Love Lies Bleeding Has Its LA Premiere, Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian Talk Sex Scenes and Queer Rep
(L-R) Jena Malone, Kristen Stewart, Rose Glass, Katy O’Brian and Anna Baryshnikov attend the Los Angeles Premiere Of A24’s “Love Lies Bleeding” at Fine Arts Theatre on March 05, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)
Love Lies Bleeding had it’s big Los Angeles premiere last night and in addition to stars Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Anna Baryshnikov and Jenna Malone; there were additional stars relevant to our interests present for the event including Shannon Beveridge, Thora Birch, Brittani Nichols, Anne Ramsay, Peyton Dix, Shannon Purser, Ruby Cruz and the newly out couple Zoe Lister-Jones and Sammi Cohen.
Zoe Lister-Jones and Sammi Cohen attend the Los Angeles Premiere Of A24’s “Love Lies Bleeding” at Fine Arts Theatre on March 05, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)
Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian have been doing a fantastic press tour discussing the hotly anticipated lesbian bodybuilding film and various aspects of it, such as specifically the sex scenes. In a recent interview with NBC, Kristen Stewart discussed how they brought lesbian sex scenes to the big screen:
“The run of the mill, like, just-go-for-it simulated sex thing is so rote, and it’s like actors do have this default thing where, like, ‘OK we’re supposed to make out and have sex now.’ That’s just not how people have sex, and I’m so sick of seeing it. Really nailing the details and talking about the physical experience more so than even seeing it, like verbalizing it, talking to each other, sharing space, like having it not be cut up into a ton of different shots, it felt like … a really beautiful thing to deliver an experience that was, like, literal instead of faux.”
O’Brian added, “If anyone takes anything from this movie, it’s to ask your partner what they like. You don’t see that in a movie.”
In an interview with Out Magazine on the red carpet, Stewart said she hopes the movie reflects an important truth which is “gay people do a lot of stuff.” Going into more detail, she explained: “They don’t just come out. They don’t just slowly glance, lingering, finger-brush each other. This movie was fun to do because I felt like we were all on a playground and allowed to be the kids that we were born as and then also as adults could play with. It was a nice return to form.”
W Magazine also published a feature on Love Lies Bleeding star Katy O’Brian, who actually snagged an audition for the film by tweeting “I’m free” in response to a post that the team behind the A24 movie was looking for its leading actor. She talked about how she feels “queer-coded” regardless of the role she’s playing (“Especially with Star Wars; I get a lot of backlash: “How dare you bring a gay character to Star Wars,” etc., when I literally have not done anything gay.”), but it was a thrill to play queer for real this time:
To be honest, I don’t even think about that kind of thing, because people are just gonna feel the way they feel. But what I hope is, in terms of the queer community, somebody feels seen and represented on screen. Not in a violent, toxic way—so that they can see a movie that’s about other things, not just being gay. [The characters’ queerness] is in your face, but that’s how I live my life every single day. So I just think of it as two people living their lives.
The film goes into limited release March 8th, and gets its wide release on March 15th. You can read our review of Love Lies Bleeding here.
Other Gay Pop Culture Stories For Your Day:
+ Inside the epic 9-1-1 season 7 premiere: The shipwreck, the romances, the drama
+ Queer non-binary actor/writer Aida Osman of Rap Shit! is featured in Teen Vogue’s Young Hollywood Issue, in which she discusses her career, writing, Nebraska, her fluid gender identity and recently shifting her pronouns from they/she to she/her: “I realized the nonbinary identity is just a helpful label for people who don’t feel included in the normative divisions that our society has — woman and man, girl and boy. It stresses you out having to fit into one of these things, so you take on this kind of nongender identity, which is nonbinary.”
+ Pretty Little Liars: Summer School adds Antonio Cipriano, more guest stars
+ Dune: Part Two’ Rewrote Its Homophobic Source Material Into Queer Cinema
+ One Million Moms are incredibly upset about a car commercial featuring a lesbian couple daring to be happy, get married, and drive:
“Volkswagen is using its ad to subject families to the decay of cultural morals and values while belittling the sanctity of marriage and attempting to redefine family. Even though homosexuality is unnatural, this advertisement is pushing the LGBTQ agenda. An even greater concern is that the controversial commercial is airing when children are likely to watch television.”
