If there is one horror film that left us scarred, confused, and terrified all at once, it will have to be Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! For someone who dreads unexpected guests showing up at their doorstep, the psychological horror film was disturbing in more ways than one. Starring Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem in the lead role, Mother! Is truly one of a kind, and it might not be for everyone.
Javier Bardem and Jennifer Lawrence in Mother! (2017) | Paramount Pictures
Another disturbing part of the film is the age difference between Javier Bardem’s ‘Him’ and Jennifer Lawrence’s Mother. While ‘Him’ was well in his late forties, Mother was only 27 years old – a striking echo of reality, where Darren Aronofsky was 48 and Jennifer Lawrence was 27 at the time. Did the director base ‘Him’ on himself? He denies the allegations.
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Javier Bardem as ‘Him’ in Mother! | Paramount Pictures
Jennifer Lawrence and Darren Aronofsky dated for a little over a year when they wrapped their film, Mother! The director and actress have an age gap of a whopping 22 years which was a red flag for many fans invested in their love life.
Not only was Lawrence significantly younger than Aronofsky, but she was also 22 years younger than her co-star. Here’s where things get a little weird. Javier Bardem’s ‘Him’ was 48 years old while Mother was 27, the exact ages of Lawrence and Aronofsky. Naturally, one couldn’t help but wonder if the director and writer based Bardem’s character on himself.
When this was brought up in an interview for The Guardian, Aronofsky denied any and all allegations of projecting his real life into the fictional character. He stated that unlike ‘Him’, he is not a monster.
Apart from the time when he has to be a “monster” on set thanks to his duties as a filmmaker, Aronofsky stated that he’s just a normal guy and a devoted father.
Oh no. No, no, not at all. Javier knows me. He knows I’m not a monster. Because a film director is a very different kind of artist. I only have to be a monster on set – for two or three months every few years. The rest of the time I’m a nine-to-five father. I take my kid to school, go to sleep, live a life. Then go see my parents at weekends.
Well, there you have it. Apart from the eerie age similarities, Aronofsky has absolutely nothing in common with ‘Him’.
There’s a Part of the Director in Every Film
A still from Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! | Paramount Pictures
When asked if he knew that such similarities might force the audience to speculate about the character, Aronofsky affirmed. However, the director firmly believes that every single one of his stories contains a little part of himself in them.
According to him, he sees a little of himself in the ballerina in Black Swan, the wrestler in The Wrestler, and so on.
In his own words,
Oh sure. It’s a projection of my life and what I’m thinking about. But my ego is in every character in every film that I’ve made. I’m the ballerina in ‘Black Swan’. I’m the wrestler in ‘The Wrestler’.
Of course, he agrees that people might make a different kind of connection between him and Bardem’s character but it doesn’t bother him at the least. After all, everything is fiction in the end. In fact, Aronofsky sees himself more in Lawrence’s Mother.
I can see how people will especially make the connection with this one. But it’s also all fiction; it’s all smoke and mirrors. And if anything, my empathy here is more with the mother. I’m probably more Jen’s character than I am Javier’s.
Mother! did not have a good time at the box office as it could only make $44.5 million worldwide. On the other hand, the film received positive reviews from critics who praised the director as well as the actors for their fine work.
Rent/buy Mother! from Prime Video.
