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Director Chloé Zhao discusses the 'explosive' first chemistry read between 'Hamnet' stars Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley. Hear her beautiful metaphor for their dynamic and how Mescal's stage role in 'A Streetcar Named Desire' was the perfect preparation.
Transcript
00:00Can you take me back to Paul and Jesse's first chemistry read, because the chemistry between them,
00:04it's so special and unique. And I'm just curious, how would you put words to it?
00:09It was the scene that they met. At the time, I haven't written the script, so Maggie and I just
00:14wrote the scene from the book for them to try. And it was very explosive. And I loved how,
00:22because Jesse is very strong, has a lot of fire in her. And I needed somebody, I needed an actor
00:31who
00:32can really meet that. If I were to say she's like a tsunami, I need someone who's a mountain,
00:39who can stop the tsunami and contain it so the water can come down. And Paul was playing Stanley
00:45on stage for a streetcar. So I think he was a lot of that energy coming into the chemistry read
00:53as
00:53well. So I saw the collision of a tsunami and a steady mountain. It was just...
00:58That's beautiful. Yeah.
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