Jennifer Lawrence Explains Why It Was “Not Healthy” Reading Reviews For ‘mother!’

There were few movies this year that caused the same kind of visceral reaction as “mother!” Moviegoers hated it, with Darren Aronofsky‘s thriller earning an F-grade CinemaScore. However, the director took the punches in stride, declaring Rex Reed‘s pan a “victory,” while even Martin Scorsese came to the film’s defence. However, not everyone involved with the movie wanted to study the critical and public reaction to the movie.

The film’s star Jennifer Lawrence was in a trickier position than normal with “mother!” During the film’s production, right through its release, she was in a relationship with Aronofsky (they have since split), and the director’s enthusiasm to read reviews for the movie clashed with the actresses’ desire to stay separated from the reaction.

“Normally, I promote a movie, you put the work in to promoting it, ask people to go see it, and then it’s just kind of out of your hands. I normally just kind of let it go. Dating the director was different, because we’d be on the tour together. I’d come back to the hotel, and the last thing I want to talk about or think about is a movie. He comes back from the tour, and that’s all he wants to talk about,” Lawrence told Adam Sandler during an “Actors on Actors” conversation for Variety. “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.’ And then he would start reading me reviews, and I finally was like, ‘It’s not healthy. I’m not going to do it, because if I read it, I start getting defensive.’ Especially because it’s my man. I don’t want to sound in an interview that I’m defending what we’re doing in any way. It’s awesome, what we did. The people who hate it really hate it. But it’s nothing that needs to be defended. If I read a negative review, I just feel defensive.”

It can’t be easy making a movie with your partner, but “mother!” sounds like it was a particularly intense time for Lawrence and Aronofsky. All that said, it resulted in a cinematic experience that’s certainly singular and unforgettable.