Jennifer Lawrence Says Motherhood Shaped Her Role in Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love

Last night’s big Cannes premiere was Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love, starring Jennifer Lawrence as a woman on the verge — and then in the throes — of a nervous breakdown. A new mother isolated in the Montana woods with only her clueless, emotionally detached husband (Robert Pattinson) and grieving mother-in-law (Sissy Spacek) for company, Lawrence’s Grace goes from gallivanting through the fields and having gleeful, animalistic sex on the kitchen floor (a scene Lawrence said Ramsay asked them to shoot on their very first day of filming) to hurling herself through a glass door. It’s a meaty, thrilling performance, one of Lawrence’s best, and at a press conference for the film, she spoke honestly about how her own experience with motherhood — she recently had her second child, and was pregnant during filming — informed the role.

“Considering that ego is a big part of an actor’s career, and you’ve been in the spotlight for a long time, how did the birth of the children change your perspective on your career and about what is really important in life?” a reporter asked of the cast. Pattinson looked at Lawrence wide-eyed, as if imploring her to answer first. “Okay, fine,” she said, to laughter among her castmates and Ramsay.

“Having children changes everything. It changes your whole life. It’s brutal and incredible. Not only do they go into every decision of, if I’m working, where I’m working, when I’m working…they’ve taught me… I didn’t know that I could feel so much,” said Lawrence. “My job has a lot to do with emotion, and they’ve opened up the world to me. It’s almost like feeling like a blister or something. So sensitive. So they’ve changed my life, obviously, for the best, and they’ve changed me creatively.” She paused, then joked, “I highly recommend having kids if you want to be an actor.”

“As a mother, it was really hard to separate what I would do as opposed to what [my character] would do,” she said. “And it was just heartbreaking…I had just had my firstborn, and there’s not really anything like postpartum. It’s extremely isolating. She doesn’t have a community. She doesn’t have her people. But the truth is, extreme anxiety and extreme depression is isolating, no matter where you are. You feel like an alien.” For his part, Pattinson, who recently had his first child with Suki Waterhouse, said, “I think in the most unexpected way, having a baby gives you the biggest trove of energy and inspiration afterwards.” Lawrence interjected: “You get energy?!”