Watch Jessie Buckley in These Movies & TV Shows Between ‘Hamnet’ & ‘The Bride!’
She *has* the range.
Between an Academy Award nomination for her wrenching and uplifting performance in Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet to the upcoming Maggie Gyllenhaal Frankenstein musical The Bride!, 2026 is officially Jessie Buckley winter. If you’re looking for more from the multi-hyphenate of the hour, here are some movies and television shows to check out ASAP.
I made sure to include some musical and musical-adjacent picks lest The Bride! usher in surprise that Buckley has an incredible singing voice. She won an Olivier for playing Sally Bowles in Cabaret! The actress’ first professional job was a reality show tasked with casting the role of Nancy in a West End revival of the musical Oliver! in 2008 called I’d Do Anything. Buckley was the runner-up. Future Les Miserables star Samantha Barks came in third. Rachel Tucker, a fairly famous Elphaba on the West End, came in fourth. The show knew how to spot talent! And of course Jodie Prenger, who won the show and the role, has had a very successful theatre and television career as well. But enough about BBC reality competitions! Let’s get into the roles that got Buckley where she is today after that debut.
The Lost Daughter (2021)
Buckley received her first Academy Award nomination in 2022 for Gyllenhaal’s debut feature. She plays the younger version of Olivia Coleman’s character Leda, during a three-year period where she abandoned her daughters and had an affair. Leda is not necessarily a “likeable” character at all times, and thank goodness for that. Buckley’s role is not to sympathize her. It’s a perfect supporting performance, and I’m so excited that The Bride will continue Gyllenhaal and Buckley’s collaboration with her in the lead.
I’m Thinking Of Ending Things (2020)
Charlie Kaufman, director of Synecdoche, New York and Anomolisa and writer of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adaptation, and Being John Malkovich is not a conventional guy. This is a vibrant but offbeat thriller starring Buckley and Jesse Plemons as a couple en route to meet the latter’s parents. Things get progressively weirder in a way that was divisive when the film was released–which definitely means you should watch and decide for yourself. If nothing else, this movie has some good Oklahoma! dream ballet content.
Women Talking (2022)
Women Talking is easily one of my favorite films of the last five years. Written and directed by Sarah Polley, it’s based on a novel and inspired by the true story of a group of Mennonite women who were brutally and routinely sexually assaulted by the men in their isolated religious community in Bolivia. The film centers the debate that lead to that decision to leave. Buckley plays a young woman named Mariche who at the beginning of the film is staunchly on the “do nothing” side. The film’s ensemble cast include Claire Foy, Rooney Mara, and Ben Whishaw. There’s not a sour note to be found.
Wild Rose (2018)
It really feels like Buckley has “broken out,” so to speak, on multiple occasions. Maybe the term “broken out” is meaningless, you know? Anyway, this film certainly generated some buzz around her name and talent – as well as the song “Glasgow (No Place Like Home)” written by Mary Steenburgen. Buckley plays an aspiring Scottish country singer with big (some might say grand ol’) Nashville dreams.
Misbehaviour (2020)
An underrated comedy based on true events starring Kiera Knightley as a feminist activist set on dismantling the 1970 Miss World beauty pageant and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as the pageant’s first woman of color to win. Buckley plays one of the activists who brings Knightley’s character into the fold and isn’t afraid to get arrested for the cause. It’s a nicely nuanced, tricky little story. To paraphrase Wicked, because why not: are the activists seeking good, or just seeking attention?
Beast (2017)
Finally, before we move on from film, watch this underrated little moody thriller starring Buckley opposite actor and folk singer Johnny Flynn. It’s dark and romantic, twisted and easy on the eyes. Buckley and Flynn have great chemistry. The English coastal setting is spooky and alluring. And as a film about two morally grey people matching each others’ freak, it’s definitely a good appetizer for The Bride.
Romeo & Juliet (2021)
Buckley is a prolific theatre actress, from her London stage debut in the Menier Chocolate Factory production of Stephen Sondheim’s dreamy musical A Little Night Music after I’d Do Anything in 2008, to several Shakespearean heroines at the Globe Theatre and elsewhere. So I wanted to include at least one professionally recorded stage production–and I think the people might be interested to know that they can watch her and Josh O’Connor take on the star-crossed lovers pretty easily. The Royal National Theatre filmed this without an audience during the Covid-19 lockdown and utilized the entire theater.
War & Peace (2016)
This cast is so stacked, it’s like it was made in a lab for Anglofiles who enjoy going back through their niche fave’s filmographies: James Norton, Paul Dano, Gillian Anderson, Callum Turner, Jack Lowden, Kit Connor, Brian Cox, Tom Burke, Aisling Loftus, Jim Broadbent, Aneurin Barnard, and Lily James in the lead as Natasha Rostova. Buckley plays Marya a.k.a. Princess Maria a.k.a. Mary and sometimes Masha (Russian literature, am I right), the sweet and “plain” sister of Natasha’s betrothed Andrei.
Chernobyl (2019)
Remember Chernobyl? The HBO mini-series, not the disaster itself. Buckley had a relatively small role as the wife of a first responder. However, as an outsider to the situation she serves as an audience surrogate in a deeply chilling way. This series isn’t exactly a fun watch, for a lot of reasons. But it was critically acclaimed at the time and like War & Peace does have a pretty stacked cast including (not limited to) Stellan Skarsgård, Emily Watson, Jared Harris, and Barry Keoghan.
Fargo Season 4 (2020)
There are a decent amount of people, especially in the United States, who first discovered Buckley in the fourth season of Noah Hawley’s Fargo on FX. The story took place in 1950s Missouri and also starred Chris Rock, Jason Schwartzman, and Ben Whishaw. Buckley played a killer nurse named Oraetta Mayflower with a penchant for poison. That should tide you over until she goes fully unhinged (compliment) in The Bride, yes?
The Woman in White (2018)
Wilkie Collins’ c. 1860 mystery The Woman in White is what’s known as a “sensation novel” with lots of gothic and/or romance sprinkles. If you’re interested in BBC miniseries adaptations of great books and happened to have missed this one, I highly recommend getting involved. Fiona Seres, who also wrote a few episodes of The Great, did the adaptation. The twists are shocking. Buckley’s character Marian Halcombe is an underrated literary heroine you’re pretty much guaranteed to love.
(featured image: Warner Brothers)
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
