In the horror genre, getting exactly what you wish for rarely ends well. That's the unsettling premise of Obsession, where Bear (Michael Johnston) makes a desperate wish for Nikki (Inde Navarrette) to love him above all else—a wish that spirals into a nightmare neither of them could have imagined. But beneath the terrifying visuals lies a deeper, more uncomfortable question: What happens to a person whose feelings have been stripped of their free will?
For Navarrette, that question became the heart of her performance. The Nikki audiences meet before the wish—a sharp, caring, fiercely independent woman—must remain visible even as the story twists into Bear's dark fantasy. In a recent conversation with Collider's Maggie Lovitt, Navarrette opened up about how she approached this layered role, her collaboration with writer-director Curry Barker, and the surreal experience of watching the finished film with her mother.
Asked what Obsession gave her as an actor, Navarrette didn't hesitate. "I think Obsession gave me an entirely new toolbox," she said. "It allowed me to have confidence in my questions and gave me confidence. I didn't go into Obsession thinking about anybody else. At the time, I believed it was my only opportunity to showcase what I've never showcased before. I was gonna be damned if I didn't give it my all because I love my job. I felt like a kettle on a stove that kept getting taken off just before it started boiling. I was like, 'I need to do something.'"
That hunger translated into a performance that Navarrette describes as a "calling card." Before Obsession, she was known for roles in 13 Reasons Why and Superman & Lois, but Nikki demanded something entirely different—a physical and emotional intensity that pushed her to new limits. "If Obsession's gonna be anything, it's gonna be a calling card," she explained. "If anybody can see anything in Obsession and go, 'Oh, I'd want her for this movie because she could showcase this,' then beautiful. But going in, I was like, 'Okay, I'm not going in and making friends. I'm solely focused on the work. I have to be vulnerable. I have to be strong as the character. These are all the emotions that I have to portray.'"
That laser focus paid off. Navarrette says the experience gave her a blueprint for future projects. "It really gave me a sense of how I wanted to tackle other projects because I felt so proud of my own work," she said. "I knew that I gave it my all. So now going forward with other projects, I have a blueprint to tackle those because that's what I got from Obsession."
One of the most challenging aspects was establishing who Nikki was before the wish stripped away her agency. Navarrette started with a psychological approach, asking herself why Bear was drawn to her in the first place. "In the script, we have her at the bar constantly going back to him and saying, 'You were saying something,'" she recalled. "That interaction became the pinnacle of where I started because that's what attracts Bear. She listens, she pays attention, and she makes him feel heard. That's an attractive aspect. Then I asked, what would be the intimidating aspect? Why is he stuttering to talk to her? If she's listening and attentive, what would make him uncomfortable? I see her as somebody that doesn't give a flying fuck what other people think about her. So that's the intimidating aspect."
But Nikki's strength wasn't coldness. Navarrette also explored her relationships with friends Ian and Sarah, who appear in early scenes before the wish changes everything. "She doesn't care what other people think about her, that's fundamental, but she cares about other people," she said. "She's joking around with Ian and Sarah. At the beginning, she and Sarah argue, but they come to the end of the argument where they're like, 'I love you, and I understand.' So she's caring and kind. That's that."
The collaboration with Curry Barker was equally crucial. Barker wrote and directed the film, and Navarrette leaned on their conversations to build the physicality of the role. "I really leaned on my prep work, and then going into the physicality of it, creating a conversation with Curry on vocally, what n..." she began, hinting at the detailed back-and-forth that shaped her performance. That shared language between actor and director is evident in the film's unsettling atmosphere, which has already sparked fan theories—like the repeating building in the car scene that you can't unsee.
For Navarrette, Obsession wasn't just another horror movie—it was a declaration. "I felt like a kettle that was on a stove," she said, "and I needed to do something." With this performance, she's done exactly that, proving she's an actor to watch. And for fans of the genre, the film offers a chilling reminder that some wishes are better left unmade.
