How Katy O'Brian went from bodybuilding to starring alongside Kristen Stewart in a queer erotic thriller
The actor explains how coming up in the competitive bodybuilding world prepared her for Love Lies Bleeding
As an actor and a bodybuilder, Katy O'Brian understands she's not right for every role, but when a fan sent her the casting call for Love Lies Bleeding, she knew she'd be perfect for the part.
"They were hoping to cast authentically queer actors — a female bodybuilder from the Midwest — and I was like, 'Well, OK, that's me,'" she tells Q guest host Talia Schlanger in an interview. "The thing that really sealed the deal was it's [produced by] A24, which I love … and Kristen Stewart was pinned as the lead. So I was like, 'This is just an incredible opportunity.'"
Described as "an erotic thriller on steroids," Rose Glass's Love Lies Bleeding follows two women, Lou and Jackie, who meet by chance in 1980s New Mexico. Lou (Stewart) runs a gnarly gym in a rough small town while Jackie (O'Brian) is an aspiring professional bodybuilder who's passing through on her way to a competition in Las Vegas.
Between landing the role and the start of shooting, O'Brian only had two weeks to cut (a period of entering into a calorie deficit to shed body fat and reveal more muscle), but she says the process of getting ripped wasn't too difficult for her.
"People are like, 'How did you get so big for this role?' And, well, I used to compete in bodybuilding, so I always look like this — I just don't always look that lean," she explains.
"I've always had a lot of muscle and continue to maintain that. It's just a matter of chiseling off a little bit of fat so the muscle stands out more. I think I just tend to be about two to three weeks away [from being that lean] for any production because you never know, but also it's just a lifestyle thing."
WATCH | Official trailer for Love Lies Bleeding:
Competitive bodybuilding came into O'Brian's life around the same time she decided to take acting more seriously.
"I was working in law enforcement at the time," she tells Schlanger. "I wanted to make some changes in my life and I wasn't happy in my career…. I wound up joining a gym — just like an LA Fitness — and working with a trainer there, and they suggested bodybuilding. I'd never thought about it, didn't really know what it was. But they suggested it as a way to set a goal and stay with it…. So I joined an actual bodybuilder gym and went from there. It became like a bit of a community where a lot of us are training for the same goal."
Acting, on the other hand, was something that interested O'Brian since she was a kid, but growing up in Indiana, she found it difficult to book anything.
"I thought it might not be a reasonable career for me," she says. "I was like, 'Man, maybe I just suck at this and I should just do something else…. It wasn't until after college where I was like, '[Acting] is the thing that's going to make me happy. That's what I've always wanted to do.'"
Along with joining the bodybuilding gym, O'Brian decided to take an acting class, which she says helped her break down the barriers she had built for herself and gave her the courage to pursue it professionally.
"The bodybuilding stuff on top of it … really helped me with motivational goal setting. And I think they both kind of fell into place at the same time and informed both sides of that art. It was weird that this movie came about that put both of those on display."
The full interview with Katy O'Brian is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Katy O'Brian produced by Lise Hosein.
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