Buckley said she would "cherish" the time she spent with Watson filming 'Hamnet' "for the rest of my life"
Credit: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty; Netflix
NEED TO KNOW
- At the Actor Awards 2026 on Sunday, March 1, Jessie Buckley took home the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for her work in Hamnet
- During her acceptance speech, Buckley shouted out her Hamnet costar Emily Watson
- Buckley previously shouted out Watson while accepting the Best Actress award at the Critics Choice Awards in January
Jessie Buckley had some sweet words for her Hamnet costar Emily Watson at the 2026 Actor Awards.
While accepting the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for her work in Hamnet at the awards show on Sunday, March 1, Buckley, 36, said she wanted to "take a minute to see all these incredible, inspiring faces and souls in front of me."
"I have been categorically changed by so many people in this room and beyond," she said. "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."
Buckley then turned her attention to Watson, 59, 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. "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."
As the camera panned to Watson in the audience, it was clear that Buckley's speech had made her emotional.
Buckley concluded her speech by saying, "I love and cherish being part of this community."
"I hope that I can continue to offer something meaningful back," she said. "Thank you very much. This is such a privilege."
Credit: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty
The other nominees in the category included Rose Byrne for If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, Kate Hudson for Song Sung Blue, Chase Infiniti for One Battle After Another and Emma Stone for Bugonia.
Buckley has received acclaim for her performance as Agnes, the wife of Paul Mescal’s William Shakespeare, in Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet since the movie first premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in 2025.
In Zhao’s adaptation of author Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel of the same name (a fictional story about the life of the Shakespeare family), audiences see the unraveling of Agnes following the death of her son Hamnet, played by Jacobi Jupe. Their son’s death leads Shakespeare to write the world-renowned play Hamlet.
Buckley previously shouted out Watson as she accepted the award for Best Actress at the 2026 Critics' Choice Awards in January, calling her "my north star from the beginning."
During the same speech, she also poked fun at Mescal's internet boyfriend status.
"Paul, I bloody love you, man. And I know loads of other women do in this room too, but tough s—," she said. "I could drink you like water, working with you every single day. You're a giant of the heart and thank you so much for making me a little more human."
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Later that month, Buckley won Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture Drama at the Golden Globes.
See PEOPLE's full coverage of the 32nd annual Actor Awards Sunday, March 1 as they air live on Netflix.
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