If we discovered something from Saint Maud, it’s that director Rose Glass doesn’t compromise. Her debut function was an assault on the senses, a swirling psychological horror that knew how and when to carry the ache. And now, she’s following it up with Love Lies Bleeding – taking a step away from the scares from her first function, and transferring into romance-fuelled revenge-thriller territory. Caught up in a bind of blood, bullets, and bodybuilding is Kristen Stewart’s fitness center proprietor Lou, who falls for the super-buff Jackie – performed by Katy O’Brian, a latest standout in The Mandalorian. Their love for one another sparks a powder keg of violence, not helped by the truth that Lou’s household is deep in unlawful dealings.
For Glass, her second movie was an opportunity to puncture Hollywood’s laziest concepts of the ‘robust feminine character’ by taking that cliche extraordinarily actually. “Binaries are a bit boring,” the filmmaker says. “It’s all very fertile floor to play with, doing one thing a couple of feminine bodybuilder. It shouldn’t be that surprising to see any person who seems to be like these two do in a movie – however there’s nonetheless one thing fairly punk a couple of actually muscular lady.” And when she noticed O’Brian, she immediately knew that she’d discovered her Jackie. “I’ve accomplished bodybuilding competitions,” the actor tells Empire. “I do know what it’s prefer to wish to obtain one thing. The food plan and vitamin and workout routines, seeing the change in your physique, having that focus and self-discipline – I used to be actually drawn to that.”
That punk power of Glass and her performers discovered its method into every thing that Love Lies Bleeding would change into. “We are always watching films about girls triumphing over oppressive forces as a result of we’re one way or the other ethically or morally superior,” says Stewart. “It’s like, ‘No, fuck that. I’m so sick of that. I’m so sick of that fucking film.’ And so this one simply felt like we have been allowed to drag our gown over our head and run down the road, use the boys’ toys and shove them of their faces – after which even be like, ‘We’re nothing such as you.’” Prepare to get severely pumped up.
Read Empire’s full Love Lies Bleeding function – chatting with Rose Glass, Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian – in the Star Wars prequels twenty fifth anniversary concern, on sale Thursday 15 February. Love Lies Bleeding involves UK cinemas from 3 May.
