Jennifer Lawrence revealed that filming Mother! while she was seeing the director was not the best idea.
The American actress previously said on a talk show that she didn’t ‘understand’ the film as she was shooting it, despite being in a relationship with director Darren Aronofsky at the time.
Released in 2017, the psychological horror confused viewers upon its release, as its themes are largely symbolic, with the focus on tone instead of character development and plot.
Following the flick’s poor reception upon release though, the couple called time on their relationship.
Lawrence opened up on how the film’s performance had a hand in their break-up, and how it may have been ‘unhealthy’ for her to date the director of a film she was in – and how she ‘didn’t understand’ the movie itself.
In a conversation with Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live, Lawrence admitted she was still baffled by the movie.
The host asked: “On a scale of one to totally confused, how much did you understand your film Mother!?”
Lawrence responded: “I’m going to be honest. Well, I was sleeping with the director, so I had CliffsNotes. So… five? Or a four. But if anybody needs any tips on understanding their films, you know what to do!”
When Cohen joked back, “F*** the director?,” Lawrence replied: “Yeah!”
Speaking to Adam Sandler as part of Variety’s ‘Actors to Actors’ interview series on YouTube, the actress was candid about her past relationship with Aronofsky.
She explained: “Normally, I promote a movie, you put the work into promoting it, ask people to go see it, and then it’s just kind of out of your hands. I normally just kind of let it go.
“Dating the director is different,” she admitted.
Lawrence explained: “We’d be on the (promotional) tour together. I’d come back to the hotel, and the last thing I want to talk about or think about is a movie.
“He comes back from the tour, and that’s all he wants to talk about and I get it. It’s his baby. He wrote it. He conceived it. He directed it,” she revealed.
But this didn’t mean that she ended the relationship on the spot, saying that she was doing ‘double duty’ as ‘a supportive partner’.
However, she admitted that she thought: “‘Can I please, for the love of God, not think about Mother! for one second?’”
She did reach a breaking point though, as she realised it was ‘not healthy’ when he started reading reviews to her.
Lawrence admitted: “I finally was just like, ‘It’s not healthy. Neither of us are doing it because if I read it, I start getting defensive.’ Especially because it’s my man,” she said.
“I don’t want to sound in an interview that I’m defending what we’re doing in any way. It’s awesome, what we did,” she stated.
Speaking about the film, she did also admit: “Some people hate it and the people who hate it really hate it. But it’s nothing that needs to be defended and if I read a negative review, I just feel defensive.”
Now though, the 34-year-old is happily married to Cooke Maroney with a second child on the way, so all’s well that ends well.
