Among the flashes of the cameras and the typical excitement of the Croisette, Jennifer Lawrence offered something rarely seen in the splendor of Cannes: an honest and deeply human confession. During the presentation of ‘Die My Love’, her new film directed by Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay, the American actress spoke openly about motherhood, anxiety, and the torn identity after childbirth. And she did it with a mix of vulnerability and clarity that left a mark on the journalists present.
“As a mother, I found it very difficult to separate my decisions from the character’s. It was deeply painful,” confessed Lawrence, visibly emotional. “I had just had my first child and there is nothing comparable to postpartum. It is a deeply lonely experience, which is paradoxical. When the character moves to Montana, she doesn’t have social networks, she doesn’t have a community. The reality is that extreme anxiety or depression don’t understand geographies. As a woman, you feel disconnected, as if you were from another planet.”
‘Die My Love’ adapts the eponymous novel by Argentine writer Ariana Harwicz, a text as wild as it is lyrical that portrays the mental breakdown of a woman after becoming a mother. In the film, Lawrence plays Grace, a woman who falls apart while her surroundings remain unable to understand or contain her pain. Robert Pattinson portrays her husband, Jackson, a man who watches helplessly as the bond between them crumbles.
The film, which had its world premiere in Cannes, received a standing ovation of six minutes. But beyond the applause, what left many speechless was the absolute commitment of Lawrence to the role. A commitment that, as she revealed, was not only interpretive, but also physical: she filmed a large part of the feature film while five months pregnant with her second child.
“Having children changes everything. Absolutely everything,” explained the actress. “They not only influence every work decision—when I work, where, for how long—but they have also changed the way I feel. I didn’t know it was possible to experience emotions with such intensity. It’s like having an exposed wound. Everything hurts, everything vibrates. My work is based on that: on feeling. And now, everything is clearer, deeper. That’s why I say jokingly, but sincerely, that I recommend having children if you want to be an actor." The 34-year-old actress shares two children with her husband, gallery owner Cooke Maroney: their oldest son, Cy, who is three years old, and a baby born last March, whose name and gender have not been made public.
Pattinson, who has also recently become a father, offered a complementary reflection: “After the birth, trying to understand what place you occupy within the couple is extremely complicated. My character doesn’t have the tools to help her. He doesn’t have the emotional language. He’s not a man who watches parenting videos on TikTok. He just hopes things will go back to how they were before, without understanding that that’s no longer possible. And I think many men see themselves reflected in that image.”
In the midst of the confessional tone, there was also room for humor. When Pattinson commented that his daughter had provided him with “an unexpected source of energy and inspiration,” Lawrence looked at him amused and puzzled: “Have you gained energy?” The actor burst out laughing: “That’s an impossible question for a man. So I’ll just say that I’m here to support. Since she was born, everything has changed. I also approach work differently because you are a different person from the day after having a child.”
When asked about the most difficult day of filming, Lawrence recalled with laughter a sex scene: “The day before we started shooting, Lynne showed Rob and me a clip from If..., where the characters attack each other like beasts. She asked us, ‘You’ll do it naked, right?’. And we replied, ‘Oh, okay...’. And that’s how it all began.”
The first reviews have praised the bravery of the film and the intensity of Lawrence’s performance. Owen Gleiberman, from Variety, described her as “an unstoppable destructive force”. “She crawls like an animal, screams, breaks things, self-harms. But every gesture is loaded with truth. It’s hard to watch, but impossible to look away.”
‘Die My Love’ is not a complacent film. It does not seek easy empathy or offer comfort. It is a descent into the depths of motherhood experienced from the crack, from silence, from incomprehension. And Lawrence, in her most physical and brave performance to date, exposes herself as a woman and as an actress. In a festival that often celebrates form, this film has reminded us that cinema, when it dares to face the unbearable, can also be a form of truth.