Katy O’Brian plays a bodybuilder in the new movie Love Lies Bleeding. And she’s a bodybuilder in real life, too. The fast-rising actress has even competed in figure competitions. Let’s get to know Katy O’Brian.
KATY O’BRIAN
Born February, 12, 1989, Katy O’Brian grew up in Indianapolis. She began studying martial arts at age five and earned a black belt in hapkido when attending Indiana University, where she studied law enforcement. After college, she worked as a police officer and also earned her personal trainer certification.
She competed twice in amateur figure competitions, in 2014 and 2015, but decided not to pursue competition further because of the expense and because she wasn’t willing to do steroids like many other competitors. During this time, she also studied acting and acted in student short films.
After seven years of law enforcement, O’Brian moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting while continuing to expand her knowledge of martial arts (including Muay Thai and Brazilian jiu jitsu) and regularly hit the weights. She says her best deadlift is just under 400 pounds. She married her wife in 2020.
Since moving to L.A., O’Brian has acted consistently. Her best known roles are on fantastical TV shows: Elia Kane in the Star Wars spinoff The Mandalorian, George in the zombie show Z Nation, Major Sara Grey in the superhero series Black Lightning, and Kimball in the Marvel show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. She also played Jentorra in last year’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Though bloody (hence the title) and even a little fantastical, Love Lies Bleeding is more down-to-earth than her TV roles. It doesn’t include any superheroes, zombies, or spaceships. Katy O’Brian plays a bisexual, competitive bodybuilder. She had to audition for this, her first leading role, six times before director Rose Glass was certain she was perfect.
O’Brian lives with Crohn’s disease, and as she detailed in Self magazine, the autoimmune condition nearly derailed all of her training and dieting to get into the shape of her life for Love Lies Bleeding when she was told just before production began she needed to undergo emergency bowel surgery. However, she was able to delay it until after shooting, and, thankfully, all went well.
“I wanted to be visible as an actor taking on a very physical role while successfully managing Crohn’s. My character, Jackie, is training for a bodybuilding competition, so in addition to filming gym scenes and some pretty intense action scenes, I had to work out for multiple hours every night once I got home,” O’Brian told Self. “I’ve worked really hard since getting my diagnosis to listen to my body and take a day off or an easy day when I need to. And while that has been challenging, it’s also made me that much more appreciative of the days when I’m feeling good.”
LOVE LIES BLEEDING
To call Love Lies Bleeding an erotic thriller on steroids would, literally, be true. Set in a small New Mexico town in 1989 (lots of mullets, lots of bullets), a gym manager (Kristen Stewart) falls in love with a drugged-up competitive bodybuilder (Katy O’Brian), leading to deadly complications. Ed Harris plays Stewart’s murderous father. The A24 film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and is now in theaters.
Check out the trailer:
Opening image: Katy O’Brian competing in figure in 2015. / Instagram
