Disclaimer: This article discusses the final sequence in “Hamnet”
Rarely has a casting decision had such a magical effect: In “Hamnet,” 12-year-old Jacobi Jupe appears as Shakespeare’s son, speculated to be an inspiration for the character Hamlet, who is played in the movie by Jacobi’s older brother, 20-year-old Noah Jupe. Though limited in their screen time, the two British actors represent the heart and soul within this story of loss, art and catharsis.
Based on the beloved novel by Maggie O’Farrell, the movie focuses on the Shakespeare family (Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley as the Bard and his wife), whom are dealt the cruelest fate when their son Hamnet dies at the age of 11.
Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”) first cast British child actor Jacobi (“Peter Pan & Wendy,” AppleTV’s “Before”) in the pivotal title role. The production had wrapped shooting on all of his scenes when Zhao realized that she still hadn’t hired a performer for the film’s 20-minute final sequence, where we watch the first staging of “Hamlet” at the Globe Theatre in 1599.
Zhao telephoned Katy Cavanagh, the “Coronation Street” actress and mother of the Jupe brothers (plus a middle sister) and acquired the number for Noah (“A Quiet Place,” “The Night Manager,” “Franklin”), who was at the time filming “The Carpenter’s Son” alongside Nicolas Cage in Greece.
Noah had been calling his little brother during the production of “Hamnet” to check in with him and make sure he was doing alright. “And then one day I was covered in blood, obviously makeup, on the set in Greece and I picked up the phone,” Noah told TheWrap. “It was Chloé and she said, “I have a question for you.’”
Noah instinctively said yes to Zhao’s offer to play Hamlet and within a week had been flown to the U.K. set. “Originally I was meant to do a couple of days of rehearsal,” he said, “but Chloé moved the rehearsal closer to the shooting days. She wanted there to be less time to rehearse, so that everything we did felt more authentic.”
As the filmmaking team moved to the Globe Theatre set, Jacobi had wrapped his role but was eager to watch his brother from the wings. “I remember asking my dad if we could go a day earlier, just so that I could see Noah,” he said. And the young actor’s presence resulted in a poignant alteration to the plot from Zhao. Though it was unscripted, Jacobi’s Hamnet appears briefly in the final sequence. It marked the first time the Jupe brothers ever shared the same stage.
“Jacobi was there because he was excited to introduce me to everyone,” Noah said. “Chloé starting thinking of the idea that Hamnet would come out on stage after Hamlet dies in the play and make a connection with his mother. And she developed that into this beautiful moment in the film. It all comes from the sense of synchronicity and spirituality that happens with Chloé, where she really leans into her ideas.”
Jacobi also talked about Zhao’s vibe of warmth and spontaneity. While filming his character’s death scene, the actor said that it was important to maintain the shroud of melancholy, which was essential for the realness of his and Buckley’s performances. But on the Friday of every week, Zhao would film a “dance take,” an outlet for the cast to express joy and exhilaration as they boogied to a pop song, often Rihanna’s “We Found Love.”
“You just need to let off steam at the end of the week by having a dance break,” Jacobi said. “But my death scene was finished on a Wednesday, so I went to Chloé and I said, ‘I just died today. Can we do a dance take, please?’” With Zhao’s permission, Jacobi picked the world’s most apt song for an actor whose character just lost his life: The Bee Gees’ immortal “Staying Alive.”
But while on the set with both brothers, Zhao noticed something that slightly spoiled her concept of casting them as two sides of the same figure.
“Chloé took one look at me and went, ‘You look nothing like [Jacobi],’” said Noah with a laugh. The solution? To alter Noah’s brown hair to match Jacobi’s lighter tresses. “We tried blond wigs that looked like Jacobi’s hair and also straw wigs that would have been more accurate to the time,” said Noah.
But Zhao settled on a yellowish paint smeared on top of Noah’s dark hair. “It’s like you can imagine Shakespeare trying to create his son again,” Noah said. “The hair dye and makeup would have been extremely handmade and, behind the scenes, he’d be molding the actor’s hair to try and emulate his son. It’s a lovely touch.”
And on the subject of lovely touches, perhaps nothing else in “Hamnet” is as emotionally galvanizing as when Noah’s Hamlet experiences a moment of kinship with Buckley’s sorrowful Agnes, who is standing in the front row of the Globe audience and reaches out her hand as Hamlet dies.
Noah explained that his performance grew out of the dress rehearsal of that scene, when Buckley was the only other actor on the set.
“There were no background extras at that point,” he said. “It was only Jessie, stood there with her arms on the stage and watching me. And I just instinctually performed the scene for her, because she was the only person there. I was getting live feedback and I realized that I was delivering the words to her alone.”
He carried that energy into the filming of the scene, sculpting a profound metaphor for the intimate, one-on-one loop between an artist and the spectators.
“When you feel connected to someone in the audience,” Noah said, “it changes the way you speak the words. It makes each of them active participants, and I have to give Jessie all the credit for making that happen.”
And with all the introspection alive in the making of “Hamnet,” it’s no surprise that the film includes a clever little meta Easter egg near its final sequence. When Agnes receives the playbill for the first performance of “Hamlet,” it is glimpsed onscreen briefly and lists the name of the actor playing the title role: “Mr. Jupe.”
“What’s so symbolic about that is we’re both Mr. Jupe,” Jacobi said, smiling at the idea of being referred to by a formal title at his age. “I really like that they put it in the film. It’s subtle and it slots everything into place. It just feels really right.”
“Hamnet” is now playing in theaters.
