@Courtesy of MUBI
@Courtesy of MUBI
Press Conference with Stars Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson
Q: How did you come across the novel and involve Martin Scorsese in the project?
JENNIFER LAWRENCE: He actually involved me. It was wild. He set up a zoom and wanted to talk. He said that he had read this book and thought that I should do it. When I read it I immediately knew what he meant. It was a tour de force, a powerful character. It was complicated because it wasn’t a very literal book. About Lynne Ramsay, I’ve wanted to work with her for a really long time, she’s the only director I know that just makes poetry. So it seemed like the perfect marriage to me. So we reached out, she took a little bit of time with it. But by the time she started finding her way into it, they were the most incredible creative conversations I’ve ever had in my life.
Q: What was the big deciding factor? What is your criterium test for what’s your project and why this one right now?
ROBERT PATTINSON: It’s just whatever feels exciting. This came totally out of the blue. I’ve always wanted to work with Jen. I also hadn’t really done a movie that was like a romance, there’s definitely elements of romance to it. I hadn’t done it for years. That was quite exciting to me. I talked to Jen, I had no idea that this project even existed. She was like: “I’m putting together this Lynne Ramsay movie, do you want to play my husband in it?” Why didn’t my agent hear about this? It’s thrilling, one of those projects just like an immediate yes.
Q: What was the favorite place that you got to go to as Grace that you hadn’t gotten to portray prior to this?
JENNIFER LAWRENCE: It was all over the place. I am a wife, so I do think about somebody else’s feelings every day. Trying to be a good partner. For different reasons, Grace is in a partnership where her partner wasn’t really looking out for her. It was really fun. It’s just like living an intrusive thought out loud. I mean, destroying the bathroom is really fun.
Q: What did you see in Lynn’s other films that made you believe she’d be the right director to tackle?
JENNIFER LAWRENCE: She’s a singular filmmaker. I can’t even really compare her to anybody else. Maybe David Cronenberg, she’s just unflinching and her artistry is very pure. When she makes a movie she’s not thinking about an audience, she doesn’t make it for anybody. She’s telling a very personal story.
Q: Both of you have been in films with some incredible directors, is there something about Lynne’s process that you think folks would find interesting or refreshing?
ROBERT PATTINSON: Lynne is incredibly present, so sensitive to how we’re perceiving the scene, how we’re perceiving the set. It’s like she’s showing her work for the first time. Lynn is quite a unique director, she’s reacting to how the actors are reacting to it, which is exciting. It’s very alive. Which is fun.
JENNIFER LAWRENCE: I’ve never worked with a director that plays music on set. It was great. It was great for her. She’s a world builder, the vibe that she brings to the movie is music.
@Courtesy of MUBI
Q: What did each of you keep in mind that kept you on the right path when it was time to go for these intense scenes? Is there something that you kept top of mind?
JENNIFER LAWRENCE: I tried to remember that it was very straightforward for her. I didn’t try to think of the performance or how. I tried to just remember the truth of that, that she’s very frank at the end of the day.
Q: In movies, there are often extremes when it comes to motherhood. Mother is either a saint or monster. This film refuses that and shows a much more complicated reality. Why do you think we see so few portrayals like this on screen?
JENNIFER LAWRENCE: Because having dimensions in a character is really hard to do. You really have to take the time to think about a situation, breath between statements in order to make something that’s nuanced. There aren’t a lot of artists that are brave enough or even intelligent enough to find the heart of something that resonates with all of us. So probably that’s why because there aren’t as many Lynne Ramsay in the world.
Q: You said that it was challenging to shoot the dance sequence. Why was that so difficult?
ROBERT PATTINSON: I’m just not a very good dancer. And for some reason, I always end up doing a dancing scene. Every single move I did, I dread it.
Q: What did you bring from your own lives to your respective roles?
JENNIFER LAWRENCE: Having the perspective of the child helped me a lot. It did some transference for me to know how important a calm energy is for these tiny little nervous systems. Having that information and using it in reverse was helpful and also emotional for me.
ROBERT PATTINSON: I had a lot of my friends seen the profound differences before and after having a baby. Everybody goes through it to some degree. It feels like everyone’s skiing down some insanely steep and dangerous run, the first few years of having a child. Even if you feel like you’ve managed to get down to the bottom of the run, seemingly unscathed, you become worried about what’s going to happen next. Jackson is a little bit extreme in his ignorance of Grace’s mental state.
Q: Have you had people come up to you with interesting reactions to the film?
JENNIFER LAWRENCE: The thing I’ve noticed the most is how different it is for everybody. It’s just such a landscape for your own projections. It’s been so fascinating. I haven’t really heard the same takeaway from anybody.
ROBERT PATTINSON: A lot of the people who were really connected don’t have kids, which I found quite fascinating. I never saw Grace as that crazy. I related to Grace’s character in a lot of ways, but how I saw it was just probably from Jackson’s perspective, being a love story where you can see there’s someone that’s drifting away from you. You don’t understand why, they keep showing you little signs that they’re not drifting in a way and then suddenly they are. It’s extremely confusing. That’s what I connected to it. I talked to some people who found the movie absolutely traumatic.
@Courtesy of MUBI
Q: What kind of preparation did you do preparing for this character who’s going through such specific troubles?
JENNIFER LAWRENCE: I didn’t really. I don’t really know how to prepare before I start working with the director. I rely on the director to start our conversations. We got there a few weeks before filming, and that’s when Rob and I started doing our dance lessons together, going through the script together, not necessarily like rehearsing but going through the dialog, discussing it. I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen or how I’m going to react to something until I’m working with the other actors and they are giving me something to react to. I don’t know how to start looking at the puzzle until all the pieces are almost in place.
Q: How did you allow yourself to get lost in these characters?
JENNIFER LAWRENCE: I had a good postpartum with my first son. Because of that, I was able to look underneath and go deeper on what would be the opposite. Rob and I both have nice, good, healthy, fulfilling relationships, we have a lot of information to use to be able to reverse it. If you’re experiencing something yourself, you’re not looking at it.
ROBERT PATTINSON:I mean. My first thought about how to approach a character is always quite simple. Jackson loves her and doesn’t want to leave her, those are the cards that you’re being dealt. You cannot change someone else’s brain, no matter what you’re doing. It’s just about you changing your own self to accommodate whatever’s happening.
Q: Did you draw any inspiration from Gena Rowlands and Peter Faulk’s performances in A Woman Under the Influence by John Cassavetes?
JENNIFER LAWRENCE: I’m influenced by that performance in general. I saw that movie when I was like 19 for the first time, I had no idea that actors could do that. I didn’t go back and watch it, study it for this role, but it was hugely inspirational. There was a quality that you couldn’t even really name. You loved her and you felt like you got the family, you got who she was. It was like watching somebody be something. It gave me the feeling that I’ve known this character my whole life, and I know this character intimately. It’s almost unnamable.
ROBERT PATTINSON: I also watched that when I was about 19, I definitely loved it at the time. I love Peter Falk.
Q: The wedding scene is a very visceral moment in it, and it asks a lot. Could you talk about filming that day?
JENNIFER LAWRENCE: We shot the wedding over a week because there were a lot of extras, a lot going on. It’s sad. It’s confusing because there was a lot that that is up for interpretation. Is he cheating on her or is she imagining it? Should he be paying her more attention? Does she need to conform a little bit? It’s so up for interpretation, when you’re doing it everything just has to be very real that you’re living with all of these possibilities in the air.
ROBERT PATTINSON: It was always quite lovely. Lynne has such empathy for the characters, even how it was shot. There was something about all the background, her shooting that everyone looked really proud of.
Q: Who do you think would benefit the most from seeing a film like this?
JENNIFER LAWRENCE: Anybody who’s ever been through postpartum or depression, I would want them to see this because it’s such an interesting, cinematic display of that experience. Lynne found a way to visualize something that before seemed like impossible to try to put into words or pictures. If you want to have a baby with somebody, this could definitely be a cautionary tale. That’s the most important person that you’re going to pick.
ROBERT PATTINSON: This is a somewhat universal experience. It’s very, very evocative. You’re never going to know, in your head, the emotional maelstrom of what’s going on in Grace’s head . You can viscerally feel like what she’s going through, Lynne’s done that really amazing. Anyone who wants to understand that storm of what someone’s going through, the movie is pretty successful at it.
@Courtesy of MUBI
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