Jessie Buckley expressed her gratitude for her Hamnet costar Emily Watson during her acceptance speech at SAG-AFTRA’s 2026 Actor Awards.
Buckley, 36, was announced as the winner for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role during the Sunday, March 1, ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall in Los Angeles.
“I would like to say a special thank you to my incredible friend and date tonight, Emily Watson. Breaking the Waves made me whisper to myself, ‘That’s what I want to do,’ and to share those scenes with you in Hamnet, I will cherish that for the rest of my life,” she said in her speech. “Your wild imagination, your brave, untethered womanhood, your ferocious gentleness is a guiding light to me. And the best advice you always give to me is to go back to the well of just being human. Ground zero, babe. You are the realest of the real.”
Buckley added that she loves and cherishes “being part of” the SAG-AFTRA community and hopes she can continue to “offer something meaningful back.”
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The category was stacked, with If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’s Rose Byrne, Song Sung Blue’s Kate Hudson, One Battle After Another’s Chase Infiniti and Bugonia’s Emma Stone all earning nods.
When the nominations were announced in January, several of the actresses expressed their gratitude for the recognition from fellow SAG-AFTRA members.
“Thank you to the Actor Awards and SAG-AFTRA for this incredible honor,” Infiniti wrote in a statement after receiving her first nomination. “To be recognized by my peers within this dynamic community of artists, a community that has so warmly welcomed me, is just beyond anything I could have ever dreamed up.”
The One Battle After Another actress continued, “Getting to play Willa was one of the greatest gifts and it is all thanks to the visionary [director] Paul Thomas Anderson. I’m over the moon for Leo [DiCaprio], Benicio [del Toro], Sean [Penn], and Teyana [Taylor] for their nominations. Congratulations to my fellow nominees Jessie, Rose, Kate and Emma. All your performances completely blew me away this year and it is a deep honor to be nominated alongside you all.”
Buckley, who won the Golden Globe and Critics Choice awards for her performance earlier this year, echoed similar sentiments sharing that being recognized by a group of performers she was “inspired by” felt “monumentally special.”
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“I will keep saying this: I love being part of this village. I’m so grateful to [director] Chloé [Zhao] for bringing together this extraordinary group of actors and humans to share in the deeply emotional experience of making this film,” the Hamnet actress said in a statement. “Paul [Mescal], Emily, Jacobi [Jupe], Noah [Jupe], Joe [Alwyn], and our entire cast — I share this with you. I am forever both lifted and grounded by you. Thank you.”
Byrne, who also won a Golden Globe for her role in the Mary Bronstein film earlier this year, also shared her appreciation for the nod, gushing over the talented group of actresses nominated alongside her.
“I am so beyond honored to be recognized by my peers! This is truly so meaningful and overwhelming,” Byrne wrote in a statement. “This group of actresses is extraordinary and am honored to be among them and their incredible work. Thank you to SAG AFTRA and thank you for my dental insurance!!!!”
