Featured Image Credit: Paramount Pictures / The Canadian Press / Alamy Stock Photo
Topics: Film and TV, Celebrity, Jennifer Lawrence
Ali Condon
Topics: Film and TV, Celebrity, Jennifer Lawrence
Warning: This article contains spoilers for the film Mother!
By now, Jennifer Lawrence has an impressive heap of films in her repertoire, from The Hunger Games to Silver Linings Playbook.
The actor has won plenty of awards for her jaw-dropping performances, but one of her characters had such an intense movie moment that she was left traumatized afterwards.
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That character is Mother, from the 2017 psychological horror film Mother!
If you haven't seen the controversial flick directed by Darren Aronofsky, it's a nail-biting watch.
In fact, Lawrence was so emotionally drained by the film that she vowed to never take on a role like that again - despite it being one of her best performances.
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Lawrence is almost unrecognisable as the titular character, who is the image of grace, purity, and femininity and the perfect wife to her partner, a prolific poet played by Javier Bardem.
Their bountiful, peaceful life is soon torn down when Mother's husband invites two strangers into their secluded, perfectly curated home.
Lawrence's character has a fierce protectiveness over her home, but she's challenged by her husband, who keeps inviting more and more guests in - who turn out to be wild fans of his poetry and are more than willing to make themselves at home.
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The theory is that Lawrence's character represents Mother Nature, or Mother Earth, and Bardem's character represents God. While Mother Nature fights to protect the home she has built, her husband's endless roster of 'guests' leaves her a shell of her former self until she finally unleashes her wrath.
Mother reaches her breaking point when the husband has a launch party for his new book that quickly turns into a cult-like frenzy, all while she is left to give birth to their baby alone.
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Moments after the agonising birth, Mother is robbed of the one thing she has left: her newborn son, as her husband takes him and passes him around to the strangers - leading to a gruesome death.
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The film's final act is a brutally hard watch, but according to Lawrence, it was even more excruciating trying to film it.
Speaking at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017, Jennifer shared: "It was the scene where I woke up to a surprise, and ran downstairs… that was the worst feeling I’ve ever had in my life.
"It was awful, and I don’t know if I would ever do such a movie again."
In a later interview with Entertainment Weekly, Lawrence spoke about the backlash to the film, sharing that, while she didn't 'regret' making the film, there was no way she'd be able to do it again.
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"I’m happy I did it. If I had to do it again? If there was a Mother! sequel? No. I wouldn’t be able to do it again. I did it once and I gave it my all," she said.
"I was in the medical unit with oxygen up my nose and [Darren]’s like, 'It was out of focus, we gotta do it again.' I was like, you are making me go to a place that you have never been.
"I just wanted to get out and finish it. It’s scary not being able to control yourself."