Darren Aronofsky movies aren't known for being particularly straightforward, and his 2017 horror film "Mother!" is no exception. Jennifer Lawrence stars as the titular Mother, who spends the movie's runtime trying to fix up and take care of a dilapidated Victorian house while her husband, Him (Javier Bardem), mostly wanders around making things worse. The allegorical tale also stars Ed Harris as "man" and Michelle Pfeiffer as his wife, "woman," who visit with their family and wreak all kinds of havoc on the home. "Mother!" is a truly wild yet misunderstood horror film that's operating on multiple levels at once, telling a creation myth with a heavy environmental lesson about humanity's impact on the Earth while also delivering an examination of singular creatives and their process. It's a Bible story, an allegory about global warming, and a meta-commentary on making movies, all wrapped in one two-hour package.
It was clear that some audiences didn't really care for what "Mother!" had to offer, as the film received a rare F Cinemascore, but what about its star? In a 2023 interview with Andy Cohen on his show "Watch What Happens Live," (via IndieWire) Lawrence revealed that she really didn't understand what the movie was about, even though she was dating Aronofsky at the time. Despite having the writer/director's intimate input, the actor shared that she was still pretty lost when it came to this controversial flick.
Lawrence is great in Mother! even if she didn't understand it
When asked by Cohen how well she understood "Mother!" on a scale from 1-10, Lawrence was characteristically candid, saying:
"I'm going to be honest. Well, I was sleeping with the director, so I had CliffsNotes. So … five? Or a four. But if anybody needs any tips on understanding their films, you know what to do."
While there is a lot going on in "Mother!," there are some basics that Lawrence probably understood, like the idea Mother is basically Mother Earth and Him is some version of God. Man and woman are Adam and Eve, with their sons and later their whole chaotic crew representing the rest of humanity. Similarly, the baby that gets devoured (like I said, "Mother!" is a wild movie) is even a pretty easy symbol for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, too, but even if Lawrence was in the dark on all of that, she still gave a killer performance. She's incredibly convincing as a woman who wants her passionate husband to be content but also, in a sense, to leave her in peace — not to mention, really wants people to stay off the sink she just fixed but hasn't braced yet. Even if Mother wasn't Mother Earth, she's kind of a mood, and Lawrence absolutely nails the performance. She carries the film on her back, and her character's plight is compelling, even when things get a little confusing.
Mother! was extremely tough on Lawrence
While Lawrence might have joked that sleeping with the director made it so she could understand the movie better, she has since spoken up about how difficult filming "Mother!" was for her. In a 2017 interview with Vogue, she shared that filming the movie forced her to "go to a darker place" than she had ever been to before, and "[I] didn't know if I'd be able to come out okay." She even ended up with a dislocated rib and had to be put on oxygen between takes, and told Vogue that Aronofsky kept pushing for emotionality even during those moments. It's really no wonder the relationship was so short-lived, and it adds another level of meta-commentary to the film regarding how auteurs treat their leading women. Hollywood and horror movies in particular are infamous for pushing their leads too far, and it's interesting to see it represented in the movie by Mother and Him's relationship.
During her absolutely hilarious "Hot Ones" episode, Lawrence also revealed that the dislocated rib never quite healed right and that her top rib "still clicks to this day," which is a pretty hardcore souvenir from your time on a film that you didn't fully understand. No matter how great "Mother!" might be, Lawrence deserved to be safe and protected on set, especially since she was dating the director. It would be nice if "Mother!" taught us all some lessons both onscreen and off, but given people's lack of understanding, I wouldn't count on it.
