Die

When Lynne Ramsay‘s “Die My Love” debuted at Cannes last May, critics raved about Jennifer Lawrence‘s performance as Grace, a young mother slowly descending into the madness of postpartum depression. Lawrence could be back in the Best Actress Oscar race for the first time since “Joy” in 2016, after winning for “Silver Linings Playbook” in 2013, and nominations for her breakout film “Winter’s Bone” (2011) and “American Hustle” (2014). What a run!

All along, Lawrence mixed studio business (the “X-Men” and “Hunger Games” franchises, “Red Sparrow,” “No Hard Feelings”) with indie pleasures like “Causeway” and “The Beaver.” Martin Scorsese, who admired Lawrence’s unhinged performance in Darren Aronofsky’s “Mother!,” has been trying to find the right project for her. He discovered the 2012 novel “Die My Love” by Ariana Harwicz, and told Lawrence she should tackle this role.

Lawrence’s production company Excellent Cadaver developed the script with Ramsay, who cast Robert Pattinson. Established by the “Twilight” franchise, he ricocheted from Christopher Nolan projects (“Tenet” and “The Odyssey”) and DC franchise “The Batman,” which starts filming “Part Two” in April, to indies like the Safdies’ “Good Time” and Robert Eggers’ “The Lighthouse.” In “Die My Love,” he plays Grace’s partner, Jackson, who is clueless about how to help his partner cope.

The two actors answered my questions during a Zoom interview, poking fun at each other throughout. They were in New York on the day of their premiere.

The following interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Jennifer Lawrence: I love IndieWire.

Anne Thompson: Thank you! We’ve each talked several times over the years, but the two of you together — that’s new. Jennifer, how did Martin Scorsese get you started with this project? You wound up producing it.

Jennifer Lawrence: He had read this book; that shows his compassion and his emotional breadth, to read something like this about postpartum and to connect with it. He told me that I should do this, I should act in it. I sat with it for a while, and then once it all clicked that it isn’t a literal adaptation, that it’s more poetic, then I realized Lynne Ramsey was the only person that we could conceive of making it, because she’s the only poet I know of that makes movies.

This movie is an example of artists taking a flying leap into the unknown without regard for commerciality. What genre is “Die My Love”? Can you define it?

Jennifer Lawrence: A romantic drama.

Robert Pattinson: Yeah, it’s definitely an unorthodox romance. It’s weird, I find it deeply romantic. It’s very difficult. It’s interesting how Lynne saw that. The book is traumatic, so for her to find humor— I remember when Lynne first talked about it, she was saying: “Oh yeah, it’s quite funny.”

You two worked on the script a bit to change Robert’s character?

Robert Pattinson: I just talked to Lynne. I liked the first draft, and I was saying how I interpreted Jackson. I wasn’t even suggesting to change anything. And the second draft of it came back. I saw it very much as a love story, obviously. Coming from Jackson’s perspective, you’ve got to figure out a reason why. There’s a one scene in it where they’re saying they’re breaking up, but Jackson keeps saying, “I can try harder.” It was a moving thing. My entire interpretation of the character was based on that. You can be someone who’s not capable of delivering what your partner wants him to deliver, but the desire to keep trying is a fundamentally quite romantic thing. Lynne made him a little less of a sloth. He’s still a bit of a sloth.

He seems a bit dense. He doesn’t get it. After the baby, his partner is going through all this difficult stuff, and when she’s out of her mind bonkers, he asks her to marry him.

Robert Pattinson: You’re still thinking about your partner, you think it’s a mood, or a phase. They live in Montana. He just doesn’t want to leave her. They have a child together as well. And so it’s not an option to leave her. And what can you really do, other than suggest, “go to the hospital?” I can’t force you to go to the hospital. I can’t leave you. (Laughs) You’re just stuck.

Jennifer Lawrence: It’s kind of romantic.

Robert Pattinson: You try and be romantic, you try and erase, you try and let bygones be bygones and when everyone around you, your family is saying, “you need to get out of there, this is dangerous.” And you think that’s being a good partner, just letting things slide. Because what else are you going to do? Like, what else can you possibly do other than say, “I think you’re insane and need to be removed from my child?” That’s the other road to take. I have no choice other than I’m just going to forget everything again and let’s start again. Yeah, water under the bridge.

Jennifer, what was it like being four months pregnant while you’re crawling through the bushes and, dragging your fingernails across the wall? How did that affect your performance?

Jennifer Lawrence: I was in my second trimester. I wouldn’t have been able to crawl through grass if I was in my third trimester. But I found it helpful and freeing. Because when you’re pregnant, you’re in a very animalistic state, you’re doing something that’s otherworldly, and you’re feeling protective, you’re feeling instinctual. And adding that element of her being like a trapped animal, while I was in this animalistic state, was helpful. And also with the nude stuff, I wanted Lynne to have complete freedom to say, “Oh, look at that window. Go stand in front of it naked.” I didn’t want her to have to think twice about an instinct that she was having. And it was freeing. Normally, when you have a nude scene, you’re stressing out about what you’re eating the week before. I was pregnant, so I wasn’t going to diet. I wasn’t working out. And, my stomach is bloated and my nipples are huge and I have cellulite, and there was something OK about it. Now you say, “No, it looked great!”

You had your family with you there, right? Were they on the set?

Jennifer Lawrence: Yeah, my son loved to come to set, because he’s a big fan of cranes and wires and generators. Big generator guy. One day they were warming up this jet black horse, like ripping through a field and rearing up, and my son just walked right past to go stare at a generator, and the horse was just behind him, doing these amazing things. OK!

So when one of your movies that you sweated blood to make does badly at the box office or gets bad reviews, how do you feel about that?

Robert Pattinson [Laughs]: Sounds like you’re loading up!

Jennifer Lawrence: How are you guys going to feel tomorrow? It’s really hard. It’s a hard part of the process, because it feels like, even right now, before the movie is out and before the box office numbers are in, it feels extremely violating, because it’s so personal what you do and you put in so much. There are so many pieces of me in Grace or in the world, and so many observations or opinions and pieces of you that build this. It feels so private, and it’s insane to me that it’s just inherently part of the beast that eventually you give it to the public to rip into, like a zebra carcass to a pack of hyenas. And that is the way that it goes, and it’s art that is meant to be consumed. It just seems so backwards and violating that people watch it.

Robert Pattinson: I always approach something like: this could be the last movie you ever get to do (Lawrence laughs). Can you legitimately think, “OK, I did this for the right reasons, it’s fine to die on this hill?” Then, if you’ve done it for the right reasons, whatever the case afterwards — obviously you want people to to like it — but it’s always if you made a decision going, ” I know exactly why I’m doing this,” then it doesn’t really matter what anyone else says.

You both go back and forth between big projects and smaller, riskier things. Is it a good thing to be anxious about a role before you start?

Robert Pattinson (to Lawrence): Do you get anxious?

Jennifer Lawrence: No.

Robert Pattinson: I know you don’t get anxious. It’s weird. I’ve literally witnessed: There was a moment in this movie where it was an eight-page long scene [Lawrence giggles]. And I’d spent weeks prepping for it [giggles] and when we turn up, Jen’s [says] “What are we shooting today?” And I [say], “What do you mean? Oh god, it’s going to be a disaster.” And within two read-throughs, you knew all the dialogue.

Jennifer Lawrence: Well, I have a better memory than you.

Robert Pattinson: Two. You read it twice, OK? I have an actual anxiety disorder, I’m realizing now, and you don’t.

Jennifer Lawrence: I’m on Zoloft. Maybe you could get on something. Do you feel like you can’t think clearly because you’re constantly catering to your anxiety?

Robert Pattinson: Well, I’m thinking about my entire future.

Jennifer Lawrence: That’s not normal.

Robert Pattinson: It’s a lot of brain space. And everyone else’s future.

You also have all those movies to worry about. Some of them are done, but that’s a lot to be preparing for.

Jennifer Lawrence: Yeah, of course you’re anxious.

Robert Pattinson: But now I’ve done like, 19 movies in a row, now my memory’s actually got a lot better.

Jennifer Lawrence: You’re just too exhausted to worry anymore. It’s parenting.

Robert Pattinson: It’s actually really nice. When I was doing “Dune” it was so hot in the desert that I just couldn’t question anything. And it was so relaxing, like my brain actually wasn’t operating, I did not have a single functioning brain cell. And I was just listening to Denis [Villeneuve]: “Whatever you want!”

Jennifer Lawrence: What you resist persists. The only way out is through.

Robert Pattinson: But it’s not even out. I actually found it relaxing. Now I’m taking that into other roles.

Jennifer Lawrence: I wish you had been like that. I didn’t get that side.

That role that you play is demanding and intense, but were you also looking after Robert?

Jennifer Lawrence: No. He was perfectly good at looking after himself. It was every man for himself on there. I understand when people see the movie, they’re: “Oh my god, that must have been so intense.” But Rob and I had a great time. Playing somebody who lets their intrusive thoughts win is really fun. How many times would you want to just rip something off the shelves and squeeze everything out of a shampoo bottle? It was satisfying!

You weren’t living in Grace’s pain.

Jennifer Lawrence: I was not. I had a two-year-old in Calgary with me. I could not have pulled something like that off. Every time I hear about actors who live method, like, how does that work when you’re married? Do you know? Have you ever seen it?

Robert Pattinson: Seen someone else? Yeah, I always think it’s just being really grumpy all the time. That seems to be what method is.

When you take on a movie like this, do you care if the audience likes your character?

Jennifer Lawrence: Yeah, that’s more of a question for you, I think.

Robert Pattinson: Why?

Jennifer Lawrence: Grace is so likable?

Robert Pattinson: Please answer the question.

Jennifer Lawrence: She is! Is she not likable? I genuinely think she’s a delight.

Robert Pattinson: I really want to get Zoloft.

Jennifer Lawrence: She’s so funny. Somebody [says] “do you think that you have anything to apologize for?” And she [says] “No.” It’s so hilarious.

Robert Pattinson: It completely answered the question. It’s almost impossible: you cannot dislike a character if you’re playing them.

Jennifer Lawrence: That’s not true.

Robert Pattinson: Really.

Jennifer Lawrence: I guess I just proved your point, but I don’t think that’s true. I don’t think that my personal feelings are relevant at all when it comes to a character, because there’s: How I would react if my puppy died? And then there’s: How this character would react if their puppy died?

Robert Pattinson: But don’t you think there’s something about trying to understand someone you could like? How do you define liking them?

Jennifer Lawrence: Deeply understanding someone.

Robert Pattinson: Yeah, exactly. if you understand someone, I regard understanding someone as liking them.

Jennifer Lawrence: Having a reverence for them. OK.

What was cinematographer Seamus McGarvey doing with the camera during filming? Did Lynne exercise a lot of freedom on the set?

Jennifer Lawrence: They were incredible. We were using this old film stock, and Seamus was burning lenses. We were doing a lot of day for night, and he would singe the gate, which I have never seen anybody do before, but it created this inky look, it was really cool.

Does Lynne do many takes and improvise on set?

Jennifer Lawrence: All of the work happened beforehand, with the conversations about your character and the headspace, and the production design, the costume design, like the world, and then once you’re actually there, she recedes a little bit and becomes more observational — but in the world that she made.

Robert Pattinson: It’s funny, she has a pervasive aura on set; her emotional state will seep into whatever the mood is like. And I always find it quite exciting. It’s something quite surprising about almost every decision she was making, and you never knew which way the cookie was going to crumble, which is always quite fun.

Jannifer, you’re signed to star for Scorsese in the psychological thriller “What Happens at Night,” adapted by Patrick Marber from the Peter Cameron novel, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as your husband. When is that going to start?

Jennifer Lawrence: Hopefully, a January/February situation. But one never knows with these things. I’ll believe it when I’m there. We’re going to dig in. Leo and I worked together on “Don’t Look Up.”

Robert, you’ve got Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s “The Odyssey” in post-production. What part do you play?

Robert Pattinson: I’m pretty sure we’re not allowed to say? It hasn’t been publicly released.

Jennifer Lawrence: He’s one of the sirens. [Laughs]

Are you now filming Fernando Mereilles‘ heist film “Here Comes the Flood” for Netflix, with Denzel Washington and Daisy Edgar-Jones?  

Robert Pattinson: Yes, I started this week in New York [Sighs].

Did you also shoot a villain role in Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Three?” (due December 18, 2026), as well as A24’a relationship thriller “The Drama” co-starring Zendaya as your fiancée, due April 3?

Robert Pattinson: Yes.

Jennifer Lawrence: You’re a busy boy. You just shot that, you have it coming out.

Robert Pattinson: And I have another one: “Primetime” [A24, 2026] with Lance Oppenheim!

Jennifer Lawrence: Money troubles?

Robert Pattinson: The strike really affected me! I will never let that happen ever again.

Jennifer Lawrence: You just sell something!

MUBI will release “Die My Love” in theaters on Friday, November 7.