Horror fans can’t get enough of the movie Obsession. Written and directed by Curry Barker, Obsession follows Bear (Michael Johnston), a hopeless romantic who makes a wish on a One Wish Willow to make his friend and crush, Nikki (Inde Navarrette), fall in love with him. While his wish comes true, his dream romance turns into a bloody nightmare that threatens to destroy him and everyone around him.
After it was made on a budget of less than $1 million, Obsession achieved universal acclaim in theaters, receiving a 96% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It also grossed over $100 million at the box office in just three weeks, according to Box Office Mojo, making it one of the most successful horror movies of the decade.
In an interview with Digital Trends, Obsession actor Megan Lawless, who portrayed Bear’s friend and secondary love interest, Sarah, in the film, discussed how she brought her beloved character to life, what it was like making the movie with the cast and crew, and what the future holds for her after its unprecedented success.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Digital Trends: Megan, thank you so much for joining me today. Let’s get started. How [are] you doing?
Lawless: I’m great. How are you?
Digital Trends: I’m fantastic. Everyone, including myself, can’t get enough of Obsession. It just grossed over $100 million at the box office, and I’ve been seeing a lot of people online saying how much they loved your performance as Sarah in the film. So I was wondering if you could tell us how it feels to see so many people react to your character in this way.
Lawless: It’s great. I mean, I’ve always loved Sarah, and I was hoping that people could extrapolate a lot from the time that I was on screen and really root for her. That was always my goal: for people to root for her. So now that I’m seeing everyone rooting for her…in the comments, it just makes me really happy that they love her the way I love her, and that all the elements came together to get fans to support her and root for her.
Digital Trends: Awesome. I’m really curious about what your inspirations were for bringing [Sarah’s] character to life.
Lawless: Oh, that’s a great question. I don’t know if I had any specific inspirations, per se. I think I just read her off the page, and I understood her pretty immediately. And then after talking with Curry and just making sure that our vision aligned, I felt that just bringing a lot of myself into it and perspective. Her perspectives on everything, I think, shape her as a character as well a lot. So, yeah, that was pretty much it.
I stylistically drew inspiration from Hayley Williams and more punk rock-type girls, more than myself. We have very different styles, me and Sarah. So, that was really fun. And then, I was looking at different punky cool chicks on Pinterest and stuff to get inspiration on my hair because we changed my hair for me to play Sarah. So I was looking for a haircut that I thought would embody how I viewed Sarah to be. And then, Blair [James], the costume designer, got everything aligned, and then she came together visually, and that was the really fun part of the process.
Digital Trends: Awesome. What was it like working with everyone on the set of this film? I’ve seen behind the scenes [footage]. It seems like you were all having the time of your lives on it. So I wonder if you can tell us more about that.
Lawless: Oh, we did have the time of our lives. It was just incredible. I say this time and time again, but I’ve never been so close with my castmates…and crew members than I have been with Obsession. Me and Inde, she slept in my bed. We had sleepovers twice last weekend, and we do so much together.
And me and Haley Johnson, our producer, I can call her up anytime. And we also hang out outside of work. We are really good friends. I’ve developed such deep friendships with people I work with. We throw game nights sometimes, and we still are maintaining a really great friendship and rapport.
Even after stopping filming and after the film has been released, we’re making an effort to keep seeing each other. And that has never happened for me to this level. And it’s just another huge blessing that comes out of Obsession. It’s just so special, every part of it.
Digital Trends: That’s really fantastic to hear. It’s so great to have a community of friends [who] get together to make films together. It’s just really great to see that dynamic brought to life on the screen.
Speaking of Inde, I’ve seen videos online. You really seem like the best of friends right now. But compared to your characters in the film, they were really clashing over what was going on. A lot of the terror came from [Inde’s] character as Nikki. Were there times during the production where you were genuinely terrified of her and what she was bringing to the film?
Lawless: I must say, no. Inde does not genuinely terrify me because I just know her so well, and it’s hard to remove. But I will say that I was constantly in awe of her performances. I just thought they were incredible. The way she would transform.
But yeah, behind all the movie magic and like, just in between takes coming and being able to joke around and have fun, that removed all of the fear for me when I watch it now as a whole. I watched it in a theater or something. Then I can remove myself from the story and really be engaged with the story from more of an outside perspective, I would say, but never on set.
Digital Trends: Right. And speaking of story, one of the most talked about parts of the movie is that scene in the car when Nikki attacks you with that brick. That had my jaw on the floor. It was so shocking, and the tragedy [that] comes afterwards after Bear opens that acceptance letter. That broke my heart. So I was wondering if you could tell us more about what you thought about that scene being in the film.
Lawless: Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I mean, I loved the scene. I had a feeling, even before I started reading it, that my character would be killed off. All anyone can hope for is that her death scene is iconic, and people will talk about it, and it will really make audiences feel something. And I can say without a doubt…it really is a strong moment in the film where everything changes for Bear.
It’s the catalyst that leads us to the finale of the film, and it’s just so momentous, and I love how much gravitas it has. When I was reading it, it was just so insane, I was really stoked about it. And I was really curious as well to see how we would pull all the pieces together to make it happen. So the whole process was really fun, making that scene what you see on the film.
Digital Trends: Absolutely. I mean, it reminded me of this similar scene from The Haunting of Hill House…There’s, like, a similar jump-scare sort of scene in the car that changes everything. And I got that same feeling watching that scene in the theater.
And another thing I was really intrigued by the film is the dynamic between Sarah and her friends. With Bear, Ian, and Nikki. Once the wish has been made and Freaky Nikki is just dominating [Nikki’s] life, everyone just tries to keep [their] distance while saying she just needs psychiatric help, not knowing what’s really going on with her. But it really feels like they’re just trying to distance themselves from the issue.
In your opinion, do you think Sarah really considers Nikki like a friend or more just [as] competition for Bear’s affection?
Lawless: I was talking about this the other day a little bit with Inde, actually. I think they’ve been friends for a long time. But I think this is one of those friend groups where they go way back. They’ve known each other since high school. And I think this might be a point in their lives where, if the events of the film didn’t unfold, they would start moving in different directions.
So they’re moving on to different chapters of their life. I want to go to art school. Nikki wants to quit [her] job so that she can work more on her writing. And so it might be a friend-group dynamic [where] they’ve outgrown each other a little.
I definitely think Nikki and Sarah are friends, and they’ve known each other a while, and obviously, at the start of the film, I’m comfortable enough with Nikki to confide in her that I have feelings for Bear, and that’s why she brings it up to Bear in the car that Sarah was talking about [him] all day. You know? She has a crush on [him]. And we definitely have a good enough friendship to have that sort of rapport.
But I think from Sarah’s perspective, when everything starts to unfold, and her friend has now kind of betrayed her. She exposed her feelings for Bear to Nikki, and then all of a sudden, Nikki is dating Bear the next day.
I think that would feel like a huge betrayal and probably sows a lot of seeds of doubt in Sarah’s mind [about] her friend and these friendships that she has… and she is trying to figure out why her friends would change their tune so suddenly.
And it must feel kind of personal. It would feel personal, or personal to me, if my best friend started dating the guy I’ve been telling her all about that I like the next day. [It] would feel like an attack.
Digital Trends: Right. Going back to what you said. The wish is really what causes the friend group to unravel. Part of me was wondering, “If Bear had never made that wish, do you think he would have ended up with Nikki, or would he have eventually been with Sarah?”
Don’t get me wrong. What he did later on in the film was awful. But there was some glimmers of hope for all their characters before that fateful wish.
Lawless: Yeah. I’m not quite sure what would have happened. I like to believe that Sarah was close to telling Bear herself about her feelings. I even like to believe at [the trivia night], she has been telling Nikki about her feelings, and Nikki’s supposed to probe it all and eventually [Sarah] would get to tell Bear how she feels. After gauging his feelings, though, Bear has no feelings for her. So maybe, if she had heard that, she would have been like, “OK, never mind.”
I shouldn’t even try, but I think without the wish…Bear is not suitable to be in any relationship. [They] are mature enough to avoid someone that, if they were to get keyed on in that, they would avoid being with Bear because they understand that he has a lot of development and growth that he needs to work through before being in a relationship.
Digital Trends: Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. Sometimes in these situations, people just kind of like to learn to be comfortable with themselves before they can really be with others. So that’s something that Bear was never able to really get over. He was so desperate not to be alone that he basically just destroyed everyone’s lives.
Lawless: Yeah, that is just really, really dangerous…It’s just really damaging for all parties.
Digital Trends: Absolutely. So, after Obsession, what other projects are you working on right now?
Lawless: So I’m going to start filming another project, another film, it’s a thriller, next month. I’m not quite sure if I can name what it is, but you’ll see something in the news soon, I’m sure. I think there’ll be an article that is released about the cast eventually. But I do have plans to do that. And then, that’ll be really fun, another feature horror. Totally different kicker, which I like.
And then, we’ll see about that. I’ve been talking to a lot of people, meeting a lot of people, and reading a lot of scripts. So the possibilities are kind of endless. And it’s very exciting. I would love to do another film, but like a drama or work on a show, a dramatic show. I would love to just really explore my craft even more on a larger scale. So we will see.
Digital Trends: Yeah. I’m really looking forward to seeing whatever you do next. I think it’s going to be really great.
Lawless: Aw, thanks.
Digital Trends: Oh, you’re welcome. Now, as far as the future, I mean, do you see yourself working with Curry and anyone else from Obsession again? I know the cast of Curry’s next film, Anything But Ghosts, was just announced, but what about his Texas Chain Saw film? Do you see yourself working with any of them?
Lawless: Absolutely. I would love to work with all of them again. I got the opportunity to work with Haley Johnson, our producer, again on a short that we did before Obsession actually came out in theaters, but after we had filmed Obsession. And it was just so nice to have so many crew members and stuff, all of us together, because sometimes when you film, it’s like you wrap, and then you don’t get the opportunity to relive what you just did. This incredible thing you just did.
I would just love to work with Curry again. I would [with] Inde again. I mean, the whole cast I would work together again…you never know. We’ll see how things pan out. But we all have such good relationships with each other. I wouldn’t be surprised.
Digital Trends: That’s all really terrific to hear. I can’t wait to see what you all do next.
