At 36, actress Jessie Buckley stands on the precipice of Hollywood's highest honour, hotly tipped to win the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in Hamnet. Yet, in a world obsessed with celebrity, she remains an enigmatic figure, deeply private and deliberately elusive, a choice rooted in a painful first brush with fame.
From 'Brutalising' Talent Show to Critically Acclaimed Chameleon
Buckley's journey began publicly at 17 on the BBC's 2008 talent show I'd Do Anything, overseen by Andrew Lloyd Webber. While she won the nation's heart with her voice, finishing as runner-up to Jodie Prenger, the experience left deep scars. In a recent Vogue interview, she described feeling "brutalised" and subjected to "unfair objectification." She admits she was depressed and unwell, forced to mould herself into a shape that didn't fit. "Once I realised that, my life goal has been to unravel myself," she explained.
This early ordeal shaped her cautious approach. Today, she has no Instagram, avoids press calls, and her Facebook lies dormant since 2020. Despite winning a Critics' Choice Award this year, beating Emma Stone and others, and receiving Golden Globe and expected Oscar nominations, she lives quietly in a Norfolk village, rarely recognised.
A Private Life and a Meteoric Artistic Rise
Buckley fiercely guards her personal life. She is married to Freddie Sorensen, 47, a former producer turned mental health worker, and they have an eight-month-old daughter, whose name she keeps private. Her father, poet Tim Buckley, says speaking at awards ceremonies "wouldn't be her favourite thing," noting she must "psych herself like a boxer" before appearing.
Professionally, she is a chameleon. Since I'd Do Anything, she heeded Lloyd Webber's advice to avoid musical theatre pigeonholing, training at RADA. Her versatility is staggering: from a West End Henry V with Jude Law and a BAFTA-nominated turn in Beast to an Olivier-winning performance in Cabaret. She earned Oscar and BAFTA nominations for The Lost Daughter and now shines as Agnes Shakespeare in Hamnet.
The Unlikely Path to an Oscar Contender
Lord Lloyd-Webber, who recalls her as a "lifeforce" and a "life-enhancer," told the Daily Mail he was "secretly pleased she didn't win" the show, as it allowed her to pursue serious drama. He is now supremely confident she will win the Oscar, calling it "one of the most rewarding things" to see her reach the top.
Her talent was evident early in Ireland, where she won a high achiever award from the Royal Irish Academy of Music. After the show, a patron funded her RADA studies. She has since masterfully juggled film, stage, and television, all while keeping her first love—music—in play, even performing at Glastonbury.
Now, with a young family and a 16th-century Norfolk home, Buckley has found a new focus. She says motherhood made her "feel alive" and more honest about what's important. As the awards season reaches its peak, this uniquely private star, who describes herself as "a cat that's had nine different lives," is poised for her most public triumph yet, entirely on her own terms.
