

06:42I'm lucky that I've got pretty like robust, I think robust vocal chords like a lot of shouting

06:47from probably Gaelic football.

06:48That's kind of...

06:49Yeah.

06:50Like you obviously do your warm ups and things like that but I think the more you're using

06:54it, the stronger.

06:55It's like a muscle.

06:56So the more you're using it, the stronger it becomes.

06:59Who is directing Jessie's next role in the new Frankenstein adaptation?

07:04I think Maggie wrote it for me and the first kind of time I read it without knowing that

07:19she had written it for me or was writing it was we were in Paris visiting a friend and

07:25we'd gone out for dinner, we got a little bit tipsy and then she said I'm writing something,

07:29come back and just read it, I just want to hear what it sounds like out loud.

07:32And I read it and I was, it was just like two pages and I was like oh my god.

07:36It's just like a radical, punk, provocative, uncompromising new language and Maggie is such

07:46a bold and honest filmmaker and it just felt like something.

07:54There's a lot of it, it took me a while to metabolise what she was actually trying to,

08:00what she was creating because it was so new and that was just so exciting.

08:04He makes you want to be better.

08:06He's so, it's intense and it's so alive and he is only interested in being absolute in what

08:15he creates and so it makes you all come to work and feel like that's the kind of bar,

08:21you know, and then I think we both are pretty intense.

08:26So it was wild, you know, it was just like being on a bit of a rollercoaster.

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