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At the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, Jennifer Lawrence opened up honestly about her experience with postpartum depression and how it influenced her emotionally and creatively. While promoting her new movie Die My Love, she said, “There was not really anything like postpartum,” highlighting how unique and intense that experience is.
Jennifer explained that postpartum depression feels incredibly isolating, no matter where you are. She related this to the film’s story, where the main character—a young mother named Grace—lives in a remote part of Montana without a community or support system. “Extreme anxiety and extreme depression is isolating no matter where you are. You feel like an alien,” she said.
In Die My Love, directed by Lynne Ramsay, Jennifer plays Grace, a mother struggling with severe postnatal mental illness. Jennifer shared that when she first read the book the film is based on, she found it heartbreaking but powerful. Since she had just had her first child, the story hit very close to home, and it was tough for her to separate her own feelings from those of the character.
Jennifer has admired Ramsay’s work for a long time—she was a fan ever since watching Ramsay’s film Ratcatcher. Although it seemed unlikely at first, Jennifer and her team decided to pitch the project to Ramsay, and she eventually came on board. Jennifer described landing the role as surreal.
Lynne Ramsay, known for You Were Never Really Here, returned to Cannes with Die My Love, which is one of the few films in the 2025 lineup still available for sale. Jennifer revealed she was about five months pregnant during filming and found the role very personal.
She explained that Grace’s story explores both the hormonal ups and downs after childbirth and a deep identity crisis—Grace struggles with who she is as a mother, wife, and woman. The character feels like she’s fading away, haunted by a sense of disappearing.
Now a mother of two, Jennifer said having children has changed her life completely—both emotionally and professionally. “Having children changes your whole life. It’s brutal and incredible. It affects every decision I make: if I’m working, when I’m working, where I’m working. My job is very emotional, and my kids have opened up the world to me,” she shared.
She even joked, “I highly recommend having kids if you want to be an actor,” highlighting how becoming a parent has deepened her connection to her craft.