Jennifer Lawrence describes dating Darren Aronofsky and it's basically the plot of 'mother!'
When it comes to Jennifer Lawrence and mother! director Darren Aronofsky's romance, life's being a little too on the nose while imitating their art.
The controversial mother! tells the story of an insufferably self-important, middle-aged Artist (Javiar Bardem) who expects his young muse and wife (Jennifer Lawrence) to selflessly center her whole life around his precious "work." Staying very on theme, Aronofsky and Lawrence started dating right after the film was complete.
After breaking off their year-long relationship, Lawrence is now describing exactly what that experience was like and, wow, it makes mother! sound an awful lot like a documentary.
In an interview with Variety, Lawrence described how exhausting the press tour for mother! was -- and it wasn't just because all press tours are exhausting. She said that, after the long days of publicity for mother!, the film would (understandably) be the last thing she wanted to talk about with her beau.
But not so much for Aronofsky.
Essentially describing the literal plot of mother!, Lawrence said that:
“He comes back from the tour, and [the movie is] all he wants to talk about. I get it; it’s his baby. He wrote it; he conceived it; he directed it. I was doing double duty trying to be supportive partner while also being like, ‘Can I please, for the love of God, not think about Mother! for one second?’”
Hysterically, a big theme throughout the movie is the notion that men create art while women create life, with the Artist constantly making his poetry, his "baby," seem more important than the actual baby Lawrence's Mother is creating inside her body.
Aronofsky staunchly disagreed with any characterization of mother! as a self-portrait, and denies any parallels between the film's artist/muse theme and his own relationship with Lawrence.
"No, no, not at all," he told The Guardian when journalist Xan Brooks asked about whether the Artist could be seen as a director himself. "Javier [Bardem] knows me. He knows I’m not a monster. Because a film director is a very different kind of artist."
When pressed further, he allowed that, "Oh sure, It’s a projection of my life and what I’m thinking about. But my ego is in every character in every film that I’ve made... I can see how people will especially make the connection with this one. But it’s also all fiction; it’s all smoke and mirrors."
Well, one thing's for sure: Aronofsky's ego is certainly on full display in Lawrence's characterization, both on and off screen.
Jess is an LA-based culture critic who covers intimacy in the digital age, from sex and relationship to weed and all media (tv, games, film, the web). Previously associate editor at Kill Screen, you can also find her words on Vice, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Vox, and others. She is a Brazilian-Swiss American immigrant with a love for all things weird and magical.
