Sumith Prasad
In Rose Glass’ romantic thriller film ‘Love Lies Bleeding,’ Katy O’Brian’s Jackie is a bodybuilder from Oklahoma who arrives in New Mexico to train for a bodybuilding championship in Las Vegas, Nevada. Throughout the movie, the actress increases the authenticity of the character by flexing her muscles and displaying her perfect build. In a particular scene, Jackie even joins several other bodybuilders without Katy standing out as an odd one, and there’s a reason for it. While shooting the film, it was not the first time the actress was entering a stage to flex her physical features. She has a long history of impressing her audiences with her build!
Katy O’Brian’s Career as a Bodybuilder
Katy O’Brian was a bodybuilder in real life. Before moving to Los Angeles, California, to become a professional actress, the performer had a stint as a bodybuilder in Indiana. Since her childhood, Katy has been into martial arts, something she learned to defend herself from her bullies. After her education, she joined the local law enforcement as a cop, but eventually, she realized that it was not a suitable career for her. The actress wanted something different at that point in her life, which led her to a gym, as she wanted to get in good shape to feel strong. This decision turned her life into bodybuilding.
“I wound up joining a gym — just like LA Fitness — and working with a trainer there, and they suggested bodybuilding. I’d never thought about it, [and] didn’t really know what it was. But they suggested it as a way to set a goal and stay with it,” Katy told Talia Schlanger of CBC’s ‘Q.’ Like her character Jackie, the actress used to compete in bodybuilding championships. Her career as a bodybuilder, however, was short. As per reports, she put a stop to participating in competitions due to the expense and the need for taking steroids, which she was not willing to do. Since she had already realized that acting makes her happy, Katy moved to Los Angeles to pursue it.
“The bodybuilding stuff on top of it [acting]… 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,” Katy added about combining bodybuilding and acting.
Katy O’Brian’s Transformation into Jackie
Katy did not have to gain weight specifically for ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ since she generally keeps her fit and in shape to accept any role similar to Jackie. Rather than gaining weight, she had to reduce fat and water weight to make her build look more prominent in the film. “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,” Katy told Talia Schlanger in the same ‘Q’ interview.
To become Jackie, Katy and Steve Zim, her renowned Hollywood-based trainer, only had two weeks before the filming. Zim made custom plans every day for the actress to follow while training. “I would do two days a week of chest, shoulders, [and] triceps. Two days of back, biceps, and traps. And then two days of legs and one day off,” she told TheWrap about her workout regimen. “And then 30 to 45 minutes of abs every day, which was really annoying for me because I felt like I was just going through the motions. And then an hour of walking uphill on a treadmill every day,” the actress added.
For the championship scenes, Katy pushed herself to an extreme. She shed around ten pounds of her water weight by implementing a dehydration cycle, something she previously did while competing as a bodybuilder back in Indiana. “There’s a science to having your skin as tight to the muscle as it can be, so you can see striations and the musculature, but at the same time having blood flow and having a pump,” the actress told Men’s Health about the process. In addition, her preparations for the role were affected by Crohn’s disease, a lifelong autoimmune condition with symptoms like diarrhea, abdominal pain, and fatigue.
Katy’s doctor wanted her to undergo surgery to remove scar tissue after her intestines were “swollen shut.” Rather than proceeding with the procedure right away, she completed the filming of ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ when her surgeon informed her that they could wait until the shooting of the project was done. Thus, Katy transformed herself into Jackie with intense training and workouts, all while battling a chronic condition.
Read More: Love Lies Bleeding: Is the Kristen Stewart Movie Fictional or Real?
