Jennifer Lawrence’s advice to actors who struggle to understand their films? Form a romantic relationship with your director.
Lawrence opened up about Darren Aronofsky’s jaw-dropping 2017 film “Mother!” during a recent ‘Watch What Happens Live’ appearance with Andy Cohen. The “No Hard Feelings” actress admitted she still doesn’t fully understand the film, despite her intimate knowledge of the script.
Host Cohen asked, “On a scale of one to totally confused, how well did you understand your film ‘Mother!’?”
Lawrence replied: “I’ll be honest. Well, I was sleeping with the director so I had CliffsNotes. So… five? Or a four. But if someone needs some advice on understanding their films, you know what to do.”
Cohen asked, “Fuck the director?” to which Lawrence quipped, “Yes!”
In Aronofsky’s Fall 2017 Biblical Parable, Lawrence played an unnamed pregnant woman married to an unnamed divine man played by Javier Bardem. She is quickly terrorized by an onslaught of house guests who descend on the mansion they share and wreak havoc on their lives.
Academy Award winner Lawrence recently reflected elsewhere on the physical cost of starring in Aronofsky’s box office bomb. Lawrence said during an appearance on the YouTube series ‘Hot Ones’ that he still suffers from the injuries on set.
“I tore out my diaphragm and broke something in my chest,” he said. “My upper rib, it still clicks to this day.”
Upon the film’s release, Lawrence spoke of going to a “darker place than I’ve ever been in my life,” saying, “I didn’t know if I was going to get out of this well.”
Lawrence also stated during the “Mother!” press tour that Aronofsky wanted to continue filming during times of emotional and physical fatigue.
“I have oxygen tubes in my nostrils and Darren says, ‘It was fuzzy; we have to do it again,’” Lawrence said. “And I was like, ‘Go fuck yourself.'”
Jennifer Lawrence has rarely spoken publicly about her short-lived relationship with Aronofsky, though she said in 2018 that she couldn’t get past Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread” because the film may have hit too close: “Is (Reynolds Woodcock ) kind of like a narcissistic sociopath and he’s an artist so every girl falls for him because he makes her feel bad about herself and is that the romance? I haven’t seen it so I don’t know. I’ve been on that street, I know how it is, I don’t need to watch that movie.
