Chloé Zhao on a pivotal scene in Hamnet

Chloé Zhao, director of Hamnet, describes the moment when Agnes, played by Jessie Buckley, comes to the Globe Theater to see her husband William Shakespeare, played by Paul Mescal, perform Hamlet — a play inspired by their son Hamnet, who had died. When she says “Look at me,” she recognizes that he has written the play to process and express his grief.

Maggie O’Farrell, the novel’s author and Zhao’s co-writer, shaped the screenplay so that the entire script moves toward this very moment. Costume designer Malgosia Turzanska and hair and makeup artist Nicole Stafford traced Will’s arc through color. He appears in blue at first and wears different shades of blue throughout, but as life drains the color from him he becomes colorless, gray and ashy, covered in ashy paint that he will remove at the end of the scene.

Stafford suggested painting Hamlet’s hair gold rather than using a wig, and Turzanska painted the linen of the characters’ costumes by hand.

chloé zhao, hamnet, jessie buckley, paul mescal, maggie o'farrell, globe theater, hamlet, costume design, malgosia turzanska, blue costumes