Jennifer Lawrence gives one of her best performances in the psychological drama Die My Love. It was Martin Scorsese who first thought of Jennifer Lawrence after reading a book by Argentinian writer Ariana Harwicz. The film’s journey began from there, as Lawrence immediately knew she wanted to play the central character, Grace – a woman who becomes increasingly uneasy and unstable after giving birth to her first child. It was he who suggested Lynn Ramsay to direct it.
HT sat down for an online roundtable conversation with the Academy Award-winning star, who talked about playing this woman in all her abandonment and fury and collaborating with co-star Robert Pattinson.
‘None of the results are real!’
Lawrence captures the film from the first scene and fills it with terrifying unpredictability. Her Grace goes through some extreme emotions in the film. As an actress, did she have any entry points to transition to the screen? What were those days like working with Lynn on set?
She says, “In the day, it’s usually about channeling the adrenaline. It starts with empathy, imagining what the person is going through. Putting yourself in Grace’s place and taking yourself out. The best thing about my work is that I summon these emotions and get swept up, and when they say, ‘Cut!’ None of the results are real! I just walk away with a little enthusiasm (laughs).”
But in Die My Love he is not only an actor but also a producer. Lawrence states that she is not sure whether those two roles can be separated in this instance. “I was the producer in the sense that I brought the book to Lynn and attached her to the project,” she says. “I think it was my decision because I was excited to do it. So yes for me it was really a ‘chicken or the egg which came first’ situation. I wanted to make it and I wanted to be involved (smiles) and it was a decision made together.”
She added, “I definitely knew I wanted to play Grace. First the production starts, where we decide things like who will direct it or how we will make it, and then I get to play the fun part.”
He will always remember a scene from the film
In one particular scene in Die My Love, she trashes the bathroom – scratching the painted walls, squeezing the shampoo bottle and damaging everything in sight. His nails are broken, his fingers are bleeding.
The actress confesses that this is a scene she will never forget. “I always think about what’s in the bathroom. We could only take it, and the adrenaline would build in that. The place was very small and there was only room for me and Chris [Chow, camera operator]And it was on film. There were a lot of technical issues that I wasn’t aware of, but then I had to move to a different place and I had no idea about it. So this is a scene that I will probably remember for the rest of my life! This was so much fun to do! We imagined what it would be like to do it in real life and it was great to actually do it,” she says.
On working with Robert Pattinson
Jennifer’s husband is played by Robert Pattinson in Die My Love. The actor spoke openly about the collaboration and called him an “amazing actor”.
She adds, “You can’t really prepare before you get there and you don’t know what the other actor is going to give you and what’s going to happen… But Rob was so good at bringing more life to his character and making him stronger. It gave me so much and he completely changed my performance with his performance. He’s also a lovely human being. We both had small children during the shoot; he had a new baby. So we could easily get into that headspace together.”
Die My Love is available to watch on Mubi India.