Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence says becoming a mother is “the most important identity you’ll ever experience”.
The 35-year-old, who is best known for Silver Linings Playbook, Joy and American Hustle, has two young boys – one aged three, one aged seven months – with art gallery director Cooke Maroney.
She’s been able to bring her life experience to her latest role in black comedy Die My Love, about a young couple who move from New York to an inherited house in the country with their new baby.
Lawrence told Sky News: “First, you become a mother, which is an entirely different identity. The most important identity that you’ll ever experience. And there’s the death of your old life, but there’s also a new fear that has never existed before. It’s paralysing. And the love and the fear and everything that grows – it’s deeper.”
She goes on: “It’s odd because I always try to make a point of not talking about my kids, but I’ve made a movie about postpartum, so I can’t really not.
“I’ve tried to just talk about my experience becoming a mother and less about them specifically. But yeah, I can’t make a movie about postpartum and be like: ‘Well, I’m not going to talk about that.'”
Lawrence says because she “bared it all in the film, it doesn’t feel as violating”.
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Actor Robert Pattinson plays her husband Jackson in the movie, based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Ariana Harwicz, and led by Scottish director Lynne Ramsay.
Ramsay, who herself has one daughter, told Sky News: “For me it was about feeling like you don’t exist any more… And [Grace’s] loneliness and also her fearlessness and her heart unravelling. She’s not an apologetic character.”
A story centred on the female experience, Die My Love is a cinematic rarity, but Ramsay is practised at making use of the female gaze.
Her past works include Morvern Caller, starring Samantha Morton, We Need To Talk About Kevin led by Tilda Swinton, and Brigitte, a documentary about American photographer Brigitte Lacombe.
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Lawrence, who agrees cinema can be male-centric, says we need to explode some of the myths that have grown up around movies.
“The film industry can be more like the stock market than anything else. But there are also myths, like females can relate to a male lead, but men can’t relate to the female lead. And it’s not true.”
Die My Love, which also stars LaKeith Stanfield, Nick Nolte and Sissy Spacek, is out in UK and Irish cinemas now.
