"Given the Oscar buzz around her performance in Chloé Zhao's Hamnet, it's probably the Irish actress dressed in red as William Shakespeare's wife, Agnes, roaring like a wounded animal over the death of her son. But to a certain millennial-and-over subset of the British public, there's a specific version of Buckley that's hard to forget: one with smoky eye shadow, her hair in tight curls, singing her heart out in a shiny dress."
"The BBC series I'd Do Anything arrived in the middle of the reality-TV boom of the 2000s, when everything from ice dancing to finding a 'British best friend' for Paris Hilton could be turned into a competition format. The show was the third installment in Webber's reality-TV empire, each airing in a prime-time Saturday-night slot on the BBC with Graham Norton hosting."
"Her voice was undeniable, even if the judges dinged her for how stilted her movement was. (She often sang with her arms limp at her sides.) Her awkwardness made sense, though. After all, Buckley was just 18."
Jessie Buckley is now recognized for her Oscar-nominated performance in Chloé Zhao's Hamnet, but British audiences remember her from 2008 when she competed on the BBC reality series I'd Do Anything. At just 18 years old, Buckley performed show tunes, jazz standards, and pop songs weekly for three months, competing for the lead role of Nancy in a West End revival of Oliver!. Though judges noted her stilted movement and tendency to sing with limp arms, her vocal talent was undeniable. The show was part of Andrew Lloyd Webber's reality-TV empire, which included competitions for The Sound of Music, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and The Wizard of Oz, allowing the public to vote on casting decisions and invest in the UK theater scene.
Read at Vulture
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