Hamnet with Chloé Zhao and Maggie O'Farrell
About this episode
Al Horner interviews Chloé Zhao and Maggie O'Farrell about the film adaptation of 'Hamnet'.
To record an episode about Hamnet, the new film from Chloe Zhao, or not to record an episode about Hamnet? That was the question – and a question I answered in a heartbeat when Chloe’s team reached out late last year about chatting with the Nomadland writer-director. The historical drama, starring Jesse Buckley and Paul Mescal, takes viewers inside the anguish of William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes Hathaway, after the death of one of their children in 1596. In the movie, Shakespeare throws himself into his work as part of his mourning process, resulting in one of the best-loved and most influential plays of all time. In doing so, though, Agnes is left alone with just ghosts, grief and her remaining children – themselves angry and confused at Hamnet’s death – for company. Adapted from an acclaimed novel by Irish author Maggie O’Farrell, who joined Chloe and I for our conversation, the film is as emotionally bruising as they come. It’s a tale about parenthood, personhood, how storytellers process pain through their art and what it means to witness that. The film ends with this remarkable final scene shot at London’s historic Globe Theatre in which Shakespeare has…
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