Here are some photos from the Paris premiere of “mother!” Jennifer Lawrence and Darren Aronofsky were seemingly the only people from the film in Paris to promote the film – Javier Bardem had to stay behind in Venice to promote another film, and I guess Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer won’t be doing a ton of stuff to promote the film at all (to be fair, Ed Harris has done nothing so far). So, what we’re getting is another J-Law fashion show. I enjoyed her J.Lo-esque Versace number in London, mostly because I hoped it was a signal that she wasn’t going to wear endless Dior pieces. But of course she went with Dior for the Paris premiere. Even though it’s sort of bland, I do like this gown. It’s pretty. It feels like it’s a little bit wasted on a low-key Paris premiere though – this would have been a good gown to give to a TV star for the Emmys next weekend.

Meanwhile, as we’ve been discussing for a few months, it does seem like J-Law has a thing for somewhat abusive directors. In her Vogue interview, Jen said that Darren Aronofsky made her keep filming even after she tore her diaphragm. There are stories circulating that he bullied her constantly during filming too. So what does Aronofsky have to say about it? From his Guardian interview:

On the reports that he likes to “break down” his actors: “No, no. It’s not about breaking them down. They break themselves down. They’re game. Actors… Sometimes they forget, but I think the original reason they started acting was to be able to cry in front of class. Sometimes they forget that, when they become big action movie stars, because that’s more about modelling than acting. But they love it, really. So I’m always looking for actors who want to roll up their sleeves and let loose and just cry. Javier’s not afraid of crying; he’ll do anything. Jennifer, completely the same. She’s still very young; not jaded in the least. And, yeah, she was scared on this movie, because she knew she was going to have to go for some big emotions.”

Jennifer tore her diaphragm: “Yeah, she ended up tearing her diaphragm. She was hyperventilating. Because of the emotion.” Is it true that he then immediately ordered her to do the whole scene again? The director snorts. “Well, yeah. Pull it together. That’s very British, right? Come on, let’s go.” And how was Lawrence with such behaviour? Did she tolerate it? “No, no,” he says, apparently worried I’m getting the wrong end of the stick. “I mean, we gave her time to recover. The thing is that she’d been thinking about that scene way too long, and it got all up in her head. So then the emotions flooded her and I saw what was happening – because I’m experienced – and was able to get the camera in the right place. The shot was originally on her back and I flipped the whole thing, let her recover and then said, ‘Get the camera on her face, right now’, because that’s the kind of emotion that you never, ever see.”

[From The Guardian]

Basically he’s saying that when his lead actress hurt herself because she was so consumed by getting the performance right, his first concern was flipping the camera around to film her in pain and make sure that he captured her true distress. I really don’t understand directors like this, and yes, I know that many brilliant directors treat their actors this way. Stanley Kubrick did it too – driving his actors to madness with endless takes, wanting to see “real” emotion and pain instead of “acted” emotion and pain. It just… sucks. It sucks that Jennifer is dating Aronofsky.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid and WENN.