Jennifer Lawrence reflects on Hollywood hiatus

Jennifer Lawrence reflects on her acting hiatus and comeback with Cannes-premiered film Die My Love

Oscar-winning actor Jennifer Lawrence recently opened up about her two-year break from acting, revealing that she was at peace with the idea of not returning to Hollywood. Speaking on The Graham Norton Show, Lawrence shared that after a decade of nonstop work throughout her twenties, she finally took a step back. “I was working all of my twenties, and then I was like… what’s out here? What’s going on?” she said.

The break followed a series of underwhelming box office performances, including Passengers (2016), mother! (2017), Red Sparrow (2018), and Dark Phoenix (2019). After receiving her fourth Academy Award nomination for Joy in 2015, Lawrence slowed her career momentum and didn’t appear in another film until 2021’s Don’t Look Up, directed by Adam McKay.

When asked if she feared she might not return to the industry, Lawrence said she had made peace with the possibility. “Hollywood is a lot,” she admitted. “I think I would have been okay, but also I would’ve been really upset. I don’t know.”

In a 2021 interview with Vanity Fair, Lawrence reflected more deeply on her hiatus, admitting she felt burned out and creatively stifled. “I just think everybody had gotten sick of me. I’d gotten sick of me,” she said. “I reached a point where people were not pleased just by my existence.”

She also revealed that her career had become a tool for people-pleasing. “Working made me feel like nobody could be mad at me,” she explained, “but that stopped working.”

Her producing partner and close friend Justine Polsky told Vanity Fair that the pressures of stardom had started to dull Lawrence’s creative instincts. “The protocol of stardom began to kill her creative spirit… So, she vanished, which was probably the most responsible way to protect her gifts. And sanity.”

Lawrence is now returning to the spotlight with Die My Love, a psychological drama co-starring Robert Pattinson and directed by Lynne Ramsay. The film premiered at Cannes and will be released in theaters by Mubi on November 7.