Original subtitles

[children vocalizing, laughing]

Sorry. We're not cool enough to say it.

Guys, we're the Shakespeares. We're supposed to be way cooler.

What's been so extraordinary about this experience

has been seeing the human behind this man

and the world that he's come from,

which has been shared by the family around him.

It feels like it's gone deeper, for a lot of us

than we ever anticipated,

as I imagine it does in all of our own real families.

[Zhao] I really love our actors because the way we work,

it requires someone who is going to surrender to the process,

and what they give to be able to create this family, take after take.

It was so incredible.

You blow a little wish.

I don't know what Jessie Buckley is, or where she came from,

but she is God's gift to this earth.

The work that she does in this is incredible.

I just don't know where she generates it from, or where she goes to,

but I'm so grateful that she goes to those places.

When I read Hamnet, I was like, "This is the woman I've been looking for"...

- [whistles] - ...because Agnes is such a force of nature.

She is a kind of untethered, deeply curious,

beautiful soul of a woman.

What is your name?

I shan't tell you.

You'll tell me when we kiss.

I wanted Will to feel animalistic and quite masculine,

even though it goes against what people expect of William Shakespeare.

He must have had all of these complicated urges within him

to write the plays that he wrote.

I cannot abide waiting.

I cast Jessie first, and then I wanted to chemistry test with Jessie and Paul.

And I rolled a scene from the moment they met and just let them play,

and at some point, something happened,

and then, suddenly, the polarity exploded in front of me

and it was so sexy, and I knew that was the right thing to do.

[Buckley] I think we both kind of were like, "This is special.

We're going to jump off the cliff together."

From day one, there was nothing we had to perform.

The kind of pulse between the two of them was so alive and vibrant,

and the trust we had between each other as actors

allowed us to totally shed our skin and just give each other our hearts.

We became attuned to each other as if we were married.

I haven't experienced that before.

And Paul Mescal is such a gentle,

sensitive force of a man.

I cannot imagine doing this with anybody else.

Is it? Yours?

The child in her belly, did you put it there?

Emily Watson plays Mary, Will Shakespeare's mother.

She is a very hardened woman, she's a woman of her time.

Your husband was born here in this room.

Mary goes on quite a journey with Agnes.

They go through these experiences together.

Oh, my God, it was so dramatic.

To share these moments of fierce womanhood and motherhood

with Emily Watson, who has been an inspiration throughout my life,

I'll never, ever forget it.

When I became an actor, my first job was at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Shakespeare kind of saved me,

so being part of this story feels like the honor of my life.

And being there with Jessie, watching her do what she's done,

has truly been a privilege.

All that education, not an ounce of sense.

David Wilmot, what an incredible actor.

He's very, very skillful.

That sort of simmering rage.

Back to work.

"Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf."

It's not just genetics we inherit.

Stop.

That's where trauma endures.

[shouting]

[Watson] His relationship with Will is one of the things that propels Will

into the life that he's destined to take.

He needs distance from his father.

- And you would go with him to London? - No, I'll wait until he's settled.

Joe Alwyn very much is Bartholomew.

He carries that essence.

And he's a quiet one, he's sturdy, he's self-sacrificing.

What would our mother say to us if we were afraid or uncertain?

To live with our hearts open.

[Zhao] Bartholomew is very important

because he's there to support Agnes's character.

And Joe acts so much for his scene partner, selflessly.

Where are you going?

Yeah. He's coming. He's coming.

To hoodwink me again, didn't you?

Bodhi, Olivia and Jacobi are the Shakespeare's kids.

And they were so comfortable with each other.

They are best friends now.

They're like friends for life.

I'm Susanna.

I basically hold this whole family together 'cause my dad's never here

and my mum's always in the forest doing foresty things.

[growls]

I'm Judith and I care too much.

[chuckling]

I don't know how she found these children,

but these kids were so present and so open,

it just felt innate that we were a family.

Let me help you.

I'm Hamnet.

Jacobi Jupe, he's just absolutely heartbreaking.

He's this wonderful mix of being like a little man,

but also this really delicate, young, exciting talent.

Very good! Again.

It's rare to come across a child actor who isn't just going off impulse.

He has that in spades, but he also has got an actor's instinct.

And he's been an absolute joy to work with.

- Bye. - Bye.

- Bye. - Bye.

- Bye. [laughing] - Bye.

[Buckley] He's so clever and kind of knows exactly what is required of him

but has such access to, like, go somewhere so deep,

it blew me away.

- Will you be brave? - Yes.

Will you be brave?

Yes! Yes, I'll be brave! I'll be brave.

I'll be brave.

They instantly felt like my mum and dad.

In the family, we all connected right away,

so we've been like a real family.

I wouldn't have any other person to replace them.

- As like... - [Jupe] Me neither.

- Just fits in so well. - Yeah.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

Yeah.

[Breathnach] They're both really talented, and like some of the most creative

and kind and loving people ever, and the funniest.

I'm a serious actor.

[laughing]

It feels deeply uncommon to me.

This family that we've made with Olivia, Jacobi, Bodhi and Jessie

feels like a real thing that's going to span beyond the nine weeks that we shot.

- [metal clangs] - [children cackling]

It's become more and more like a family.

[stammers] I don't quite understand, now that the film's finished,

why we're not getting in, like, a camper van

and going to Cornwall together and having fish and chips.

Like, I don't understand that.

Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Fair is foul, and foul is fair.

Fair is foul, and foul is fair.

- Hover through the fog and filthy air! - [screaming]

Well done!

That was amazing!