Jennifer Lawrence is getting candid about motherhood. As part of Variety's "Actors on Actors" series, Lawrence sat down with Viola Davis to discuss their work and lives.
During the conversation, Lawrence revealed why Causeway, the film she produced and stars in about a military veteran struggling with a traumatic brain injury, came at the right time for her.
"I made [Causeway] right before I got married," Lawrence says, alluding to her 2019 wedding to Cooke Maroney. "And then we had the pandemic. Two years later, I'm pregnant, we go back, and we make the rest of it."
"It was the scariest thing in the entire world to think about making a family," she continues. "What if I f**k up? What if I can't do it? And I was so scared that I would f**k it up. And it was so interesting to make a movie where I'm feeling so scared and feeling this mirrored in [Lawrence's role] Lynsey."
Lawrence gave birth to her son, Cy, this spring. Motherhood, Lawrence shares, hasn't been without its challenges.
"Every day of being a mom, I feel awful. I feel guilty," she says. "I'm playing with him and I'm like, 'Is this what he wants to be doing? Should we be outside? We're outside. What if he's cold? What if he's going to get sick? Should we be inside? Is this enough? Is this developing your brain enough?'"
Davis responds to Lawrence's fears by sharing a story about how she accidentally locked her daughter in the car one time.
"I drove around with mine, didn't realize he wasn't buckled into the car seat. He was just teetering around, just flying," Lawrence says in response, before quipping, "OK, great! Good to know that we all almost killed our kids."
While Lawrence told ET in September that motherhood has been "wonderful," the notoriously private actress has largely stayed mum about her private life. That decision, she tells Davis, is largely due to her career as an actress.
"I don't want anybody to know, or think they know, what I'm like. I’m supposed to be a mirror. I'm supposed to be a vessel," she explains. "You shouldn't look at me and remember that I got married in Rhode Island a few years ago and that my husband's an art dealer. I feel like I lose so much control over my craft every time I have to do press for a movie and I'm selling this -- especially something like Causeway, which just felt so personal."
Causeway will debut in select theaters and on Apple TV+ on Nov. 4.
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