The Oscars: Jessie Buckley shares what the enemy of cinema impact is

Jessie Buckley is a strong contender for the Best Actress race for the 2026 Oscars after her outstanding performance in Hamnet as Agnes Shakespeare.

Recently, she reflected on the cultural power of storytelling during the New York premiere of her 2025 hit film.

“Stories can wake people up to the feelings they push down because it's hard to feel all the time," she told Variety at the red carpet.

The star further shared that the filmmakers should take creative risks and not give in to the fears of commercial pressures.

“We need to support filmmakers to keep experimenting and creating bigger landscapes within their artistry – not becoming fearful of it. That’s how we move cinema forward,” she added.

Buckley's comments come on the heels of the Oscars 2026 ceremony, where she is the frontrunner in the Best Actress category.

But before the final day of voting at the Academy Awards, old comments by the actress on cats began trending on social media, reported The Independent.

She previously said on Happy Sad Confused that she had made her husband rehome his cats because the cats had been mistreating her.

"My husband, when I started dating him, had two cats… This is bad as well. I’m going to get cancelled."

“One of the cats was like a pedigree model bitch, and she staged a coup against me. I’d come home, and there’d just be poo on my pillow. And I was like, 'It's me or the cats.' But I won!”

After her old remarks started doing the rounds ahead of the Oscars ceremony, Buckley issued a clarification while appearing on Tonight with Jimmy Fallon.

“I need to clarify something for all cat lovers in the world,” she added. “I am a lover of cats. I woke up this morning to the world thinking that I really don’t love cats. It’s really weighed on me all day... I felt sick.”

“I want to tell cat people that I actually auditioned to be a cat once. It was honestly the worst… I gave the worst audition of my life," Buckley concluded.