If the modern age has produced few bona fide movie stars, then Jennifer Lawrence can certainly count herself among them. Although we’ve seen less of her recently and her choices have felt less canny, the prospect of this actress bringing her considerable charisma to the latest from Scottish auteur Lynne Ramsay (the psychologically probing, blackly comic Die My Love) is undoubtedly a tantalising prospect.

Born in 1990 into a Republican, christian household in Kentucky, Lawrence would ultimately shake off her conservative upbringing to become one of Hollywood’s most high-profile feminists, as well as one of its sharpest wits, routinely puncturing her bubble of glamour and privilege with self-deprecating humour. Lawrence’s breakthrough came in 2010 when she bagged the lead in Winter’s Bone, for which she was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar, aged just 20. Two years later she would become the second youngest ever winner of that prize for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook. By 2015, Lawrence was the highest paid actress in Hollywood.

For a time, Lawrence was everywhere. Deftly balancing Oscar-bait with blockbusters such as the Hunger Games and X-Men franchises, she became both an action star and a critical darling, flitting between dour dystopias and the screwball world of David O Russell (who directed her in Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle and Joy). However, by 2016 her career had already begun to falter: the X-Men franchise took a nosedive quality wise, while (as she eventually admitted herself) that year’s Passengers was conceptually problematic, damaging her feminist credentials. Mother! might have been a bold artistic choice but it was something of a Marmite watch, while Red Sparrow and Don’t Look Up also attracted mixed reviews.

Lawrence’s rise to the top was rapid and she has often made being famous seem fun, but she has, like so many others, found that being in the spotlight comes at a hefty price. In 2014, naked pictures of her were stolen and posted online, an incident Lawrence felt was tantamount to a sex crime, telling Vanity Fair in 2021: ‘My trauma will exist forever’.

In 2022, Lawrence became a mother and has since had a second child with art gallery-director husband Cooke Maroney, a less high-profile romantic situation following relationships with X-Men co-star Nicholas Hoult and her Mother! director Darren Aronofsky. Since having kids, things have been quieter on the film front: the respectable if slightly underwhelming war veteran drama Causeway was followed by Lawrence making something of a comeback with successful 2023 sex comedy No Hard Feelings. She’s also branched out as a producer with production company Excellent Cadaver, who are behind her three most recent releases as well as the documentaries Zurawski v Texas and Bread And Roses.

Based on the 2012 novel by Ariana Harwicz, Die My Love sees a young mother move to the countryside with her partner (played by Robert Pattinson), only to find herself struggling with her sanity. One of her most challenging roles to date, it returns Lawrence to the cinematic conversation in quite some style. It’s good to have her back.

Die My Love is in cinemas from Friday 7 November; read our interview with Lynne Ramsay.