by Gill Pringle at San Sebastian International Film Festival
“It’s a huge honour, and so it’s really surprising and touching,” says the Oscar-winning actress who took to the Kursaal stage in a long flowing golden gown.
Born in Kentucky, Lawrence began acting in her teens, quickly drawing attention with early television work before landing her Oscar-nominated breakout role in Winter’s Bone (2010).
One of Hollywood’s most recognisable and versatile actresses, she has managed to blend critical acclaim with blockbuster success, becoming a global star with her portrayal of Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games franchise.
Lawrence also proved her dramatic range with a trifecta of performances in David O. Russell movies Silver Linings Playbook (for which she won the Best Actress Oscar), American Hustle and Joy.
Her latest role in Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love, is quite a departure from her previous work, portraying a new mum struggling with postpartum depression.
Starring opposite Robert Pattinson as Grace and Jackson, the couple move from New York to an inherited house in the country.
Here, Grace tries to find her identity with a new baby in the isolated environment – slowly unravelling while her husband is gone for days.
Also featuring Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek and LaKeith Stanfield, Ariana Harwicz’s book – on which the film is based – came to Lawrence via an unlikely source.
“I got a call from Martin Scorsese. He had read this book in his book club and said: ‘I think this is a role that you should play’. And I was just like, hello!” she recalls, adding. “I’d like to know who the other members of his club are.”
Wasting no time, she took the book to Justine Ciarrocchi, her producing partner at Excellent Cadaver.
“And then Justine and I both immediately thought of Lynne Ramsay [You Were Never Really Here, We Need to Talk About Kevin]. We’ve both been fans of her work for so long, but I don’t think that anything has ever landed in my lap that I just thought, this is her realm. This is her world. And I was so elated that she agreed to do it, and she was beyond perfect and incredible at bringing this story to life,” says Lawrence.
Not only that, but the mum-of-two was drawn by the themes of postpartum depression.
“There was a lot that I identified with in terms of the kind of identity crisis that you have when you first become a mother. It changes everything. It changes who you are, and changes your everyday,” says the actress who married art dealer Cooke Maroney in 2019, the couple welcomed their first son, Cy, in 2022 with a second son born earlier this year.
“I was fortunate to have a really great postpartum with my first, which was when I actually read Ariana’s book. I had just given birth to my first son, and I think that because I was not in such a low place, I was able to look at it more directly and deeply, and could actually go there.
“But after giving birth to my second, I did experience really hard postpartum. So, it’s really bizarre watching the movie now and seeing everything in retrospect, after feeling like I’ve been through that forest. I think she really nailed it,” she says referring to Ramsay’s direction, which plays almost like a horror film in parts.
Likewise, as a mum, she has a greater understanding of the work involved in raising children. “I think that now mothers are being seen as humans – humans, who are enduring a great deal of work daily. This is somebody who’s taking care of a household and raising a child and dealing with the pressure, and the energy that takes and how hard it is.”
Filming Die My Love outside Calgary in Canada two years ago, she recalls, “The process with Lynne was fantastic. She’s such a brilliant artist. I’ve been a huge fan for so long.
“It was a lot of discussion about the head space. Neither of us are very technical people or artists, so it was very conversational and emotionally led.”
Lawrence’s Grace feels rejected by her husband after having their baby – her nights spent breast feeding rather than having the hot sex of their early days when falling in love.
“It’s certainly a general experience – wanting to be exciting to your husband, wanting to feel that connection and wanting to feel the dopamine hit of sex,” she says.
“And also, how your body and your mind and your relationship changes after you have a baby. But I don’t think that you have to have had a baby or gone through postpartum to understand or be a part of this film and everything we’re speaking towards,” she argues.
Away from the spotlight, Lawrence is known for her candid, down-to-earth personality, making her a fan favourite during interviews and public appearances.
Yet, despite her fame, she has often expressed discomfort with the invasive nature of celebrity culture, particularly after experiencing a highly publicised hacking incident in 2014.
With her own production company, she hopes to get more female-driven stories told. “Women deserve the platform and the spotlight. I mean, look at Greta Gerwig, she’s one of my favourite directors and Zoe Kravitz just directed an amazing movie. When we’re given the opportunities, the world benefits and artistic integrity benefits, and there’s more perspective in storytelling,” she says.
Founded in 2018, Lawrence’s Excellent Cadaver has already produced the drama Causeway and comedy No Hard Feelings.
And last year – alongside Chelsea and Hillary Clinton – she executive produced the documentary Zurawski v Texas about the eponymous court case surrounding reproductive rights in Texas.
Die My Love serves as another – albeit intensely unsettling – look at women’s issues.
It was such an audacious piece of writing,” says Lawrence’s Excellent Cadaver partner Ciarrocchi. I don’t think that Jen and I had encountered anything like that. Ariana really explored the crevices of the female psyche in a way that was pretty bold, and I think that was just undeniably appealing to Jen and I.
“We knew the book would require such an ambitious adaptation because it is so unorthodox in the way that it’s structured. It’s such a fever dream. It really needed a singular voice, which is why Lynne was the only person that could have possibly done it.”
Main image by Ulises Proust
