How the Kardashians helped Jennifer Lawrence reach her darkest self
Love them or loathe them, it is hard to deny the cultural influence of the Kardashian family. While reality television shows have always been popular, an unprecedented phenomenon emerged when the series Keeping Up With the Kardashians aired in 2007, which has subsequently churned out 20 seasons and made the family perhaps the most well-known in the world.
Followed by many with the same enthusiasm that some have for the Royal Family; even if you’re not interested in the lives of Kim, Khloe, Kourtney, Kris, Kendall, and Kylie, you probably know more about them than you’d care to admit. From their marriages and children to their latest career endeavours, their whole lives have been laid out for us to consume; naturally, they’ve attracted a fair few famous fans.
Enter Jennifer Lawrence. Rising to prominence in the early 2010s with her portrayal of the iconic Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, she quickly gained a reputation as a relatable star. So, it’s no surprise that she has openly declared her love for the Kardashians in the past. Clearly, even for a Hollywood A-lister, there’s always time to relax and unwind with some trash television.
For Lawrence, the Kardashians proved to be a useful tool when filming Mother!, one of the most demanding movies of her career. Darren Aronofsky, who also helmed Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan, directed the movie, a psychological horror that features plenty of violence. Just like his other films, Mother! isn’t exactly easy watching, and critical reception was polarising.
The film follows Lawrence as Mother, a woman who is meant to represent Mother Earth and her destruction. Lawrence’s character spends her days renovating her home, but soon, a strange couple appears at her doorstep and threatens her quaint, nice life. Their arrival also tests her relationship with her husband, an acclaimed poet, played by Javier Bardem. Mother! features many religious allusions, taking significant influence from the Bible.
There were certain scenes that Lawrence was required to film that were incredibly intense, and as a result, she needed to get herself into the right mindset. She told Jimmy Fallon, “I had to do this one scene, and I hadn’t gone that dark before, I had never done something that horrifying. I started getting scared a couple days before so I was like, I need a tent to keep away from all the extras because I didn’t know what I would do.”
Her solution for managing such darkness was to ask the crew for a specific tent to be set up where she could go and recover between takes. Inside the tent, episodes of Keeping Up With the Kardashians would be played for her. She continued, “It was just a computer that was playing the Kardashians, and had head shots, and it also had notes to me from them, that I had written. I can’t share any of them because I don’t want to offend anybody, and they’re my own personal thoughts…”
It seems as though when we’re placed in tough situations, a bit of easy-watching makes it all a bit better.
