Jennifer Lawrence gets emotional when discussing postpartum depression

Cecily Knobler
Tue, 20 May 2025 23:42:22 +0000
Movies, Postpartum depression, Postpartum, Filmmaking, Mental health, Anxiety, Pregnancy, Oscars, Jennifer lawrence

Part of why so many fans view actress Jennifer Lawrence as such a beloved talent is her ability to get real and very, very raw. She has never shied away from roles that begged her to strip down emotionally and bare everything. In one of her breakthrough roles in the film Winter's Bone, she plays a teenager who must fend for her family in the face of homelessness. In Silver Linings Playbook, she won a Best Actress Oscar for her daring role as a charming woman with mental health issues.

Language might not be suitable for a younger readers.

- YouTube, Silver Linings Playbook, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper www.youtube.com

She just seems to have a way of adding a bit of "charm-dust" to every part, whether it's action-driven, serious drama, or something in between. In her latest film, Die, My Love, (described as a comedy/horror) she plays a woman suffering from postpartum depression and psychosis as she watches her marriage dissolve. Based on the novel by Ariana Harwicz, this film adaptation is written and directed by Lynne Ramsay, who is known to push uncomfortable boundaries in her movies. The film, co-produced by Martin Scorsese, received a six minute standing ovation upon its premiere.

At Cannes, Jennifer gave an unexpectedly candid interview at a press conference. She admits she isn't usually an actress who "takes her work home," but in this case, as a mother with one on the way during filming, she knew all too well about mental health issues that often come with post-pregnancy. When discussing her character in the film, she shares, "Yes, a part of what she's going through is the hormonal imbalance that comes with postpartum. But she's also having an identity crisis."

See on Instagram

Her eyes begin getting wet as she asks, "'Who am I as a mother? Who am I as a wife? Who am I as a sexual person to my husband? Who am I as a creative?"

She vulnerably adds, "And I think she's plagued with this feeling that she's disappearing. So for me, I was four and a half, five months pregnant when we shot. Great hormones, feeling great—which is really kind of the only way I was able to dip into this visceral emotion."

She adds a nod to her writer and director, saying, "Also, in terms of answering any question about my acting or performance at all, I have Lynne Ramsay as my director, so that's kind of it."

The comment section of the Deadline Instagram reel was bright with support for both the film and Jennifer herself. Comedian Chelsea Handler topped the section by writing, "Love everything Jen says and does." Another person wrote, "She's so real," with one more adding, "She just described every new mother."

One commenter notes, "She's a mom. She's gonna make it personal. I hope she stays true to her own motherhood."

To that point, in a different clip from the same press conference posted on YouTube by Page Six, Jennifer goes into detail about what having children feels like to her. "It changes everything. It's brutal and incredible. I didn't know I could feel so much, and my job has a lot to do with emotion. They've opened up the world to me. It's almost like feeling like a blister or something—so sensitive. So they've changed my life, obviously for the best, and they've changed me creatively."

Jennifer Lawrence in a press conference at Cannes Film Festival www.youtube.com, Page Six

In terms of how being a new mom affected her role, she says, "Obviously, as a mother, it was really kind of hard to kind of separate what 'I would do' as opposed to what she would do. And it was just heartbreaking. When I first read the book… I had just had my firstborn. And there's not anything like postpartum. It's extremely isolating… The truth is, extreme anxiety and extreme depression is isolating, no matter where you are. You feel like an alien, and it so deeply moved me."