'MY HEART IS CRACKED OPEN'

After her visceral performance as grieving mother Agnes Shakespeare in Hamnet, Jessie Buckley had a baby herself and the role really hit home

- INTERVIEW: GILL PRINGLE

When Jessie Buckley, who plays William Shakespeare's wife in the new film Hamnet, lets out a primal scream upon the death of their 11-year-old son, it is so powerful you feel her grief reach out through the screen.

There are many such moments in this stunning film adaptation of the British author Maggie O'Farrell's novel, named after Shakespeare's young son. But for mothers, Agnes Shakespeare's anguish is particularly heartbreaking.

Jessie, 36, is hotly tipped to be the toast of the awards season for the role, after winning the Critics' Choice Award for Best Actress. As fate would have it, the Irish actress found herself pregnant with her first child shortly after filming wrapped, giving her a new perspective on motherhood.

"My heart is cracked open in a way that you can't really know until you've experienced what that is," says the Irish. actress, who now has a four-month-old daughter with her husband, Freddie.

"It's an intense, wild ride of the heart, but the most beautiful one," she adds.