Musical mogul Andrew Lloyd Webber has congratulated ‘very special’ Jessie Buckley on her Oscar win, after she said she was ‘unfairly objectified’ and ‘brutalised’ whilst on his TV show
Jessie Buckley is “very special”, says Andrew Lloyd Webber, shortly after the Best Actress Oscar winner said she was “brutalised” on his reality competition TV show I’d Do Anything in 2008.
The actress won big at the Oscars on 15 March, as she took home the Best Actress award for her role as Agnes in Hamnet. Almost 20 years earlier, a 17-year-old Jessie made her TV debut in Andrew’s TV show, where she competed against other musical theatre actresses for the chance to be Nancy in a West End production of Oliver!.
Jessie later said she experienced “unfair objectification” on the show, but this did not stop musical theatre mogul Andrew from reaching out to congratulate her on her Oscar.
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In a video posted to instagram, Andrew said he was “thrilled” she had won the award. “I just wanted to say how absolutely thrilled I am that Jessie Buckley won Best Actress at the Oscar’s last night.
“I’ve known Jessie for years, ever since she was on the television programme I recorded I’d Do Anything, I’m so completely overwhelmed by the whole thing when I heard it that I went on YouTube and found the little clip of her doing The Man That Got Away all those years ago…”
He added that he had fought with the BBC over whether she should sing the song and credited himself with noticing her talent, saying: “I remember having a big row with the BBC about saying that I really wanted her to sing that song and I just remember that she took the roof off the building…
“That was the moment I think I knew anyway and I think that everybody else did that this was a very, very special girl and she was going to be a huge star so she hasn’t just won the Oscar, she won everything but if by any chance beautiful lovely Jessie ever gets to see this, well done darling.”
Jessie finished second on I’d Do Anything, behind Jodie Prenger, who now plays Glenda Shuttleworth on Coronation Street, and ahead of Samantha Barks, who has had an extensive theatre career and was Eponine in the film version of Les Miserables. The Hamnet actress recently told Vogue how she really felt about the show in hindsight.
“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…” she said.
I’d Do Anything was the third competition show helmed by Andrew. He’s previously done a show called How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? where they searched for the next Maria in The Sound of Music, and Any Dream Will Do, which saw Lee Mead beat out the competition to become the next Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. Andrew would go on to produce Over The Rainbow as well, where he searched for the next Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.
Andrew isn’t the only person affiliated with I’d Do Anything to reach out following Jessie’s win. Rachel Tucker, who came fourth on the show, said she “couldn’t be prouder” of the actress, who is the first Irish-born star to win the Best Actress award. Sharing a video from an Irish bar in Jessie’s hometown of County Kerry in which the locals cheered as the news came in, Rachel wrote over the top: “This [crying emoji]. I couldn’t be more proud of an old pal of mine!”
Likewise Katie Hall, who briefly appeared on the show and now plays Sally Bowles in Cabaret, a role Jessie originated four years ago, said: “Of course she won, there was no other option! Huge congratulations to our incredible original Sally.”
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