The truth behind Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley’s chemistry read
Jessie Buckley and Chloé Zhao reveal the truth behind Buckley’s chemistry read with Paul Mescal for “Hamnet.”
In many ways, Noah and Jacobi Jupe are just ordinary brothers.
Growing up, they loved playing with lightsabers, Mario Kart and Dungeons & Dragons. Noah also introduced his sibling to a ton of movies, such as the wistful “Spirited Away.”
“I remember watching ‘Fly Away Home’ with you,” Noah, 20, says on a recent Zoom call with Jacobi, 12. “That was like my childhood film, so when Jacobi got old enough, I was like, “OK, I think he’s ready for that now.'”
“Oh, my God, I cried!” Jacobi recalls with a grin. “I was like, ‘Why did you show me that movie?!'”
This awards season, the British bros are similarly making audiences weep with “Hamnet” (now in theaters), a historical fiction drama about William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal), his wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley), and the profound grief that inspired his play “Hamlet.”
Noah plays the mad Prince of Denmark in a cathartic stage production that ends the film, while Jacobi will reduce you to tears as Agnes and William’s ill-fated son, Hamnet, who bravely succumbs to the plague.
Off screen, the eloquent preteen has been charming moviegoers at film festivals and Q&As over the last few months. He is now vying for best young actor at the Critics Choice Awards on Jan. 4 – a nomination that Noah received just six years ago for 2019’s “Honey Boy.”
“I hate to say it,” Noah cheekily admits. “But for someone who is so annoying at home, I’m incredibly impressed by how smart, how funny and how honest all of Jacobi’s answers are. We’re very lucky that we’re so passionate about this film, which makes it easy to talk about.”
Jacobi Jupe’s ‘brotherly nepotism’ led to Noah’s casting in ‘Hamnet’
Their mom, actress Katy Cavanagh, first read Maggie O’Farrell’s novel “Hamnet” shortly after its release in 2020.
“She loves the book so much,” Jacobi says. So when he got the chance to audition for Chloé Zhao’s film, “Mum was just like, ‘You need to do this job!’ And I was like, ‘Great, OK.’ And I did it!”
Noah, meanwhile, joined the movie when production was already underway, after Zhao called him asking if he’d like to play Hamlet.
“I got involved through nepotism, as most people are getting jobs these days,” Noah quips. “I actually don’t know if it’s nepotism if it’s your brother – brotherly nepotism?”
Jokes aside, “I was just supporting from the sidelines, and hearing all these stories from the set about how wonderful Chloé and Jessie and Paul were. I really couldn’t say no, and I wanted to take this opportunity to work with Jacobi as well.”
In preparation for the role, Jacobi had extensive conversations with Zhao about Hamnet’s compassion in the face of fatal sickness, and how he absorbs the emotions of people around him. Filming the young boy’s devastating death was understandably difficult, as a distraught Buckley sobs and cradles him.
“It’s very hard to just snap out of it when you’re doing scenes so deep and meaningful,” Jacobi says. “If I hadn’t had those people around me, it would have been a much harder job to do, honestly. I just had to let go of this character and say goodbye almost, which really wasn’t very fun.”
Noah wasn’t on set for his brother’s death scene, but watching it play out on screen later was “brutal.”
During shooting, “the crew would come up to me and be like, ‘Did you see what your brother did?’ They were extremely moved by his performance,” Noah recalls. “That put my expectations fairly high for the film and he completely exceeded all of them. I was incredibly affected by his work, which I hate to admit!”
For his part in the film’s emotional finale, Noah was most daunted to be performing Hamlet’s famous soliloquies not only in front of a live audience, but in a recreation of Shakespeare’s Globe theater in England.
“On paper, ‘to be or not to be’ is quite a simple line, but it holds so much power,” Noah says. “A lot of my work consisted of just getting out of that headspace.” Back in the late 16th century, “no one in the audience had heard these words thousands of times like we all have, so it took the pressure off a little bit. I was just trying to find the originality in it.”
The real-life brothers don’t want to ‘milk’ their collaboration
Next up, Jacobi is set to star with Scarlett Johansson in a new installment of “The Exorcist” franchise, while Noah is doing “Romeo and Juliet” with Sadie Sink in London’s West End.
“Without this experience of doing ‘Hamnet,’ I wouldn’t be as confident and excited to jump in as I am now,” Noah says.
As they head into Oscar season, the brothers are looking forward to bringing their parents and sister to awards shows with them: “Wherever we go, the family comes, too,” Noah says.
When the boys were growing up, “there was never a sibling rivalry,” Jacobi explains. “I didn’t really understand banter, so he would take advantage of that and be a bit silly.”
There’s still plenty of good-natured teasing between them, but there’s also newfound respect after making this movie.
“It brought us together in a very spiritual way,” Noah says. Although, don’t expect them to work together again any time soon: “We have something special here, but it has to be the right project for both of us. You don’t want to milk it!”
