A nine-minute standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival, adorned in archival Dior, with a tuxedoed Robert Pattinson on her arm – Jennifer Lawrence’s red-carpet return was as Hollywood as it gets. The 34-year-old actor is back on the big screen, starring in new psychological thriller Die, My Love, following a two-year break from acting, in which she turned executive producer… and produced an actual baby.

Lawrence now shares two children, aged three and one month old, with New York-based art director Cooke Maroney. The couple celebrated her Cannes success at the exclusive Club Albane rooftop – hosted by Dior who dressed Lawrence in a modern-day version of their 1949 Polenc dress, which reportedly took 250 hours to make – alongside co-star Robert Pattinson, actor Natalie Portman and model Helena Christensen.

Die, My Love follows a woman experiencing postpartum psychosis after being left alone to care for her newborn in the remote woods of Montana. Based on Argentine writer Ariana Harwicz’s novel of the same name, it’s produced by Scottish art-house director Lynne Ramsay and is one of few films to debut at Cannes that explores the darker side of motherhood.

‘Having children changes everything,’ Lawrence shared of her own experience during a press conference for the film. ‘It’s brutal and incredible… I didn’t know that I could feel so much. My job [as an actor] has a lot to do with emotion … and my children have opened up the world to me and changed me creatively.’

In exploring the themes of the film, Lawrence also shared that she relates to her characters experience of postpartum anxiety and depression. ‘There’s not really anything like postpartum,’ she explained. ‘It’s extremely isolating. The truth is extreme anxiety, and extreme depression is isolating no matter where you are. You feel like an alien.’

It’s the first personal insight we’ve got into Lawrence’s life off-screen in years, because despite her self-deprecating, down-to-earth nature she’s remarkably private when she’s not on the promotional tour circuit. Once a self-described workaholic, Lawrence now takes regular breaks from acting in which she has hailed the joy of sleeping in, doing daily Pilates and spending time with friends like Emma Stone, Adele and Amy Schumer.

It might sound remarkably normal for someone who’s Hollywood career started out so intense, her name now a guarantee of blockbuster success, but normal is exactly what Lawrence wanted. ‘The protocol of stardom began to kill her creative spirit, to fuck with her compass,’ Lawerence’s best friend and producing partner, Justine Ciarrocchi, said of her first break from fame. ‘So, she vanished, which was probably the most responsible way to protect her gifts. And sanity.’

Not only have the breaks helped her personal life, but career wise too. ‘I was not pumping out the quality that I should have,’ she told Vanity Fair in 2021. ‘I just think everybody had gotten sick of me. I’d gotten sick of me. It had just gotten to a point where I couldn’t do anything right. If I walked a red carpet, it was, “Why didn’t she run?”… I think that I was people-pleasing for the majority of my life. Working made me feel like nobody could be mad at me: “Okay, I said yes, we’re doing it. Nobody’s mad.” And then I felt like I reached a point where people were not pleased just by my existence. So that kind of shook me out of thinking that work or your career can bring any kind of peace to your soul.’

In a viral video that resurfaces with every glimpse of Lawrence’s new life off-screen, a 22-year-old J Law is seen telling Barbara Walters that in 10 years she hopes to ‘not be in Los Angeles, [but] in a house on a big property and maybe starting a family. Everything’s calm, I have a minivan.’ She is unfortunately still in LA (previously bicoastal, but sold her $10million Manhattan penthouse in 2020) but she does drive a Volvo now. Hurrah!

‘My kids go into every decision of if I’m working, where I’m working, when I’m working,’ Lawrence said at Cannes. She’s keen on keeping them out the limelight too. ‘Every instinct in my body wants to protect [my kids] privacy for the rest of their lives, as much as I can,’ Lawrence once explained. ‘I don’t want anyone to feel welcome into their existence. And I feel like that just starts with not including them in this part of my work.’

Working behind the camera has afforded her some of the flexibility she craves. Lawrence’s production company with Ciarrocchi, Excellent Cadaver, not only put out her new psychological thriller, but the documentary Zurawski v Texas which explored the attacks on reproductive rights in the US, in 2024, and Afghan filmmaker Sahra Mani’s documentary on how the Taliban takeover has impacted women, the year prior. Upcoming developments include Sue, a biopic on legendary Hollywood agent Sue Mengers, and a Real Housewives-inspired murder mystery called The Wives. Truly, their roster is the definition of High-Low, that’s why we love our Jen!

Let’s soak her up while she’s back in the spotlight, shall we?