Jessie Buckley brings 'Hamnet' costar to tears with moving gesture

Jessie Buckley left her Hamnet co-star Emily Watson with teary eyes with a heartfelt gesture at the 2026 Actor Awards.

On Sunday, March 1, Buckley, 36, earned an award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for her performance in the Chloé Zhao-directed movie.

During her acceptance speech the Irish actress and singer dedicated her latest win to Watson, 59, who was sitting in the audience.

"I have been categorically changed by so many people in this room and beyond," The Bride! star shared. "To get to work with my heart in my hand and stand beside my brilliant, daring friends who show me their heart — I mean, what a way to spend a life."

She turned the attention towards the veteran actress whom she called her "incredible friend and date tonight."

Buckley said seeing Watson in the 1996 romance thriller Breaking the Waves made her say to herself, "That's what I want to do."

"To share those scenes with you in Hamnet, I will cherish that for the rest of my life," she said to the Red Dragon actress. "Your wild imagination, your brave, untethered womanhood, your ferocious gentleness, is a guiding light to me.”

“And the best advice that you always give to me is to always go back to the well of just being human. Ground zero, babe. You're the realest of the real,” Buckley added before the camera panned to Watson, who was clearly emotional.

For the unversed, Hamnet stars both actresses in central maternal roles within the Shakespeare family.

While Buckley stars as Agnes (Anne) Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare (played by Paul Mescal), Watson plays Mary Shakespeare, William’s mother and Agnes’s mother-in-law.