Jennifer Lawrence Says Motherhood Changed Her Life And Her Work

Jennifer Lawrence has always been real, and at the Cannes Film Festival this weekend, she brought that same energy to the topic of motherhood.

While promoting her new film Die My Love, a psychological thriller about a mother’s unraveling postpartum, the Oscar winner revealed what it's been like raising two kids with husband Cooke Maroney.

“Having children changes everything, it changes your whole life,” she said at the press conference. “It’s brutal and incredible. They go into every decision of if I’m working, where I’m working, when I’m working.”

“I didn’t know that I could feel so much and my job has a lot to do with emotion,” she said. “They’ve opened up the world to me. It’s almost feeling like a blister or something—so sensitive. So they’ve changed my life, obviously, for the best and they’ve changed me creatively.”

Her performance in Die My Love is already being called one of her most unhinged and fearless, with Variety describing her as “an ace wastrel” who turns rage into a spectacle.

“As a mother, it was really hard to separate what I would do as opposed to what she would do. And it was just heartbreaking,” she explained. “I had just had my firstborn, and there’s not really anything like postpartum. It’s extremely isolating, which is so interesting. When Lynne moves this couple into Montana, she doesn’t have a community. She doesn’t have her people. But the truth is, extreme anxiety and extreme depression is isolating, no matter where you are. You feel like an alien.”

At one point, she noted she was five months pregnant with her second child while filming the movie. This wasn't easy but it definitely added to her performance. With her twist of dry humor, J-Law added, “I highly recommend having kids if you want to be an actor.”

She wasn’t the only one opening up. Co-star Robert Pattinson, who became a father last year, chimed in.

“Trying to figure out what your role in the relationship is afterwards is incredibly difficult,” he said, pointing out that his character in the film doesn’t really “have the vernacular” to know how to support. “Like he’s just a guy. He doesn’t seem to be the guy who is looking at TikTok reels of parenting and stuff. He’s just kind of hoping the relationship will go back to what it was and not understanding why this is happening to them, why this intruder has entered this relationship. I guess it’s a fear that everyone has as soon as they have a kid.”

In a moment of comedic honesty, Pattinson noted that becoming a parent gave him “the biggest trove of energy and inspiration,” to which Lawrence shot back, “You get energy?”

He followed with a self-aware shrug: “This question is impossible for a guy to answer correctly. What Jennifer said, I’m here just to support. Ever since she was born, it’s reinvigorated the way I approach work and you’re a completely different person the next day.”

Lawrence has said before that motherhood rearranged her world entirely. In a 2022 Vogue interview, she described the morning after giving birth to her first child, Cy, like this, “The morning after I gave birth, I felt like my whole life had started over. Like, Now is day one of my life. I just stared. I was just so in love.”

She added at the time, “My heart has stretched to a capacity that I didn’t know about. I include my husband in that. And then they’re both just, like, out there—walking around, crossing streets. He’s gonna drive one day. He’s gonna be a stupid teenager and be behind the wheel of a car. And I’m just gonna be like, 'Good night!' You know? Like, who sleeps?”

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