Jessie Buckley On How Acting Has Helped Her Mental Health

Jessie Buckley has opened up about how her love for acting helped her deal with her mental health struggles.

The Killarney woman is en route to picking up her first Oscar over the weekend for her role in Hamnet.

She recently shared why acting is “essential” to her wellbeing.

Explaining how acting is like water to her, Jessie shared how her passion for the craft helped her overcome her mental health struggles whilst she was a teenager.

“I didn’t know how to be alive the way I wanted to be, and it was difficult. But I do not for a second regret it, and I think I’ve been able to transform it and recognise our vulnerabilities as humans in the world,” she shared.

“You can’t walk through life not being affected, but you can transform that into something that allows you to be more human and alive in the way that you want to be.”

Jessie went on to tell BBC radio presenter Lauren Laverne that she has been going to therapy since she was 17.

The Kerry woman now lives in Norfolk with her husband Freddie after relocating to the UK at just 17.

She shared that at the time she moved to London after school she “still wasn’t out of the woods” with her mental health.

“There were moments where I was like, ‘if I don’t get better here, this music, this being part of theatre – I’m not going to be able to do this anymore, and I probably won’t survive’,” she admitted.

“And that was the thing that turned it in my head. I was like, ‘I don’t want to sacrifice that, this is bigger than that’, and won.”

Her rise to fame started with her appearance on the talent show I’d Do Anything in 2008, where she finished as the runner-up to the winner Jodie Prenger to play the role of Nancy on the West End.

Reflecting on that time, she told British Vogue that she faced a lot of negative comments about her appearance.

“I think that was a young woman who’s trying to discover her body and herself, like we all do. And I wish that hadn’t happened.

“I was putting a brave face on, because really what I wanted to do was sing and I wanted to act, and I wanted to be part of this industry, and all of a sudden you had to be a certain kind of person.

“And I just wasn’t, I never will be. That’s just not me.”

Words by Nia Hayden