Chloé Zhao had no plans to read Hamnet , Maggie O’Farrell’s bestselling novel about Shakespeare , his wife Agnes and the tragic death of their son. Back then in fact, the director felt no particular affinity for Shakespeare, and one of Zhao’s favorite anecdotes from doing Hamnet press is when she and lead actress Jessie Buckley were asked about their prior experience with The Bard. Buckley told an “epic story” says Zhao, “about her first job at the Globe Theatre, Judi Dench and all of that. And then it was my turn. I had done a Lady Macbeth speech at LA High,” she laughs. “I absolutely loved it, but that was about it.”

So Hamnet might have passed Zhao by entirely. She had been offered it and had turned it down. But just as Shakespeare so often nods toward fate and destiny, it

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