Even when you're doing what you enjoy, sometimes you need a little levity and love while doing it.
Late last year, Hamnet, directed by Chloe Zhao, appeared in theaters. The fictionalized retelling of William Shakespeare's life stars Paul Mescal as Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley as Shakespeare's wife, Agnes Hathaway.
The film follows not only the early years of the canonical Bard but also his life as a husband and father, including the death of his son, Hamnet, at the age of 11, after whom Shakespeare would later name Hamlet.
Hamnet is a period drama full of heavy moments, so it's easy to imagine there were intense moments on set.
While appearing on The Late Show, Buckley opened up about the cast's unique way of unwinding, which involved Rihanna.
“We’d have gone through a lot as a family in these weeks, lived a lot, loved a lot, lost a lot."
“But at the end of the week, [Zhao] would spend an hour setting up the camera to do a dance take, where she basically would blast Rihanna ‘We Found Love’ at the top of the sound system."
"Whether it was just the family or 300 extras dressed up in period costume, we’d all create our own little mosh pit to Rihanna.”
What's more, the cast recorded their dance takes each week. Sadly, however, the team can't release most of the footage because the rights to Rihanna's "We Found Love" are prohibitively expensive.
Buckley couldn't help but laugh at the thought of the repercussions of even talking about their use of the song.
"It's so embarrassing, because I've actually talked about this quite a lot now."
"Rihanna must be like, 'Can you please just stop asking me?' But it's really expensive to get that song. So we can't show it."
Stephen Colbert looked seriously at the camera and implored:
"Rihanna, come on."
"Do a solid here."
You can watch the segment on The Late Show here:
- YouTubeyoutu.be
Viewers became emotional over the sense of community and joy found in the Hamnet mosh pit.
Hamnet was an incredible reinvention of Shakespeare's life, and it surely took an emotional toll on the cast and crew.
It's lovely to hear that the group had a way of coming together and releasing all of the heavy emotions they might have been carrying, so they could focus on the light of love and joy when stepping off the set.
