Lifestyle

I spent the night in a lighthouse on a tiny California island. Here’s how you can too

Published

2 years ago

January 12, 2024

I spent the night in a lighthouse on a tiny California island. Here’s how you can too

You might be reluctant to stay at a $475-a-night inn that warns of flashing lights and foghorns throughout the night, or bans one-night guests from bathing, or requires that you be ready to climb a ladder above roiling seas.

But then you hear those four words:

Lighthouse on an island.

The East Brother Light Station is a compound of three buildings on a three-quarter-acre island near the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay. The main building is a four-bedroom 1873 Victorian home, topped by a beacon you can see from up to 13 miles off. And all of those bedrooms are rentable by the night, with a fancy dinner and breakfast included.

In December, I booked a night and made my way to Point San Pablo Harbor in Richmond, 20 miles north of San Francisco.

Point San Pablo Harbor, at the western edge of Richmond in East San Francisco Bay, is a bohemian community with one restaurant, one lighthouse bed-and-breakfast, a few dozen live-aboard boats in the marina and several leftover Burning Man sculptures along the shoreline.

(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

The first surprise was the crocodile. When you follow the two-lane approach road, you pass a few miles of mostly idle post-industrial waterfront, climb a hill, then descend to the harbor, where you are greeted by a 40-foot-long steel-and-ceramic crocodile, jaws open wide.

Nearby stands a Victrola-style trumpet tall enough to serenade Godzilla. Also a hippo-sized cat, a possible altar and several other large, mysterious sculptural objects, neighbored by a few yurts, a pen full of goats and a few dozen houseboats in the marina — rustic, artsy houseboats, boldly painted, with a pirate vibe.

At the base of the dock, a rustic patio restaurant called the Sailing Goat was serving lunch. In fact, I was gulping some of the Sailing Goat’s excellent clam chowder when my innkeepers’ 22-foot boat puttered up to the dock.

Innkeeper Dre Elmore prepares to captain the short boat trip from Point San Pablo Harbor to the bed and breakfast at East Brother Light Station.

(Loren Elliott / For The Times)

The 10-minute ride to the old lighthouse

Dre and Charity Elmore, both newcomers to California, started work in early 2023 as keepers of the East Brother Light Station Bed & Breakfast, a gig nearly as intriguing as the lighthouse itself.

Bundled in rain gear and eager to get back to their island before a downpour hit the launch, the two quickly embarked me and my overnight bag for the trip to the island.

Over the whine of the motor, Dre Elmore explained that many of the houseboat people seem to be live-aboard artists and musicians. As for the sculptures?

“From Burning Man,” he said.

On the quarter-mile ride to the island, the Elmores told me I’d be the only guest for the evening — others had canceled because of illness. Then they gave me the inn’s backstory.

The East Brother Light Station B&B stands on a tiny island in San Francisco Bay. Guests arrive by boat. (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

East Brother Island, neighbored by unbuilt West Brother Island, is in San Pablo Straight, where San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay meet. (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

From 1873 until the 1960s, East Brother Island was home to a manned lighthouse, using its beacon and horn to guide ships through the often-foggy strait that connects San Francisco Bay to San Pablo Bay.

Once automation arrived, the Coast Guard was ready to tear down the old keepers’ residence. That’s when Richmond’s preservationists rose up.

First they got the light station added to the National Register of Historic Places. Then they launched a campaign to restore the compound and run the keeper’s residence as a bed and breakfast. It would be a nonprofit operation, with proceeds paying for maintenance. The inn opened in 1980, renting two rooms.

There have been plenty of headwinds since then, including the pandemic, a damaged power cable and all the material woes that come with so much salty air and water. But the inn has grown to five rooms in the historic compound, open four nights a week.

Innkeeper Dre Elmore captains the short boat trip from Point San Pablo Harbor to the bed and breakfast at East Brother Light Station.

(Loren Elliott / For The Times)

Many guests are locals who have always wondered about this odd little island. Others are lighthouse aficionados who roam this country’s coasts, getting their U.S. Lighthouse Society passports stamped. (The last active lighthouse keeper in the U.S., Sally Snowman at Boston Light Beacon, retired in December, but those aficionados still have about 850 active and retired lighthouses to visit and admire.)

As our boat neared the light station’s pier, it became clear why this is not a destination for everyone. As the inn’s website warns, guests must be able to climb 4 to 12 feet up a ladder (depending on the tide) from bobbing boat to dock. Meanwhile, your innkeepers have to heave your luggage up from the boat.

It’s best to pack light. And once you’re on the island, expect a vibe that’s less Burning Man, more L.L. Bean.

The East Brother Light Station B&B, an 1873 building with four bedrooms, stands on a tiny island in San Francisco Bay. Guests arrive by boat.

(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Visitors can roam. Or buy out the island.

The compound is surrounded by a white picket fence, as if this were just another slice of residential Americana. Charity Elmore leads guests on a tour that advances from the inn’s stately rooms — ready for an Agatha Christie mystery to break out at any moment — to the lighthouse tower and widow’s walk up top.

“This, right here, is the Lantern Room. That is the actual light that flashes on and off every five seconds,” Charity told me as the beacon blazed, darkened and blazed again. “It lets all the boats in the bay area know that we’re out here.”

The San Francisco and Marin rooms upstairs, which have commanding views, private bathrooms and cost $525, are the most popular among first-timers. I paid $475 to stay downstairs in the West Brother Room, which has a slightly less commanding view and shares a bathroom.

If you’re a boat person who savors the faint scent of diesel, however, you’ll want to book Walter’s Room, a small bedroom and sitting-room in the fog signal building. The bathroom is 25 feet away, but a barn-style door opens to a patio and spectacular view and there are no shared walls.

Then there’s the splurge option: You rent the whole inn for a $2,500 “house party” — room for 10-12 people, potentially including children, who are otherwise not allowed. That happen two or three times a month.

There are a few other lighthouse lodgings on the West Coast, including the hostel at Pigeon Point in Pescadero and the fancy B&B at Heceta Head near Yachats in Oregon. But where else on the West Coast can you buy out an island?

The East Brother Light Station B&B stands on a tiny island in San Francisco Bay.

(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Whether you rent one room or all, Champagne and hors d’oeuvres are served in late afternoon — outdoors if the weather is mild. Then, in the spell before the bell rings for dinner in the dining room, you have time to roam.

You can head upstairs, where there’s a wood-burning stove and a room full of puzzles, board games and a guitar. There’s a horseshoe pitch on one side of the fog signal building. The cellphone coverage is fine, but there’s no WiFi, no land line, no hot tub.

So you do what they do in the L.L. Bean catalog: Stare meaningfully at the the swelling sea, the ferries and barges puttering past, the birds that perch on West Brother, the next island over. Farther away, you have the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and the distant San Francisco skyline. In winter, clouds and fog permitting, you see the sun set behind Mt. Tamalpais.

The East Brother Light Station B&B stands on a tiny island in San Francisco Bay. (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

The East Brother Light Station at dusk.

(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

After dark, I climbed the spiral staircase to the widow’s walk and stood by the pulsing beacon, which felt forbidden but isn’t. Then I dipped into a gift shop copy of “East Brother: History of an Island Light Station” by Frank Perry, and learned the following:

To put a lighthouse on the domed stone island, 19th-century workers dynamited rock to flatten the top. Then they laid concrete sloping toward a spherical cistern in the middle of the island, to collect water. That’s still the water-storage system, and it’s why the innkeepers must hoard their freshwater.
Beneath the main house’s stick-and-frame wooden exterior, it’s a brick building, which makes it more stable, warmer and quieter in the wind.
The house was completed in 1873, but the lighthouse wasn’t illuminated until March 1874.
In the old days, keepers rowed three miles across the bay to buy provisions at San Quentin, then rowed back, occasionally while drunk. In his January 1883 journal, keeper Charles F. Winsor complained that his assistant Mr. Page “took the mail over to San Quentin, returned drunk.” And then a month later: “Mr. Page went for mail and stores, drunk, no mail.” Soon after, Mr. Page departed the island.

A puzzle sits out in the game room of the bed and breakfast at East Brother Light Station.

(Loren Elliott / For The Times)

Now the keepers live in the smaller structure next door to the main building. They typically serve a two-year contract, then move on.

After dinner — a four-course event that on my night included tomato bisque, strawberry almond salad, salmon with remoulade, potatoes Dauphinois, roasted asparagus and New York cheesecake — the Elmores told tell me how they’d arrived.

Until early in 2023, they were living in Fairport, N.Y., along the Erie Canal outside Rochester. Charity Elmore, 56, was a project manager in high-tech. Dre Elmore, 57, had spent decades in publishing, then built a second career of maritime jobs, earning a Coast Guard master captain’s license for vessels up to 100 tons. He also liked cooking.

They were both ready for a big move, and and were chosen from more than 1,000 applicants for the East Brother gig. They started in March.

Charity: “You don’t find too many captains that are that good at cooking.”

Dre: “I’m the only 100-ton captain in the world that made three soups on Thursday.”

Charity: “Probably. There’s no data to back that up.”

Is it a dream job?

“It’s a lot of work,” Dre said, “but it’s definitely worth it to live out here.”

“It’s like a living museum,” Charity said.

Innkeeper Dre Elmore prepares to demonstrate the vintage foghorn at the East Brother Light Station B&B.

(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

What you see and hear overnight

That night it rained and the light station’s modern foghorn sounded every 30 seconds, as it routinely does from October to April. But it’s a mellow sound, like the call of an owl from across the street. Though the inn supplies ear plugs, I was never tempted to reach for them.

As for stray lighthouse beams, I saw none. After all, that rotating beacon up above is designed to scatter light far and wide, not straight down. I slept deeply.

In the morning, guests get a hearty breakfast. Before the 11 a.m. boat ride back to the mainland, Dre Elmore likes to show off the retired Fresnel lens and the array of still-working machinery in the fog signal building.

The machinery is fascinating. But the payoff for me came when he demonstrated the station’s rare 1934 diaphone fog signal, which sounds off with two descending blasts, basso profundo. When those bass notes sound, it won’t matter whether you’re in pirate mode, L.L. Bean mode or lighthouse geek mood. All your molecules will vibrate. In a good way.

Lifestyle

For filmmaker Chloé Zhao, creative life was never linear

Published

1 hour ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

For filmmaker Chloé Zhao, creative life was never linear

In 2021, Zhao made history as the first woman of color to win the best director Oscar for her film Nomadland. Her Oscar-nominated drama Hamnet has made $70 million worldwide.

Bethany Mollenkof for NPR

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Bethany Mollenkof for NPR

It took a very special kind of spirit to make Hamnet, which is nominated for best picture at this year’s Academy Awards. Chloé Zhao brought her uniquely sensitive, mind-body approach to directing the fictionalized story about how William Shakespeare was inspired to write his masterpiece Hamlet.

Zhao adapted the screenplay from a novel by Maggie O’Farrell, and for directing the film, she’s now nominated for an Oscar. She could make history by becoming the first woman to win the best director award more than once.

Zhao says she believes in ceremonies and rituals, in setting an intention, a mood, a vibration for any event. Before Hamnet premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, she led the audience in a guided meditation and a breathing exercise.

Jessie Buckley stars as Agnes in Hamnet.

Zhao also likes to loosen up, like she did at a screening of Hamnet in Los Angeles last month, when she got the audience to get up and dance with her to a Rihanna song.

She, her cast and crew had regular dance parties during the production of Hamnet. So for our NPR photo shoot and interview at a Beverly Hills hotel, I invited her to share some music from her playlist. She chose a track she described as “drones and tones.”

Our photographer captured her in her filmy white gown, peeking contemplatively from behind the filmy white curtains of a balcony at the Waldorf Astoria.

Director Chloé Zhao at the Waldorf-Astoria in Beverly Hills.

Zhao says she believes in ceremonies and rituals, and makes them a part of her filmmaking process.

Bethany Mollenkof for NPR

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Bethany Mollenkof for NPR

Then Zhao and I sat down to talk.

“I had a dream that we were doing this interview,” I told her. “And it started with a photo shoot, and there was a glass globe –”

“No way!” she gasped.

It so happens that on the desk next to us, was a small glass globe — perhaps a paperweight.

I told her that in my dream, she was looking through the globe at some projected images. “We were having fun and it was like we didn’t want it to stop,” I said.

“Oh, well, me and the globe and the lights on the wall: they’re all part of you,” Zhao said. “They’re your inner crystal ball, your inner Chloé.”

“Inner Chloé?” I asked. “What is the inner Chloé like?”

“I don’t know, you tell me,” she said. “Humbly, from my lineage and what I studied is that everything in a dream is a part of our own psyche.”

Dreams and symbols are very much a part of Zhao’s approach to filmmaking, which she describes as a magical and communal experience. She said it’s all part of her directing style.

Chloé Zhao used painting and dance to connect with actors on the set of her latest film Hamnet.

Bethany Mollenkof for NPR

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Bethany Mollenkof for NPR

“If you’re captain of any ship, you are not just giving instructions; people are also looking to you energetically as well,” she explained. “Whether it’s calmness, it’s groundedness, it’s feeling safe: then everyone else is going to tune to you.” Zhao says it has taken many years to get to this awareness. Her own journey began 43 years ago in Beijing, where she was born. She moved to the U.S. as a teen, and studied film at New York University where Spike Lee was one of her teachers. She continued honing her craft at the Sundance Institute labs — along with her friend Ryan Coogler and other indie filmmakers.

Over the years, Zhao’s film catalogue has been eclectic — from her indie debut Songs My Brothers Taught Me, set on a Lakota Sioux reservation, to the big-budget Marvel superhero movie Eternals. She got her first best director Oscar in 2021 for the best picture winner Nomadland. Next up is a reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

“A creative life,” she notes, “is not a linear experience for me.”

The Real 'Hamnet' Died Centuries Ago, But This Novel Is Timeless

Zhao still lingers over the making of Hamnet, a very emotional story about the death of a child. During the production, Zhao says she used somatic and tantric exercises and rituals to open and close shooting days.

She also invited her lead actors Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley to help her set the mood on set. They danced, they painted, they meditated together.

“She created an atmosphere where everybody who chose to step in to tell this story was there for a reason that was deeply within them,” actress Jessie Buckley told me.

Jessie Buckley has been nominated for an Academy Award for best actress for her portrayal of William Shakespeare's wife in Hamnet.

Buckley is a leading contender for this year’s best actress Oscar. She said that to prepare for her very intense role as William Shakespeare’s wife, Zhao asked her to write down her dreams “as a kind of access point, to gently stir the waters of where I was feeling.”

Buckley sent Zhao her writings, and also music she felt was “a tone and texture of that essence.”

That kind of became the ritual of how they worked together, Buckley said. “And not just the cast were moving together, but the crew were and the camera was really creating dynamics and a collective unconscious.”

Filmmaker and Hamnet producer Steven Spielberg calls Zhao’s empathy her superpower.

Bethany Mollenkof for NPR

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Bethany Mollenkof for NPR

That was incredibly useful for creating Hamnet — a story about communal grief. Steven Spielberg, who co-produced the film, called Zhao’s empathy her superpower.

“In every glance, in every pause and every touch, in every tear, in every single moment of this film, every choice that Chloé made is evidence of her fearlessness,” Spielberg said when awarding Zhao a Directors Guild of America award. “In Hamnet, Chloé also shows us that there can be life after grief.”

Zhao says it took five years and a midlife crisis for her to develop the emotional tools she used to make Hamnet.

“I hope it could give people a two-hour little ceremony,” she told me. “And in the end, I hope that a point of contact can be made. That means that there’s a heart opening. But it will be painful, right? Because when your heart opens, you feel all the things you usually don’t feel. And then a catharsis can emerge.”

As our interview time came to a close, I told Zhao I have my own little ritual at the end of every interview; I record a few minutes of room tone, the ambient sound of the space we’re in. It’s for production purposes, to smooth out the audio.

In 'Nomadland,' Discover The Joy And Sorrow Of The Road Less Traveled

Zhao knew just what I meant. She told me a story about her late friend Michael “Wolf” Snyder who was her sound recordist for Nomadland. “He said to me, ‘I don’t always need it, but just so you know, I am going to watch you. And when I tell that you are a little frazzled, I’m going to ask for a room tone … just to give you space.’” she recalled. “‘And if you feel like you need the silence space, you just look at me, nod. I’ll come ask for a room tone.’”

I closed our interview ceremony with that moment of silence, a moment of peace, for director Chloé Zhao.

Lifestyle

This spring, have a tea ceremony inside of an art installation and shop the latest Givenchy

Published

2 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

This spring, have a tea ceremony inside of an art installation and shop the latest Givenchy

Givenchy by Sarah Burton introduces the Snatch

Givenchy’s “The Snatch” handbag.

(Marc Piasecki / Getty Images)

Echoing the designer’s ready-to-wear sculptural designs, the Snatch from Givenchy by Sarah Burton is sensually shaped by the contours of the person who carries it. Its supple leather, fluid silhouette and three sizes allow it to slip effortlessly and intimately into the hand, over the shoulder or across the body. Now available. givenchy.com

Guess Jeans opens new L.A. store

In a move familiar to many millennials these days, Guess Jeans has returned home in its 45th year. The new flagship store in West Hollywood is both a return to its California roots and an envisioning of its future still ahead. While the brand may be an established icon, the store boldly reimagines the retail space as a living laboratory for design, craftsmanship and collaboration, with dedicated workshop and customization spaces. 8700 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. guess.com

Louis Vuitton’s new Color Blossom collection

Taylor Swift’s sky may be opalite, but the starry blue hues in the new jewels of Louis Vuitton’s Color Blossom collection belong to sodalite. Rarely used in jewelry, the dark navy of sodalite adds an unexpected layer of depth to Color Blossom’s existing luminous gemstone lineup. Sun and star motifs rendered in gold enhance the gem’s night sky coloring, while the classic flower designs celebrate the 130th anniversary of the Louis Vuitton Monogram. Sodalite pieces available March 6, entire collection available April 4. louisvuitton.com

Loro Piana debuts Library of Knits

L.A.’s (many) winter showers bring spring wildflowers, and a bouquet of Loro Piana’s new Library of Knits fits right into the vibrant spectacle. The exquisitely soft cashmere pieces in classic styles now come in over 20 shades inspired by Sergio Loro Piana’s personal wardrobe. With a spectrum ranging from blues and greens to corals and creams, it’s hard to choose just one for a frolic in the fields. Now available. loropiana.com

Margesherwood X Peanuts

Love is famously in the air this time of year, apparently even for cartoon characters. This enduring love is illustrated (literally) in the Margesherwood X Peanuts collaboration. Inspired by the heart-fluttering love letters Sally writes to Linus, the designs feature instantly recognizable motifs that marry the Peanuts’ charm with Margesherwood’s refined silhouettes. The zig-zag of that famous yellow shirt winkingly graces a crescent baguette, while the black stripes of Linus’s red red shirt wrap around a slouchy shoulder bag. For the true heads and lovers, there’s even a petite hobo emblazoned with Sally’s pet name for Linus: “FOR MY SWEET BABBOO.” Now available. margesherwood.com

Ryan Preciado at Hollyhock House

Ryan Preciado's site-responsive "Diary of a Fly" at Hollyhock House features Oaxacan-woven textiles.

Ryan Preciado’s new site-responsive installation at Hollyhock House, “Diary of a Fly,” is titled after a late-1930s musical composition by Béla Bartók that imitates the frenzied pace of a fly — a fitting name since his show reconceptualizes the experience of the springtime pest flitting around a house. Instead of hovering around overripe fruit or stalking a trash can long neglected, however, viewers are invited to take in Preciado’s Oaxacan-woven textiles and brightly colored sculptures situated throughout the city’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site. Open through April 25. 4800 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles. hollyhockhouse.org

Veronica Fernandez at Anat Ebgi

Veronica Fernanadez's "Prey" filters childhood memories through experience and emotion.

In the figurative paintings of Veronica Fernandez’s first solo exhibition, “Prey,” the artist’s childhood is recalled through dreamlike and fantastical scenes, with memories filtered through experience and emotion. Many of her works place a child at the center of the scene among family, friends and caretakers, who usually appear shadow-like at the edges of the paintings. As a kid, Fernandez endured periods of homelessness. But rather than depict a childhood of adversity, her paintings empower the kids within them to claim their own space, imbuing her memories with strength and light. Open through April 4. 6150 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. anatebgi.com

Dior launches J’Adore Intense

Florals for spring can be groundbreaking, especially when they’re created with none other than Rihanna as their muse. Dior’s J’Adore Intense captures the scent of solar flowers — jasmine, ylang-ylang, rose, violet — right before they burst into fruit. The result is a warm, bold, addictive fragrance that drips with sensuality and femininity, down to the curves of its signature gold and glass figure-eight amphora. In other words, it’s Rihanna in a bottle. Available now. dior.com

Rocky’s Matcha X Oscar Tuazon at Morán Morán

Rocky's Matcha hosts Japanese tea ceremonies in an ensō-inspired tea house from Oscar Tuazon at Morán Morán.

The single, uninhibited brushstroke of the ensō, the circular form in Zen art, serves as a record of a moment. Commissioned by Rocky’s Matcha, Oscar Tuazon’s “Circle House” at Morán Morán shares both the ensō’s form and its call to mindfulness. In the artist’s tea house, constructed from cardboard, wood and tatami mats, architecture is inseparable from ritual: visitors will soon be able to partake in a Japanese tea ceremony inside the installation, thereby participating in a choreography of attention not unlike the act of gliding an ink brush across a sheet of washi. Open through December 31. 641 N. Western Ave. Los Angeles. Subscribe to rocky’s newsletter for tea ceremony information. rockysmatcha.com and moranmorangallery.com

Celebrate Mr. Wash’s new book, “Artists in Space”

Celebrate the launch of Mr. Wash's new book of studio visits and interviews with other L.A. artists.

Make your first BBQ of the season a meaningful one at the Art By Wash Studio & Community Center, where Compton artist and criminal justice advocate, Mr. Wash, will celebrate the release of his book “Artists in Space.” Proceeds from the book, which features interviews and studio visits with 20 Angeleno residents, go toward establishing the new community center where individuals returning home from incarceration will have access to art classes, creative residencies and housing. Mr. Wash will be in conversation with Patrisse Culllors and Evan Pricco (co-publisher and founder of the Unibrow) as well as displaying new works. The event is on March 7 from 2-6 p.m. 15 W. Rosecrans Ave., Compton. artbywash.com

Lifestyle

‘Hamnet’ star Jessie Buckley looks for the ‘shadowy bits’ of her characters

Published

13 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

‘Hamnet’ star Jessie Buckley looks for the ‘shadowy bits’ of her characters

Jessie Buckley has been nominated for an Academy Award for best actress for her portrayal of William Shakespeare’s wife in Hamnet.

Kate Green/Getty Images

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Kate Green/Getty Images

Actor Jessie Buckley says she’s always been drawn to the “shadowy bits” of her characters — aspects that are disobedient, or “too much.” Perhaps that’s what led her to play Agnes, the wife of William Shakespeare, in Hamnet.

Buckley says the film, which is based on Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel, offered a chance to counter a common narrative about the playwright’s wife: that she “had kept him back from his genius,” Buckley says.

But, she adds, “What Maggie O’Farrell so brilliantly did, not just with Agnes and Shakespeare’s wife, but also with Hamnet, their son, was to bring these people … and give them status beside this great man. … [And] give the full landscape of what it is to be a woman.”

The film is nominated for eight Academy Awards, including best actress for Buckley. In it, she plays a woman deeply connected to nature, who faces conflicts in her marriage, as well as the death of their son Hamnet.

Buckley found out she was pregnant a week after the film wrapped. She’s since given birth to her first child, a daughter.

Lewis Pullman and Danielle Brooks announced the 2026 Oscar nominees early Thursday morning in Beverly Hills, Calif. The 98th Academy Awards ceremony will be held on March 15.

“The thing that this story offered me, that brought me into this next chapter of my life as a mother was tenderness,” she says. “A mother’s tenderness is ferocious. To love, to birth is no joke. To be born is no joke. And the minute something’s born into the world, you’re always in the precipice of life and death. That’s our path. … I wanted to be a mother so much that that overrode the thought of being afraid of it.”

Jessie Buckley stars as Agnes and Joe Alwyn plays her brother Bartholomew in Hamnet.

Courtesy of Focus Features/Courtesy of Focus Features

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Courtesy of Focus Features/Courtesy of Focus Features

Interview highlights

On filming the scene where she howls in grief when her son dies

I didn’t know that that was going to happen or come out, it wasn’t in the script. I think really [director] Chloé [Zhao] asked all of us to dare to be as present as possible. Of course, leading up to it, you’re aware this scene is coming, but that scene doesn’t stand on its own. By the time I’d met that scene, I had developed such a deep bond with Jacobi Jupe, who plays Hamnet, and [co-stars] Paul [Mescal] and Emily Watson, and all the children and we really were a family. And Jacobi Jupe who plays Hamnet is such an incredible little actor and an incredible soul, and we really were a team. …

The death of a child is unfathomable. I don’t know where it begins and ends. Out of utter respect, I tried to touch an imaginary truth of it in our story as best I could, but there’s no way to define that kind of grief. I’m sure it’s different for so many people. And in that moment, all I had was my imagination but also this relationship that was right in front of me with this little boy and that’s what came out of that.

On what inspired her to pursue singing growing up

I grew up around a lot of music. My mom is a harpist and a singer and my dad has always been passionate about music, so it was always something in our house and always something that was encouraged. … Early on, I have very strong memories of seeing and hearing my mom sing in church and this quite intense mercurial conversation that would happen between her, the story and the people that would listen to her. And at the end of it, something had been cracked between them and these strangers would come up with tears in their eyes. And I guess I saw the power of storytelling through my mom’s singing at a very young age, and that was definitely something that made me think I want to do that.

On her first big break performing as a teen on the BBC singing competition I’d Do Anything — and being criticized by judges about her physical appearance

I was raw. I hadn’t trained. I had a lot to learn and to grow in. I was only 17. I think there was part of their criticism which I think was destructive and unfair when it became about my awkwardness, or they would say I was masculine and send me to kind of a femininity school. … They sent me to [the musical production of] Chicago to put heels on and a leotard and learn how to walk in high heels, which was pretty humiliating, to be honest, and I’m sad about that because I think I was discovering myself as a young woman in the world and wasn’t fully formed. … I was different. I was wild, I had a lot of feeling inside me. I could hardly keep my hands beside myself and I think to kind of criticize a body of a young woman at that time and to make her feel conscious of that was lazy and, I think, boring.

On filming parts of the 2026 film The Bride! while pregnant

I really loved working when I was pregnant. I thought it was a pretty wild experience, especially because I was playing Mary Shelley and I was talking about [this] monstrosity, and here I was with two heartbeats inside me. Becoming a mom and being pregnant did something, I think, for me. My experience of it, it’s so real that it really focuses [me to be] allergic to fake or to disconnection.

Since my daughter has come and I know what that connection is and the real feeling of being in a relationship with somebody … as an actress, it’s very exciting to recognize that in yourself and really take ownership of yourself.

I’m excited to go back and work on this other side of becoming a mother in so many ways, because I’ve shed 10 layers of skin by loving more and experiencing life in such a new way with my daughter. I’m also scared to work again because it’s hard to be a mother and to work. That’s like a constant tug because I love what I do and I’m passionate and I want to continue to grow and learn and fill those spaces that are yet to be filled — and also be a mother. And I think every mother can recognize that tug.

On the possibility of bringing her daughter to travel with her as she works

I haven’t filmed for nearly a year and I cannot wait. I’m hungry to create again. And my daughter will come with me. She’s seven months, so at the moment she can travel with us and it’s a beautiful life. And she meets all these amazing people and I have a feeling that she loves life and that’s a great thing to see in a child. And I hope that’s something that I’ve imparted to her in the short time that she’s been on this earth is that life is beautiful and great and complex and alive and there’s no part of you that needs to be less in your life. You might have to work it out, but it’s worth it.

Lauren Krenzel and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.