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Noting that the state of the industry is “scary for everyone” right now, O’Brian revealed, “I did 5 projects last year. I haven’t worked this year.” Recalling her first series regular role on the fifth and final season of Syfy’s Z Nation (2014-2018), she shared some wisdom from co-star DJ Qualls that still sticks with her amid the ups and downs of Hollywood. “He’s like, ‘After every single job, I say, “Well, that might be the last time I ever work again.” Because you just never know in this business,'” recalled O’Brian. “You can never rest on your laurels here,” she added of advice an acting teacher once gave her. “You have to always be planting seeds because the second that you kind of think that you’re in a cush position, you’ll find a drought, and then you won’t have any surplus or anything like that.” After a 2020 guest arc as on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., O’Brian had the rare opportunity to pull double duty in the MCU. “I came in really late in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I had a really small [part],” she explained. “I had like two lines and stood in the background for a while, and then I think I blew up or something. I don’t know.” O’Brian added, “And then they de-canonized it or something and I was allowed to be in Ant-Man.” In 2023, O’Brian appeared in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania as Jentorra, leader of the Freedom Fighters in the Quantum Realm. After playing mechanic Dani in last year’s Twisters, O’Brian reunites with Glen Powell in her latest movie The Running Man. “We’re engaged and we’ll be married—no, kidding,” she joked, adding: “I love working with him. I love the energy that he brings to set, and I think he’s very driven and very motivated to make the most out of a career, and he’s trying to do the Tom [Cruise] thing, we’re trying to get people back in the theaters.” After starring alongside Cruise earlier this year in the eighth installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise, O’Brian praised the “huge collaborative effort” between all departments, calling it “a really refreshing and inspiring set to be on.” “I really appreciated that the biggest movie star in the world is making everyone sit down and appreciate and respect that,” she said. “And he’s like, go around and ask questions, learn. He’s hoping that people will take the baton.” In Tina Romero‘s Queens of the Dead, O’Brian stars as Brooklyn club promoter Dre, who the actress thinks was inspired by the co-writer/director. “Obviously, she wanted to pay tribute to her dad’s legacy,” she said of Tina, whose father George A. Romero pioneered the zombie horror sub-genre. “But also in her own way, she’s been on the scene,” explained O’Brian. “She’s DJed, she’s been an event promoter, all of these things. So, it was fun to, in a way kind of think, ‘Am I playing Tina right now?’ It felt like an honor to kind of be cast as, essentially who she is in this world. But she just was open for everyone to be creative, had a very clear vision still. And despite how stressful it must have been with the budget and time limits and everything, she just seemed very unfrazzled and just had positive wonderful energy the whole time.” O’Brian praised the outcome “very low budget” LGBTQ horror comedy, which premiered last month. “It was so fun. It was a special energy,” she said. “We were in this building that I think now is condemned. There was no air conditioning, Jersey, hot, sweaty summer. It was so hot, and then I can’t complain cause there’s people in drag and they’re not complaining.” The actress added, “Everyone was just there for the love of it, the love of the projects, love of the community.” Noting how the small crew was “able to be resourceful,” O’Brian said, “I was just every day blown away with what everyone was able to bring to the project.” Now in theaters, O’Brian plays boxer Lisa Holewyne in Christy, her “first time” playing a real person. “It was really intimidating because, and the fact that she’s still alive too, and well and very strong, a Hall of Fame boxer—you want to do it right for so many reasons,” she explained. “And then also, Christy’s story is so inspiring, so heart-wrenching, and so very personal,” added O’Brian. “She was on set regularly, and even Lisa, the person that I was playing, she would stop by. We mostly just goofed around, but she was very gracious with her time, very forthcoming in terms of answering any questions that I had. I just greatly appreciate both their vulnerability and also just their genuine love and goofiness around each other.” In Wright’s The Running Man, based on Stephen King‘s 1982 novel, O’Brian plays Ben’s ( Powell) fellow contestant Laughlin, an expanded and gender-flipped version of the original character, who joins the titular deadly reality show for a chance at winning a fortune. “I really admired his sense of humor and all of that, even if it’s the apocalypse or whatever,” O’Brian praised Wright. “And his cool cuts, his editing choices, the way he slides sound design, music into everything, I think he just makes for a really unique cinematic experience.” Despite seven years of experience as a police officer and 30 in martial arts, O’Brian admitted she didn’t get to do as many stunts in The Running Man “as I’m used to.” “The coolest thing I think I got to do was a slide across the car hood, and other than that, I was kind of bummed because I would have loved to have had a little more of the action on my own,” she said. O’Brian said that her version of Laughlin is “totally different” from the book version, as well as the original 1987 movie, which starred Yaphet Kotto in the role. “The book Laughlin character gets like one sentence, I think. It’s just to say, ‘Hey, there are other runners out there, and oops, they died,'” she explained. “So, Edgar wanted one of the runners to be a woman this time, and I don’t know how he got the inspo to make her—well, I do.” O’Brian continued, “He had three types of runners, right? So, he has the hopeless one, and it’s all about ratings and views and how they select reality TV stars, right? So, there’s the hopeless one, who basically just doesn’t even know how to play the game; the negative one, who knows they have no chance in the world and is just gonna live it up the way they can. And that’s the one that essentially Laughlin is.”
