The creative team behind Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet gathered for a panel discussion as part of the Variety Screening Series, revealing the collaborative process that brought Maggie O’Farrell’s novel to life on screen.
The film follows Agnes (Jesse Buckley), the wife of a young William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal), as she tries to maintain motherhood in Stratford-upon-Avon while her husband pursues his theatrical ambitions in London. When their son Hamnet falls ill, the family faces a devastating loss that becomes the inspiration for Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Hamlet.
One theme that came up repeatedly throughout the panel was Chloé Zhao’s directorial style and leadership, which set the tone for the piece from the beginning. Casting director Nina Gold, who was shortlisted for her work, said: “She has a complete lack of ego and self-awareness, a sense that she is the boss and that she is in charge.” Director Gold was joined by the film’s costume designer Malgosia Trzanska, cinematographer Łukasz Juar, and set decorator Alice Felton. Gold continued, “Obviously she has some kind of genius master plan, but she’s very collaborative and inclusive. We just talk and we actually work together.”
Zal also praised Zhao’s instinctive approach to filmmaking. “She would come in for a split second sometimes and make very good, very quick decisions,” he said. “She really just makes decisions with her body, and she makes decisions with her heart more than her head.”
Gold described the intensive process of casting the children, especially Jacobi Jupe, who was 10 years old when he won the title role. Jupe was someone I had been eyeing for a while and wanted to cast in The Roses, but he wasn’t of the right age at the time. After auditioning “probably eight times,” Gold said he was no longer amazed by his performance, especially what he brought to the scene of death. “It was kind of amazing to see his access to his emotions in such a free way and his willingness to jump in there and keep doing it,” she said.
Trzanska highlighted a serendipitous research discovery when London rental property Cosprop discovered a 100-year-old unopened box containing flamboyant Victorian ball costumes. Among them is an authentic Elizabethan doublet. “I cried losing it, and it was really amazing,” she said. “There is very little preserved clothing that is not from royalty or nobility, and this was a simple piece of clothing, but it was so beautiful just to be able to see it.” This discovery inspired the design of Will’s character’s doublet.
Trzanska traced Agnes’ emotional journey through color, especially red. “She is such a vibrant, unmistakable creature,” said the designer. “There was always this conversation about blood and life.” Over the course of the film, the colors change from the brightness of her motherhood, through a rusty hue, to “this greyish, purplish scab” after her son’s death, and finally regain its vitality.
Felton detailed the intricate glove workshop set Will’s father needed because he was a glover. She described the space as oppressive. “It’s a place where he feels hurt and threatened. Will doesn’t want to be there. He doesn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps, but he’s forced to be there. So there are objects there that are not only beautiful, but also very sharp and threatening.”
Mr. Felton continued. “We had a whole team of leather workers and you could go in there and pick out your gloves.”
As part of her research, Felton visited the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and copied gloves from the era. “I found beautiful old gloves from that era and had them remade and made them in various stages.” Even if it was background decoration, it spoke to Will’s oppressive environment as an aspiring writer.
Zall praised Felton’s work, explaining how he visually captured Will’s emotional captivity before he met Agnes through limited compositions. “We wanted to build a contrast between them,” he said. “He’s somehow stuck in the thoughts that are in his head…The ceiling is pressing down on him, there’s division in this house, everything is very structured, the composition is somehow closed.”
Mr. Felton also talked about the progress made in children’s rooms. She explained how it starts with two beds that “we handmade.” Felton said, “Then obviously the two became one and then it was when they were cleared out and the space was cleared.”
Color was equally important to Felton and the film’s production designers. The home’s palette is blues, grays, creams, and dark woods, with very little color. The curtains on the bed in Will and Agnes’ room are made of an orange-red color. When Hamnet dies, all color is stripped from the room.
Director Gold cast more than 350 extras for the film’s final scene, in which the audience watches the premiere of “Hamlet” at the Globe Theater. Her search looked for “interesting faces that aren’t modern.”
Everyone had to be dressed by Turzanska and her team. The costume designer revealed that Chao herself appears in the Globe Theater scene in the film’s finale, reaching out from the central balcony. This is a hidden cameo for those who watch closely.
“With her guiding us, we feel more ownership of this film and the film as a whole than ever before,” Trzanska said.
Watch the video above.
