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This is fresh air. I'm Terry Gross. The film Hamnet is nominated for eight Oscars,

including Best Actress for my Guest Jesse Buckley.

Hamnet's other nominations include Best Picture, Best Director for Chloe Zhao, who's also nominated

for Best Adapted Screenplay, along with Maggie O'Farrell, the author of the novel Hamlet,

which the film is based on. Buckley plays William Shakespeare's

wife, Anyas Hathaway. Little is known about Shakespeare's real wife. The film is largely an imagined

version of her. What's true is that the couple's son, Hamnet, died at age 11 from the plague. In the film,

he catches it from his twin sister. Shakespeare has already left the

couple's home in the country to go to London and work on writing and staging his plays and has promised

to bring the rest of the family as soon as he settled and has a little more money. When Hamlet gets

sick and it's clear his life is in jeopardy, Anya calls for her husband to come home, but he doesn't make it in time.

Shakespeare and Hamnet don't get to say goodbye,

and Anas is left to experience the horror of her son's death without her husband.

In this scene, when Shakespeare does return,

she's angry that he came too late,

but she also feels guilty

that she didn't pay enough attention to Hamnet

while she was caring for their daughter

who survived the plague.

...