Love Lies Bleeding star explains how Kristen Stewart's last-minute improv in a certain scene set the gory romantic thriller's whole tone

May. 2, 2024

Exclusive | Katy O’Brian opens up on working with Kristen Stewart and “intuitive” director Rose Glass

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Love Lies Bleedingstar Katy O’Brian has revealed that Kristen Stewart made a last-minute tweak to one of the romantic thriller’s most pivotal scenes – and explained why it fit so perfectly with the film’s gory, campy tone.

When talking toGamesRadar+about being directed bySaint Maudhelmer Rose Glass, the actor, who has previously appeared in The Mandalorian andAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, recalled a day on set when she asked the filmmaker to describe her directing style.

“She was like, ‘Really?It’s hard, I don’t know.’ But she said it was very intuitive, and now that really makes sense to me,” O’Brian notes. “It was a lot about finding the moment there, in the scene, and we got to play with a lot of options.

“For example… I’m not sure how spoilery I can get… but there’s a murder that occurs in the movie, that’s a surprise, and Kristen’s character’s reaction on paper, originally, was like, ‘What did you do?!’ But her gut feeling at the time was that it should be, ‘I don’t want my girlfriend to think I’m cheating. Change it to ‘No, no, baby! That’s not…'” she laughs. “It was so on the fly but it just felt so right and Roselovesthat. It wasn’t regimented, which is often the case with indie filmmaking – you gotta be able to go with the flow a lot of the time. It was really cool and I was chillin’ most of the time minus, you know, the turmoil Jackie goes through.

“In the weeks before [shooting], she gave us a bunch of films to watch to understand the tone she was kind of looking to achieve, and they were a little bit all over the place, which adds up,” she smiles. “Showgirls was one of the big, big examples. It was all so helpful.”

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Love Lies Bleeding opens in select UK cinemas on May 3, before opening wide on May 10. For more, check out our picks of the biggestupcoming moviesheading our way.

I am an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things TV and film across our Total Film and SFX sections. Elsewhere, my words have been published by the likes of Digital Spy, SciFiNow, PinkNews, FANDOM, Radio Times, and Total Film magazine.

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