Jennifer Lawrence Says Women Directors Tend Not to ‘Over-Direct’ Like Men Do: Some Male Directors ‘Need to Constantly Feel Like’ They’re in Control

Jennifer Lawrence recently told Vulture during a post-screening Q&A for “Die My Love” that she feels a noticeable difference when she’s working with a female director compared to a male director. “Die My Love” was helmed by Lynne Ramsay. Other female filmmakers in Lawrence’s filmography include Debra Granik (“Winter’s Bone”), Jodie Foster (“The Beaver”), Susanne Bier (“Serena”) and Lila Neugebauer (“Causeway”).

“I have found a commonality in female directors, which is that they do not do this thing, which is over-direct,” the Oscar winner noted. “There have been some times when I’ve worked with male directors where there’s this need to constantly feel like they’re directing the movie. And it’s not even really getting anything done. It’s just annoying. When I think auteur, my mind kind of goes to controlling and … what’s that word? Neurotic!”

“And Lynne was the opposite,” Lawrence continued. “She really built this world and made sure that we were all on the same page, through music and conversations and the atmosphere and the set. And then she would just kind of slowly walk back. And sometimes, from the discomfort of that, from the lack of her visibility, something interesting would come from it. And then she would come out and be like, ‘That’s great, great, yeah, do it again.’ Or we would accidentally laugh and be like, ‘Oh, sorry.’ And she’d be like, ‘No, it was great. I liked that you laughed. Do it again.’”

“Die My Love,” based on Ariana Harwicz’s 2012 novel of the same name, stars Lawrence as a woman plunged into psychosis amid a loveless marriage following the birth of her child. Robert Pattinson, LaKeith Stanfield, Nick Nolte and Sissy Spacek co-star.

Ramsay told Vulture that her directing style on the movie was born of wanting the actors to feel free on the set.

“I love working with actors. When you really trust each other, something just happens that’s magical,” Ramsay said. “So sometimes I’d let the take run long. There’s a kind of discomfort in that. It’s like, ‘What the hell did we do now?; But then something happens sometimes. I gave them the space in that house to just explore and go in and out of doors. There was one scene where Grace is just bored in the house and there’s that laundry basket, and I didn’t ask her to tip it over with her toe, but there’s a kind of rage in that.”

“Die My Love” opens in theaters Nov. 7 from Mubi.