Jennifer Lawrence returned to acting this year after some time out of the spotlight, and she knows exactly who she wants to work with going forward: women. During a Hollywood Reporter panel with Danielle Deadwyler, Michelle Yeoh, Michelle Williams, Emma Corrin, and Claire Foy, Lawrence shared a little bit about her experience working with male directors.
“I’ve worked with Bryan Singer,” she said. “I’ve seen emotional men. I’ve seen the biggest hissy fits thrown on set.”
Singer directed Lawrence on the set of several X-Men movies, before he was accused of sexual misconduct and removed from the franchise. Lawrence said of her experiences with female directors that it is “incredible” to not be surrounded by “toxic masculinity.”
“The schedule made sense,” she said. “There were no huge fights. If an actor had a personal thing and wanted to leave early, instead of going, ‘Oh! Well, we’d all love to leave early!’ we’d put our heads together and go, ‘OK. How can we figure this out?’”
She continued, “[Lila Neugebauer’s] my third female director and they are the calmest, best decision-makers I’ve ever worked with. I absolutely love working with female directors.”
Foy chimed in to share some of her experience working with Canadian director Sarah Polley on the set of her new movie, Women Talking.
“What she did was prioritize the experience as opposed to the outcome of what the movie was going to be, and so rarely that’s what happens,” said Foy. “Often it’s: ‘Where are you trying to get to? Make something good.’ As opposed to just trying to believe that what you’re doing in that precise moment is good. And the crew are happy, and everyone’s fed, and everyone’s had eight hours of sleep.”
Aimée Lutkin is the weekend editor at ELLE.com. Her writing has appeared in Jezebel, Glamour, Marie Claire and more. Her first book, The Lonely Hunter, will be released by Dial Press in February 2022.
