Watching one of your children star in an Oscar-nominated film is an experience that very few people will get, so to see two of them take to the big screen together is almost unheard of. However, that’s become a reality for Coronation Street star Katy Cavanagh – whose sons Jacobi, 12, and Noah, 21, are in Hamnet.
The Chloé Zhao drama, based on Maggie O’Farrell’s book of the same name, is up for eight gongs at Sunday’s Academy Awards, having broken hearts with its portrayal of William Shakespeare and wife Agnes losing their son Hamnet.
Jacobi stars in the titular role, while his older brother – whose credits already include A Quiet Place and Ford v Ferrari – takes on the role of an actor playing Hamlet in the play’s first-ever production.
Having spent the last few months attending award ceremonies with her sons, Cavanagh couldn’t be prouder of what they’ve achieved. “It’s crazy,” she told The Independent. “It’s been going on since September – a lot of travelling, events, interviews – and Jacobi has been very lucky to have had his older brother there with him through it all.
“It’s very serendipitous the way it’s happened. I don’t know if I’ll ever see them in the same movie again. It’s quite a rare thing.”
While Cavanagh is an actor herself – and is best known for playing Julie Carp on Coronation Street – both she and filmmaker husband Chris Jupe weren’t keen on their kids following them into the industry.
“I wasn’t interested in my children becoming actors. I think it’s hard to be a child actor, particularly to make the transition into an adult actor,” she said. “It’s a precarious thing and children are very disposable in this industry, so it wasn’t something we were looking for at all in either case.
“I knew Noah absolutely loved it and it was clear that he was talented but it’s a brutal industry and for kids, the rejection is hard,” she said. “So we weren’t massively encouraging it.”
However, everything changed when Noah was cast in BBC drama The Night Manager – with Cavanagh receiving the call on her final day on the cobbles in 2015.
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“It was insane. Every audition he did, he got the job. He got The Night Manager and I’d taken a risk by leaving Corrie and then suddenly this came out of nowhere. I was on a plane to Majorca to film with Noah going, ‘Whoa.’”
Noah went on to appear in 2019’s Honey Boy, The Undoing and biographical drama Franklin, with Cavanagh planning to return to acting once he turned 18 – until Hamnet came along.
“We went, ‘Ok, here we go again!’” she said. “I was on set and saw what Jacobi and the cast did so I had an instinct that it was going to be something out of the ordinary but I was really blown away by him.”
It’s been a logistical juggle ever since for the Cavanagh-Jupe family, with Julie and Chris sorting travel and child care arrangements for their three kids – including daughter Jemima who “is not interested in the film industry at all”.
“We have to think about Jemima as well and where she was going to be and who was going to travel [with the boys]. It’s been a challenge,” she said.
Having visited the Coronation Street set while growing up, the Jupe boys were well versed on the logistics and etiquette of film and TV sets. However, their parents made a point to prepare them for rejection.
“The rejection is going to come and if you can’t handle it, it’s not the profession for you,” she said. “You’ve got to get a good head on your shoulders and be able to take it on the chin, pick yourself up and give it your all the next time. It’s the hardest part of being an actor.
“It’s good to be able to help them with that and be chill and grounded about it. They both have lovely school lives and friends – they’ve got to remember what’s important.”
Noah and Jacobi Jupe aren’t the only children of a soap actor to shoot to stardom; Bridgerton’s Phoebe Dynevor is the daughter of longtime Corrie star Sally Dynevor, while Waterloo Road star Denise Welch’s son Matty Healy is the lead singer of hit band The 1975.
“It’s quite a common thing for actors to have children that are good and that are going into the profession,” Cavanagh said, addressing the connection. “You’re surrounded by creativity because your parents are around it all the time so it’s demystified for you. It’s a normal thing because that’s what your parents do.
“If someone’s already forged a path, then you can get good advice as well as it being in your blood.”
While the Oscars on Sunday will mark the end of Hamnet’s awards season run, there’s still plenty of work ahead for the family. Jacobi is filming Mike Flanagan’s The Exorcist currently, while Noah is starring in Romeo and Juliet in the West End alongside Sadie Sink.
He’s fresh from filming in Malta for Psyche – a psychosexual thriller written by his mum and produced by his dad. “It’s been really intense but very exciting,” she said. “Hopefully by the end of May or June that will exist. That’s definitely our focus this year.
“Jacobi and Noah finish in June so I think we all just need to take a minute, regroup on a beach and sit still!”
