Jessie Buckley has spoken candidly about her early brush with fame, revealing she felt “brutalised” and unfairly objectified while competing on the BBC talent show I’d Do Anything as a teenager.
The Irish actress, now 36, first came to public attention in 2008 when she appeared on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s reality series, which searched for a young performer to play Nancy in a West End revival of Oliver!. Buckley was just 17 at the time and went on to finish second, losing out to eventual winner Jodie Prenger.
Since then, Buckley has built one of the most acclaimed acting careers of her generation, starring in projects including Hamnet, Fargo, The Lost Daughter and Women Talking. But looking back at her time on the show, she has admitted the experience left a lasting mark.
Speaking to Vogue, Buckley reflected on how exposed she felt during the competition, describing an environment that she believes placed young women under intense and unfair scrutiny. “I was 17. I was in a moment of discovery. As women, it’s such unfair objectification … Back then, I was just trying to move into a space of myself,” she said.
Buckley added that she hopes no young performer has to go through a similar experience today. “I really hope that a 15, 17, whatever-age woman never has to be brutalised quite like what happened on that show. But I didn’t recognise it fully at the time. I just felt it, which was difficult.”
At the time, I’d Do Anything was one of the BBC’s biggest Saturday night entertainment shows, attracting millions of viewers and making overnight stars of its contestants. The programme was designed to showcase raw talent, but Buckley’s comments add to a growing conversation about how young performers — particularly young women — were treated during the peak of reality TV in the late 2000s.
Despite the emotional toll, Buckley says she was also caught up in the excitement of being given such a rare opportunity at a young age. “It’s bonkers, in hindsight. I was just like: ‘Oh my God. I get to peek behind this curtain already. I get to sing. I get to be part of this industry that I really was hoping I could be part of,’” she said.
Jessie Buckley has described her starring role in Hamnet as “one of the most personal, intimate, significant jobs I’ve done,” as the acclaimed Irish actress stands at the centre of one of the most talked-about films of the awards season. Hamnet — released in Irish cinemas 9 January 2026 — has generated intense critical buzz and placed Buckley firmly in the spotlight for top acting honours.
Directed by Oscar-winning auteur Chloé Zhao and adapted from the 2020 novel by Coleraine-born author Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet reimagines the tragic story of William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes, charting the devastating impact of losing their young son, Hamnet, to plague in 1596. The film has been celebrated on the festival circuit and is now rolling out widely in cinemas across Ireland and the UK.
Buckley, who portrays Agnes — historically known as Anne Hathaway — has been at the heart of this acclaim. At the Irish premiere in Dublin’s Light House Cinema, she spoke candidly about the experience of making the film and the profound connection she felt with the material and her castmates.
