Jennifer Lawrence Says Brutal Reviews Can Ruin Filmmaking’s Highs

Bad reviews are part of the job, but they still sting. Jennifer Lawrence just laid that out pretty plainly while promoting her new psychological thriller, Die My Love, after what she calls a bumpy launch. She stars opposite Robert Pattinson, with Lynne Ramsey behind the camera, and she told V magazine that the release window can be a special kind of anxiety spiral for actors who pour themselves into a project.

"The experience only adds to the dread, because I've had so many experiences of working so hard on something, loving something so deeply, and then releasing it to the world, and the world just being like, 'Boo! Hate you!' It is so awful."

Lawrence says she weirdly forgets this part of the process exists until it hits again: you love the script, you vibe with the director, the shoot feels great, and then you remember the internet is real. She called those months around release "very scary," even as she acknowledges she's lucky to be where she is in the industry. She also shared a very normal-marriage moment: her husband, who hasn't lived through this rodeo as much, kept telling her the movie is incredible. Her response was basically: sure, but that doesn't guarantee people will get it. His backstop was, well, if they don't, they're wrong. Sweet, not necessarily soothing.

What Die My Love is actually about

Lawrence plays Grace, a writer and young mom who's coming apart at the seams. She's holed up in an old house in and around Montana, growing more agitated and erratic by the day. Pattinson is Jackson, the companion watching the unraveling and not really able to stop it. It's meant to be intimate and unnerving, not a popcorn hang.

• Title: Die My Love
• Director: Lynne Ramsey
• Stars: Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson
• Characters: Lawrence as Grace; Pattinson as Jackson
• Setting: An aging house in and around Montana
• Vibe: Psychological descent; tense, deliberately uncomfortable

Early reactions have been divided enough to rattle nerves, which tracks with the film's uncompromising tone. JoBlo's Chris Bumbray called it an agonizing watch at times, but singled out Lawrence as genuinely outstanding as Grace spirals. So yes, not an easy sit, but the performance is clearly landing with some critics.

It's an interesting reminder that there's a human on the other side of your take, even when the subject is a movie. You don't have to hold back, but maybe remember there's a cast and crew refreshing Rotten Tomatoes just like the rest of us.