Lawrence, with her husband, Cooke Maroney, welcomed their son Cy in February 2022.
Jennifer Lawrence opened up about her anxiety as a new mom in a candid conversation for Variety’s Actors on Actors interview.
Lawrence, 32, was joined by Viola Davis as they discussed a series of topics and one of them was motherhood and the challenges it brings. During the conversation, Lawrence shared that the movie Causeway, the film she produced and stars in about a military veteran struggling with a traumatic brain injury, came at an opportune time.
“I made [Causeway] right before I got married," Lawrence said, alluding to her 2019 wedding to Cooke Maroney. “And then we had the pandemic. Two years later, I'm pregnant, we go back, and we make the rest of it.”
Lawrence, with her husband, welcomed their son Cy in February 2022.
It was the scariest thing in the entire world to think about making a family," the 32-year-old recalled. "What if I f--- up? What if I can't do it? And I was so scared that I would f--- it up. And it was so interesting to make a movie where I'm feeling so scared and feeling this mirrored in [my character] Lynsey."
“Every day of being a mom, I feel awful. I feel guilty,” admitted Lawrence and added she often second guesses her instincts.
“I'm playing with him and I'm like, 'Is this what he wants to be doing? Should we be outside? We're outside. What if he's cold? What if he's going to get sick? Should we be inside? Is this enough? Is this developing your brain enough?’”
To reassure the new mom, Viola Davis shared her own experience of being a new mother and the troubles she went through. “Jennifer, I locked my kid in the car, and it was sweltering hot outside,” narrated the Woman King actress when she accidentally locked her daughter Genesis, 12, when she was younger, via People.
“I had 50 million things on my plate. My daughter was in the back. She's happy, and I'm just so stressed out going to Target. I love Target. I walk out of the car, shut the door, and realise I don't have my keys. I threw myself on the concrete, Jennifer. I screamed,” recalled Davis. “You would think I was in a Greek tragedy. 'My baby! Jesus!’”
Davis in a panic approached two men and cried for help when she realised that she had her phone the entire time. The men had calmed her down and told her to call 911.
Lawrence then shared that she once drove around with her son in the back, realising that he was not buckled into his car seat. “He was just teetering around, just flying,” Lawrence said in response, before quipping, "OK, great! Good to know that we all almost killed our kids.”
