The Actress Roundtable: Jennifer Lawrence, Cynthia Erivo and Jessie Buckley Want “All the Shadowy Bits to Show”

This year’s Oscar frontrunners have more in common than usual. Start with their films, of course, where overlapping themes abound. The darker sides of motherhood, and the way grief seeps in, are front and center for Jennifer Lawrence’s Die My Love, Jessie Buckley’s Hamnet and even Amanda Seyfried’s The Testament of Ann Lee — which trades more specifically in the grief of not being a mother. There are bad dads of every variety: Renate Reinsve’s Sentimental Value (distant, narcissistic); Lawrence’s Die My Love again (apathetic, bumbling); Cynthia Erivo’s Wicked: For Good (megalomaniac). And though Laura Dern was on hand to discuss Is This Thing On?, it’s worth mentioning that she also stars in Jay Kelly, the final boss of complicated fatherhood.

The actress’ performances, though varied in breadth and scale, are all deeply personal to the women who embody these roles. Lawrence and…