Chloé Zhao on “Hamnet,” Her Film About William Shakespeare’s Grief

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. Chloe Xiao was only the second woman to win the Oscar for Best Director. And that was for her 2020 film Nomad Land, which starred Francis McDormant as an itinerant worker.

Chloe Zhao is 43 and she's had a varied career ranging from low-budget contemporary westerns to making a Marvel film called Eternals, which was a supernatural epic with a colossal budget. Now Zhao has taken another distinct turn. To Hamnet, a story about the creative life and the family life of William Shakespeare. Based on a novel by Maggie O'Farrell, Zhao's film is about Shakespeare as a young man grieving the loss of his only son. It stars Paul Mescal and Jesse Buckley.

Chloe Zhao spoke with our staff writer Michael Shulman, who covers film and entertainment for The New Yorker. So how did this book and how did this project make its way to you? I was driving through New Mexico to Taylor Wright Film Festival and then that's when Amberlyn called me and told me about this project. Amblin meaning Amberlyn Spielberg's Spielberg's production company. And when they they said it over the phone, you know, the reception.

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