'Yeah, I'm here': Katy O'Brian muscles her way into Hollywood with 'Love Lies Bleeding'

KatyO’Brian has lived such an interesting reality that it has bled into her fiction.

There’s the occasional gross bit – for example, an icky used condom found in a seedy New Mexico back alley while filming her pulpy romantic thriller “Love Lies Bleeding." But more importantly, like the muscular character she plays, O'Brian is a queer Midwestern woman walking into a moment that’s about to change her life. 

“Everything's weird,” says O’Brian, who has just heard some exciting “super-secret news” about her burgeoning career, which has seen her rocket from supporting TV roles (“Z Nation,” “The Mandalorian”) to co-lead of a Kristen Stewart neo-noir movie. “It feels a little simulation-y.”

The Indianapolis native, 35, has her breakthrough role in director Rose Glass' "Love Lies Bleeding” (in theaters now) as Jackie, an aspiring bodybuilder from Oklahoma passing through 1980s New Mexico on her way to a Las Vegas competition. Jackie's life takes a very violent turn when she falls for introverted gym manager Lou (Stewart).

Review:Full of biceps and bullets, 'Love Lies Bleeding' will be your sexy noir obsession

While Glass wrote Stewart’s role with her in mind, O’Brian felt a deep connection with Jackie when she read the script – so much so that she powered through a six-part audition process before being cast.

“That allowed me to go in with this level of arrogance and confidence that I never, ever go into an audition with,” says O’Brian, who's married to screenwriter Kylie Chi. “It helped me because I wasn't nervous. I was just like, ‘Yeah, I'm here.’”

Here’s what to know about 2024’s hottest new star, who next appears in the tornado-filled sequel “Twisters” (out July 19):

A throwback era influenced Katy O’Brian’s ‘Loves Lies Bleeding’ role

In "Love Lies Bleeding,” Jackie and Lou’s love story takes some serious ups and downs – involving murder, betrayal and steamy sex – but their mutual attraction is there from the very start when Jackie swaggers into the dingy gym and Lou eyes her pumping iron. “Obviously, Kristen's beautiful. It'd be harder if it was someone who maybe wasn't super-cute,” O’Brian says about their chemistry.

O’Brian also felt inspired by the film’s era: “The ‘80s is such a big and fun and wild time,” the actress says, adding that Glass outfitted the sets with authentic gym equipment from way back. “It’s not built for a woman's size. It's like too big, so you have to adjust. (Plus) the costumes were so revealing and you had to walk around like, ‘Yeah, I'm hot (stuff),' because it's just your skin and you have to have your held up high.” 

Like her character Jackie, Katy O’Brian has a background in bodybuilding

O’Brian actually competed in bodybuilding in her 20s, so doing the posing scenes in “Bleeding” was no sweat. (Well, there probably was some sweat.) O’Brian appreciated that Glass took moviegoers literally behind the curtain, where people put on spray tans and do last-minute bicep curls.

“All the moments of intensity,” the actress says. “The most stressful thing is not actually when you're out on the stage, it's right before.” The movie also captures “the weird juxtaposition of being very pretty but really tense at the same time. You have to be flexing but smiling and pretending that it's fun for you.”

A martial artist as well, O'Brian stays in good shape, so getting into Jackie mode was “fairly easy”: She’s kept up her bodybuilding workouts over the years because “it’s what I know but also good for my mental health.” The physicality aspect is “pretty effortless for her,” says Glass, who notes that O’Brian is "incredibly charismatic" but “just underneath that, she brings this incredible vulnerability and softness.” Adds Stewart: “She’s like Frankenstein. A sweet, little Frankenstein.”

Former band kid Katy O’Brian also has police officer on her resume

O’Brian started acting as a kid alongside one of her older brothers when their mom signed both up with an agent. But it was difficult finding a place because of their mixed race (Black and white): “They just didn't really know where to put us.” O’Brian recalls being discouraged yet "was always doing something artistic," from local theater to assistant-directing plays in high school and playing percussion in band.

Yet after graduating from Indiana University in 2011, O’Brian felt the “need to have a stable job,” so she worked as a police officer before going fully into screen acting. While being a cop wasn’t for her, the experience has helped her find emotional impact with military-esque roles in shows like “The Rookie.” In law enforcement, “you have to put yourself in situations that are terrifying or are emotionally horrific," she says. “A lot of people get more jaded, but it made me a much more sympathetic and empathetic person.”

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This ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ breakout lives in the Marvel, ‘Star Wars’ universes, too

Admittedly “a big nerd,” O’Brian grew up watching Spider-Man and X-Men cartoons, as well as as “Hercules” and “Xena,” and she’s enjoyed her roles in that geek-friendly space. She played the warrior Jentorra in Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and the villainous Imperial comms officer Elia Kane in the “Star Wars” show “The Mandalorian.” 

“Honestly, it's maybe even more cool” for her "Star Wars"-adoring brother, O’Brian says. “When stuff goes to space, that's where it loses me, which is funny.” She even took her sibling to a “Mandalorian” premiere: “It was like getting to be kids again.”

Contributing: Patrick Ryan