LOS ANGELES, Oct. 30 (UPI) — Obsession was the surprise hit of the summer, making $524 million worldwide. Inde Navarrette, who played the horror film’s cursed Nikki, said she even scared herself making Obsession.
In the film, Bear (Michael Johnston) wishes on a One Wish Willow that his colleague Nikki would love him. It works and Nikki becomes obsessed to a terrifying degree.
At a recent Los Angeles press conference for awards voting guilds, Navarette, 25, shared her process for creating Nikki with writer/director Curry Barker. She said spontaneity allowed her to surprise herself.
“I think there’s a really big importance in scaring yourself,” Navarrette said. “So I didn’t prepare a lot of the cutting back and forth between wish Nikki and real Nikki too much because I wanted that to seem as though I was shocking myself.”
Obsession reveals in a few moments that the One Wish Willow transformed Nikki into this obsessed form. When glimpses of the real Nikki leak through, it appears she is in some horrific purgatory.
Nikki’s behavior escalates at a dinner with Bear, and a party in which Nikki becomes possessive during a group game. Navarrette said slowing down helped her perform those unsettling moments.
“You never knew where she was coming from and that came with the slowness, with the pacing and as an actor really sitting in the silence, allowing the silence not to scare me, really taking my time with beats,” she said. “Especially with the ‘No. . . no no.’ That pacing in between, it’s like okay, well, ‘No’ what? No, what do you mean, what are you doing?”
Navarrette could also deliver Nikki’s dialogue with unnatural inflections.
“I really was having fun with the inflection of ‘and so come lie with me,'” she said. “I really wanted that to be different because Nikki doesn’t understand that what she’s saying is really fricking weird.”
Bear does not care for the clingy version of Nikki who duct tapes the door shut and pees on the carpet so she does not have to spend a moment away from him. Barker’s film conveys that Nikki is not in control of her actions, a theme which has resonated with Navarrette.
“Nikki’s loss of control isn’t specified just to a female experience,” she said. “There’ve been a lot of men that I’ve seen that share their stories on that. So it’s been really nice that I’ve heard of a lot of conversations starting because of it.”
Bear did not know that the One Wish Willow was real. He does feel guilty that he subjected Nikki to this behavior, but cannot release her because the Willow is a one-time-only use.
Navarrette appreciated the conversations fans have had about Bear’s responsibility.
“It’s caused conversations to be had that I think are really important on both ends,” Navarrette said, including “men who feel connected to Bear’s experience in terms of feeling lonely and being scared to ask out a girl and the fear, kind of being a little bit scared of what their decisions might turn into.”
Nikki has been the breakthrough character, with Universal Studios actors playing her at Halloween Horror Nights. Navarette will host Saturday Night Live’s Halloween episode Saturday.
“On the other end, with the women feeling like Nikki, of not really knowing what to do when put on a pedestal that you didn’t ask to be on, and also simultaneously losing a sense of control,” she said.
Barker blames Bear, not the One Wish Willow, for Nikki’s predicament. The writer/director hopes people consider other people’s autonomy when expressing their own desires.
“What he wanted was a pretty cursed thing,” Barker, 27, said. “Even wishing for a billion dollars, if you worded it perfectly, maybe you could figure out a way to tax that income. I wish for a billion taxable dollars, how about that?”
When Obsession opened in May, it increased its box office three weekends in a row. Navarrette enjoyed sneaking into screenings and watching audiences react.
“It’s bringing back this idea of original storytellers,” she said. “So many iconic films are original ideas.”
Navarrette regrets telling interviewers she previously didn’t watch horror movies. She is open to exploring more horror both as an actor and audience, but still has some limits.
“I have grown to love horror movies, which I feel like is growth as a person,” she said. “I don’t know if I’m going to watch The End of Oak Street because snakes, I love them, they’re beautiful, they’re wonderful. Mm mm, not for me.”
She has already gotten to see people with Nikki’s face tattooed on their bodies.
“I’ve grown up getting piercings and seeing tattoo shops,” she said. “Seeing that now as me, it’s just very surreal.”