Paul Mescal fans are being offered a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the filming of Hamnet with a free exhibition in London.
The All Of Us Strangers actor, 29, stars alongside Jessie Buckley, 35, in Chloé Zhao’s upcoming drama, which was adapted from Maggie O'Farrell’s highly-acclaimed eighth novel.
Ahead of its release, the Even as a Shadow, Even as a Dream exhibition will share candid photos of the star and other members of the cast on set in the forests of Stratford-Upon-Avon.
One black and white snap by Agata Grzybowska captures Mescal floating on his back seemingly nude in the middle of a lake, while another includes haunting headshots of the actor.
The exhibition also features Buckley’s evocative handwritten notes on becoming Agnes Shakespeare, original props and set pieces, plus artwork and writings from Zhao.
Curated by Simindokht Dehgani, it will run from 9 to 20 December in Fitzroy Square.
Hamnet is about William Shakespeare’s son Hamnet, who died at the age of 11 in 1596, and his parents’ subsequent grief.
Mescal and Buckley star as William and his wife, Agnes, in the 2020 novel, which tells the love story that inspired the creation of Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Hamlet.
They appear alongside Academy Award nominee Emily Watson (Hilary and Jackie, Breaking the Waves) and Joe Alwyn (The Brutalist).
The film, which arrives at UK cinemas on January 9, has already been tipped for a slew of awards.
Mescal reflected on the pressure of filming a Shakespeare-inspired epic, admitting he felt “great anxiety” about the famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy.
"To be Shakespeare but also say Shakespeare and also say that speech, that was always one of the big, more technical challenges,” he told Mashable in a joint interview with Buckley on Wednesday.
"Whenever I've approached Shakespeare before, it's like this sacred text. And to me, subjectively playing Shakespeare within [Hamnet]... Oh no. These are words that have cost parts of his life to write.
“They're not words on a page. They come from him. So there's a slight freedom in that, where I leant into that so I felt like I could survive the spiders in my mind when I was speaking it all.
“So I feel very proud of that."
Buckley, meanwhile, played the fierce character of Agnes true to O’Farrell’s novel, saying: "She's elemental.
“Every ounce of her is full. And she has such a kind of uncompromising sense of herself and who she is."
The co-stars also discussed what it was like performing with the three children who play their on-screen kids.
Mescal revealed he, Jacobi Jupe, Olivia Lynes, and Bodhi Rae Breathnach surprised Buckley with a scene from Macbeth.
"We didn't let Jessie know that we were gonna do that," Mescal said, "So that was an actual surprise. I'd rehearsed the kids...so that shot on Jessie — "
Buckley explained: “It was real.”
The Even as a Shadow, Even as a Dream exhibition will run from 9 to 20 December, Tuesdays to Saturdays, 10am until 6pm. For entry to the exhibition, go to EventBrite here.
An accompanying book Even as a Shadow, Even as a Dream by Chloé Zhao, Jessie Buckley, and Agata Grzybowska is available from MACK.
