Jessie Buckley was just 17 when she took part in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s TV talent show I’d Do Anything, competing for the role of Nancy in a West End production of Oliver!
It was said that Andrew had favoured Jessie for the win, but the results came down to a public vote, with Jodie Prenger being the star to pip her to the post.
Last week, Jessie reflected on her time on the 2008 talent show, claiming she was ‘brutalised and experienced unfair objectification’.
Yet fortune has since favoured the actress, 36, who on Sunday night scooped a Golden Globe for her role in Hamnet.
The War & Peace star, who is now tipped to win an Oscar for her performance, has had an unstoppable rise to fame.
While despite winning the show, Jodie, 46, has had a different fate.
Jessie Buckley (R) was just 17 when she was denied a part in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s TV talent show I’d Do Anything after narrowly being pipped to the post by Jodie Prenger (L)
Despite missing out on the top spot, Jessie, now 36, has excelled in her career and could bring home an Oscar in March after winning a Golden Globe for her role in Hamnet
Jodie,46, who now plays George Shuttleworth’s sister Glenda in Coronation Street, had a different fate (pictured on the soap with Ryan Russell)
Coronation Street star Jodie, who plays George Shuttleworth’s sister Glenda, went on to have a successful theatre career.
She starred in West End’s Annie, One Man, Two Guvnors, Shirley Valentine and Kay Mellor’s Fat Friends, before joining the cobbles in 2022.
The actress also starred as Helen in the National Theatre Production of A Taste of Honey, a performance inspired by watching early episodes of Coronation Street.
When she joined the cobbles four years ago, Jodie said it fulfilled her ‘lifelong dream’ of bagging a starring role in the soap.
She said her character will fit right into Corrie’s tradition of ‘Northern powerhouse women’.
Jodie added: ‘Oh, she’s a whirlwind. She’s bold, she’s funny and as for her choice in clothes, they’ll be on the Paris catwalks next year. I see a lot of my nan in Glenda. My nan could play the part better than me, to be honest.’
The soap star has also been open about her weight over the years, having fluctuated from a size 12 to a size 26.
She previously vowed to ‘never diet again’ after coming to the realisation that ‘life is too short to worry about it’.
Jodie (pictured left) was left speechless after hearing she won the talent show, while Jessie (pictured right) was left devastated and in floods of tears
Jodie, who was 28-years-old at the time, scooped the role of Nancy in a West End production of Oliver! (pictured with Andrew Lloyd Webber on his show)
Last week, Jessie claimed she was ‘brutalised and experienced unfair objectification’ during her stint in the talent show
Jodie said: ‘My weight has been up and down like a bride’s nightie. Sometimes I’m alright with it and other times I’m not.
‘But I always think, “God, I wish I was as big as I was the first time I thought I was big”, you know?’
Jodie, who is from Blackpool and currently lives in Lancashire, won Sky Living’s weight loss show The Biggest Loser in 2006 and bagged a £25,000 prize for her transformation.
In six months she lost 8.5st, going from 18st 2lb to 9st 9lbs and from a size 26 to 12. She even released a weight loss DVD off the back of her success.
But she admitted she found the lifestyle impossible to keep up once the show had finished and her weight has fluctuated ever since.
She added: ‘What that show did was teach me a lot about exercise and I enjoyed the process because we did it as a group. But it wasn’t realistic because they put you in a house and you did nothing else but that, so when real life comes in again, it’s not sustainable.’
In 2009 she was a guest on The Paul O’Grady Show and she spoke openly about her time on The Biggest Loser.
Looking at a photo of herself after the weight loss, she said she believed she lost too much weight and became too thin. She added: ‘All women should have curves.’
Soap star Jodie went on to have a hugely successful theatre career, starring in West End’s Annie, One Man, Two Guvnors, Shirley Valentine and Kay Mellor’s Fat Friends
When she joined the cobbles four years ago, Jodie said it fulfilled her ‘lifelong dream’ of bagging a starring role in the soap (pictured with Tony Maudsley)
Meanwhile Jessie has had a stratospheric rise since competing on I’d Do Anything.
She doesn’t look back on the experience fondly, stating she experienced ‘unfair objectification’.
Jessie told Vogue magazine: ‘I was 17. I was in a moment of discovery. As women, it’s such unfair objectification … Back then, I was just trying to move into a space of myself.
‘I really hope that a 15, 17, whatever-age woman never has to be brutalised quite like what happened on that show. But I didn’t recognise it fully at the time. I just felt it, which was difficult.’
‘It’s bonkers, in hindsight. I was just like: “Oh my God. I get to peek behind this curtain already. I get to sing. I get to be part of this industry that I really was hoping I could be part of.”
‘And I look back at it and I feel like: “God, you’re so brave.” I don’t know if I’d have that courage now. And I don’t know if that was kind of innocence or ignorance.’
However, her mental health was suffering behind-the-scenes. She added: ‘[I] was not well fully. I was depressed and I – just wasn’t well. There was a lot that was really messed up.’
Jessie went on to reveal she particularly suffered from ‘a lot of body shaming’ adding: ‘And bringing me to femininity school. And I was growing into my body.’
After coming second in the competition, she was offered the chance to be Jodie’s understudy in Oliver! but Jessie turned the job down by walking into the office of famed theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh.
Jessie starred in BBC productions such as War & Peace and Taboo, however it was her role as an aspiring country music singer in 2018’s Wild Rose (pictured) that was her breakthrough
Jessie pictured after she won a Critics Choice award for her life-changing Hamnet role and has now been tipped for Oscars glory
She explained: ‘I walked to his office, rang the bell and said: “Is Cameron Mackintosh here? Thank you, but I won’t be taking that job.”‘
Instead, Jessie went on to book plenty of theatre work and later moved into TV and movies making her film debut in 2017 thriller Beast.
The RADA graduate starred in BBC productions such as War & Peace (2016) and Taboo (2017), however it was her role as an aspiring country music singer in 2018’s Wild Rose that was her breakthrough.
She was nominated for a BAFTA as a result – missing out to Judy Garland star Renée Zellweger – yet managed to scoop a British Academy Scotland Award for her role.
Jessie went on to land parts in HBO miniseries Chernobyl and FX’s Fargo and in 2019, she was recognised by Forbes in its annual 30 Under 30 list.
Yet it was her role in 2021’s The Lost Daughter that truly landed her global recognition, with Jessie nominated for her second BAFTA as well as her first Academy Award – although she was pipped to the post in both ceremonies by West Side Story star Ariana DeBose.
She played the younger part of Olivia Colman’s character in the drama, embodying Leda, a woman wrought by the guilt of abandoning her young daughters in pursuit of a career in academia.
Jessie revealed the part had made her reflect on her childhood – having been raised in County Kerry, Ireland, as the eldest of five children.
Jessie plays William Shakespeare’s wife Agnes Hathaway in the historical drama, with the film charting how the couple dealt with the death of their beloved son Hamnet
She was immersed in music and creativity from a young age, with her father Tim a musician and her mother Marina a vocal coach.
Jessie saw her mother for the first time in two years at the London Film Festival premiere for The Lost Daughter – the only member of her family to have travelled over from Ireland.
Discussing the reunion, she told GQ: ‘It was really emotional. I mean, so much has happened in two years. It was so amazing to share this film with her.’
Reflecting on their relationship, she added: ‘My mum worked all her life. She’d literally give birth, and then two days later be playing at a wedding for somebody, you know, she’s always done that.
‘And it’s hard balancing being a mother, being a wife, and being your own person. What I came away from this [The Lost Daughter] was, Who are we to judge what being a good mother is?’
After another critically acclaimed role – earning a Critics Choice nomination for Women Talking, and reuniting with Olivia Colman in Wicked Little Letters – she leant into the theme of motherhood once again with Hamnet.
Jessie plays William Shakespeare’s wife Agnes Hathaway in the historical drama, with the film charting how the couple dealt with the death of their beloved son Hamnet – a loss that inspired one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays – Hamlet.
She has received widespread acclaim for the part, and while the Oscar nominees are yet to be announced, it is believed she is a hot contender.
So far, she has dominated awards season, scooping Best Actress at the Critics Choice Awards and again at the Golden Globes.
