Irish actress Jessie Buckley spoke with members of the media following her 2026 Academy Award win in the Oscars Press Room.
The 98th Oscars ceremony was held at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles, California.
Buckley made history becoming the first Irish woman to ever win the “Best Actress” Academy Award.
She earned this accolade for playing Agnes, William Shakespeare’s wife in the historical drama film “Hamnet,” which was directed by Chloe Zhao.
Buckley bested fellow nominees Rose Byrne (“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”), Kate Hudson (“Song Sung Blue”), Renate Reinsve (“Sentimental Value”) and Emma Stone (“Bugonia”).
Buckley on making Oscar history
On becoming the first Irish woman to accomplish this feat, which ironically enough coincides with Mother’s Day in the UK, she remarked, “It feels like some kind of crazy alchemy that all of these things are colliding on a day like today.”
“My daughter got her first tooth this week,” she admitted. “I woke up with her lying on my chest, snuggling me.”
“What a gift to get to explore motherhood through this incredible mother that Agnes is and was, and then to become one myself,” she acknowledged.
“Then, to receive this recognition of the incredible role mothers play in our world on this day is something I will never, ever forget,” she added.
Buckley shares her message for her family, friends and fans all the way in Ireland who stayed up all night to celebrate her win
For her family, friends and fans, she expressed, “Don’t go to bed, keep partying!”
“That’s what I’m going to do. I’m so grateful for the support, and I feel the love. Man, I feel it,” she said.
“I feel it from young people and old people, from women and men, and from my family,” she noted.
“To be here tonight with all my family who’ve literally flown in from New Zealand and Australia and Kerry and Dublin. That makes it real. They’re the people who built me,” she elaborated.
“To share this moment with them and know that back home they are either drunk or staying up. I’m delighted for us all,” she acknowledged.
Buckley on how the role of Agnes will stay with her personally
When asked how the role of Agnes will stay with her personally, she responded, “I think all my roles stay with me. I don’t ever want to let go of the incredible women that have really given me an education that I’ve been looking for as a woman.”
“I think this role cracked a kind of tenderness in me that,” she admitted. “Sometimes, if you’re a strong woman, you’re perceived as just being strong, but actually tenderness is as vibrant and strong as strength.”
“Also, to know that through this woman where she was able to hold the capacity of strength and vulnerability and tenderness and grief and love in all its epic colors,” she elaborated.
“I mean, why would you ever want to let that go? It’s something I want to hold on for the rest of my life,” she concluded.
