Jennifer Lawrence stirs Oscar talk in Cannes for 'Die, My Love'
Last year, the Cannes Film Festival produced three best actress nominees at the Oscars
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Last year, the Cannes Film Festival produced three best actress nominees at the Oscars. This year's edition may have just supplied another.
In Lynne Ramsay's âDie, My Love,â Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson play a married couple with a newborn who move into an old country house. In Ramsay's messy and moving marital psychodrama, Lawrence plays an increasingly unhinged young mother named Grace whose postpartum depression reaches darkly hallucinatory extremes.
For Lawrence, the 34-year-old mother of two, making âDie, My Loveâ was an intensely personal experience.
âIt was really hard to separate what I would do as opposed to what (Grace) would do,â Lawrence told reporters Sunday. âI had just had my firstborn, and thereâs not really anything like postpartum. Itâs extremely isolating. She doesnât have a community. She doesnât have her people. But the truth is, extreme anxiety and extreme depression is isolating, no matter where you are. You feel like an alien."
âDie, My Love,â which is in competition for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, was one of the most anticipated premieres of the festival. That was owed partly to the widely respect for Ramsey, the Scottish director of âRatcatcher" (1999), âMovern Callarâ (2002) and â You Were Never Really Hereâ (2017). Lawrence sought her out for the film.
âIâve wanted to work with Lynne Ramsay since I saw 'Ratcatcher' and I was like, âThereâs no way,'â said Lawrence. âBut we took a chance, and we sent it to her. And I really, I cannot believe that Iâm here with you.â
In Ramsay's âDie, My Love," adapted from Ariana Harwiczâs 2017 novel, is disorienting experience, pulsating with animalistic urges and . As a portrait of a marriage in trouble, it makes âWhoâs Afraid of Virginia Woolf?â look tame.
Lawrence's performance, in particular, drew the kind of raves in Cannes that tend to lead to Oscar consideration. Lawrence has been nominated four times by the Academy Awards, winning once for 2013's âSilver Linings Playbook.â
Since then, much has changed for Lawrence, including becoming a mother. On Saturday, Lawrence said parenthood has been such an enriching experience for her that, she joked, "I highly recommend having kids if you want to be an actor.â
âHaving children changes everything. It changes your whole life. Itâs brutal and incredible," Lawrence said. âI didnât know that I could feel so much.â
âMy job has a lot to do with emotion, and theyâve opened up the world to me,â she added. "Itâs almost like feeling like a blister or something. So sensitive. So theyâve changed my life, obviously, for the best, and theyâve changed me creatively.â
Pattinson, who recently had his first child with Suki Waterhouse, chimed in that he found having a baby âgives you the biggest trove of energy and inspiration.â
Lawrence mockingly pounced on him: âYou get energy?!â
Pattinson let out a sigh. âThis question is impossible for a guy to answer correctly,â he said, to laughter.