In ‘Test,’ queer bodybuilders and their struggles finally take center stage

“Bodybuilding is super gay!” declared Brock Yurich, the screenwriter and star of Test, at the film’s Outfest premiere in July.Yurich is speaking from experience. His father was a bodybuilder, and he himself competed in the sport as a young queer man before turning his aspirations to Hollywood. When Yurich struggled as an actor, a mentor gave him the time-tested advice, “Write what you know.” And after nearly a decade in the making, Test, directed by Sam McConnell (Camp RicStar, The Trans List), is the well-defined result.The innate queerness of bodybuilding is apparent from the film’s opening scene, when Joanne (The Invitation’s Tammy Blanchard) paints the muscled torso of her son Eddie (Yurich) with tanning product prior to a competition in their native Ohio — while singing a variation of the gospel hymn, “Are You Washed in the Blood?” With deftness and notes of humor, the film toggles between scenes of flexing abs, biceps, and glutes to church pews monitored by Pastor Gregg (Matthew Morrison, far from his Glee role as an inclusive choir director). As Eddie strives for both salvation and a pro card — obtained after winning a bodybuilding competition — he also wrestles with his sexuality. He helps his mother pay the rent (and himself fund performance-enhancing drugs) through online donations from male admirers via video chat. And a relationship with a new coach, Mike (Mike Edward), may be more than just about muscle. Brock Yurich as Eddie in 'Test.'Tandem Pictures/Hardball EntertainmentYurich attests that, while the desire to pursue bodybuilding is already complex, queerness adds “a big burst of chemical flames to this entire pot.” “Like, am I attracted to this person, do I want to look like them, or is it both?” he says. “I didn’t want to answer that question, I just wanted to examine it, because I know a lot of people who have that same question. Is it nature versus nurture, right? Are we conditioned, or is it really who we are?