Jessie Buckley reflected on her powerful and heart-warming role of Agnes in the historical fictional adaptation of Hamnet.
The actress portrayed a fierce yet loving mother who lost her child, Hamnet, at age of 11 and shows how she overcomes her grief to hold the family together.
During her appearance at the Variety Awards Circuit Podcast, the Oscar-nominated star opened up about what surprised her the most about Agnes while she was portraying her.
"What surprised me most about her — or what was revealed in me through her — was tenderness," she said. "I think I’d been looking for it. She’s someone who lives with her own convictions of who she is."
Buckley further described Agnes as a woman who is "not compromising to an appealing idea of herself; she’s in her body and in nature, and works with medicine."
Dismantling the stereotype of how female strength in women is often perceived "as something hard," Buckley said what she found in Agnes was "ferocious tenderness that breaks through the edges of that exterior" as her strength.
Discussing Agnes' relationship with her husband Shakespeare, Buckley said she was struck by the character’s emotional depth and understanding.
Agnes recognised her husband's world was "bigger than their small town" yet she loved him enough to "hold something and also let it go in the same breath."
Buckley said that their sustaining power of love through all the ups and downs, was something she discovered along the way.
The historical fiction follows reimagined lives of William Shakespeare's family, specially focusing on wife Agnes and their son Hamnet.
Tragedy strikes when Hamnet dies at age 11, inspiring legendary English writer to iconic piece of literature, Hamlet.