Jessie Buckley has been forced to clarify her remarks about making her husband rehome his two cats, after the comments resurfaced online on the final day of Oscar voting. The 36-year-old actress, favourite to win Best Actress for her role in Hamnet, originally made the comments on the Happy Sad Confused podcast three months ago.
In the original interview, Buckley said: “My husband, when I started dating him, he had two cats… 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!”
Appearing on Tonight with Jimmy Fallon, Buckley sought to put things right, insisting: “I need to clarify something for all cat lovers in the world. 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.”
She also revealed she once auditioned for Tom Hooper’s disastrous Cats film, describing it as “the worst audition of my life”. The clarification came as reviews for her new film The Bride! were published, with The Times declaring “Jessie Buckley is catastrophically poor in this misfire”.
Despite the backlash, Buckley has enjoyed a clean sweep at major awards this season, winning Best Actress at the Golden Globes, Actor Awards and Baftas. The Oscars take place on 15 March.
