They’re two of the biggest millennial sex symbols out there — but that doesn’t mean getting sexy together on camera came naturally to Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson when they were shooting their new movie.
Lawrence, 34, and Pattinson, 39, spoke at Cannes Film Festival on Sunday, May 18, following the premiere of their new psychological drama, Die, My Love — and the actress revealed that the movie’s director, Lynne Ramsay, had a unique way of making them feel more comfortable together.
“She had us do dance lessons before we started shooting, which was so humiliating and embarrassing,” Lawrence told Brut in a joint interview with Pattinson at the French film festival. “Then on our first day of shooting, we were naked, attacking each other like tigers!”
Pattinson chimed in: “You think it can’t get more embarrassing, and they’re like ‘Now, do it naked!’”
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Lawrence added that she and Pattinson had “instant trust” and found it “very easy” to work together. “You don’t always get to pick your costars and you don’t always feel comfortable,” she said. “But eventually you get used to it and you’re like talking, getting notes, having a snack — naked!”
The Twilight star went on to explain the role of an on-set intimacy coordinator to help make those potentially awkward sex scenes go smoothly. “It’s not just to feel secure sometimes, but for the actual technicalities,” he said. “Sometimes directors are scared to say, ‘Your body looks weird in this angle!’ But if it’s someone else whose specific job is [to say], ‘You just move it a little bit, you’re going to like it more,’ it’s nice to have.”
Pattinson then added with a laugh: “Someone who’s not embarrassed to say, like, ‘Your butt looks fat, you’re sweating a lot, you look gross.’”
Lawrence, who revealed that she was “four months pregnant, and pretending to be wasted” for the role, added that Pattinson made her feel secure throughout the shoot. “I felt safe all the time, Rob was very appropriate,” she said.
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In the violent dark comedy, which also stars LaKeith Stanfield, Sissy Spacek and Nick Nolte, Lawrence plays a new mom in the Montana countryside who develops postpartum depression and psychosis while her marriage, to Pattinson’s character, unravels.
The hot pair are already attracting rave reviews and even Oscar buzz for Die, My Love, with the BBC describing Lawrence as “better than ever” and The Daily Beast calling her “stunningly feral,” while Deadline branded the movie “brutal but beautiful.”
