“Obsession’s” origin story is the stuff of legend.
On Sept. 7, 2025, just two days after its rapturously received premiere in the Midnight Madness section of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), distributor Focus Features offered to acquire its rights for $14-$15 million. The film, about a friendzoned record store employee named Bear (Michael Johnston) who forces the object of his desire, Nikki (Inde Navarrette), to fall madly — and I do mean madly — in love with him via a mystical toy, was released the following May, where it became a cultural phenomenon, grossing over $500 million worldwide (against a $750,000 budget) and vaulting its 26-year-old writer-director, Curry Barker, and star Inde Navarrette, 25, to the top of the Hollywood A-list. Barker subsequently signed an eight-figure deal with Universal and Blumhouse, who helped shepherd “Obsession,” for his third feature, while Navarrette was cast as Rogue in Marvel’s “X-Men” reboot.
A little over a year after its world premiere, on Friday, Sept. 11, Barker and Navarrette returned to TIFF, the place where their lives changed, for a discussion titled “DIALOGUES The ‘Obsession’ Obsession with Curry Barker & Inde Navarrette” at the John Bassett Theatre as part of its inaugural industry-focused hub TIFF: The Market. And to say it was a hot ticket would be an understatement: An hour before showtime, the line for the talk snaked all the way down and around the halls of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre housing the theater.
“What a difference a year makes!” declared TIFF Midnight Madness programmer Peter Kuplowsky, who moderated the talk. Barker and Navarrette regaled the packed theater with how wild the past year and change has been.
Barker, who’d risen to prominence acting and directing in YouTube videos, opened up about how he wanted to become “a true storyteller” and thus opted not to act in “Obsession,” unlike most of his other work. Meanwhile, Navarrette dished on how she was drawn to the project because it was the polar opposite of the type of work she’d done before in shows like “13 Reasons Why” and “Superman & Lois.”
“I got sent the script because I wanted to do something completely different than I’d ever done before,” she said. “I had this fire in my belly, and I wanted to show people what I could do.”
Navarrette sent in a self-tape for “Obsession” and was convinced it didn’t go well.
“I thought I bombed it,” she maintained, “but then I was lucky enough that he saw something in me that I didn’t feel like I had shown.”
Chemistry reads with Johnston followed, where she felt more confident in her ability to bring Nikki to life. And the very first day of shooting was the bedroom scene where Nikki freaks out while kissing Bear in bed. Navarrette requested that Barker not tip off Johnston to any of her scene prep so that he’d be genuinely shocked by her (and Nikki’s) decisions.
“I kindly asked Curry if we could not show Michael anything. Even though it doesn’t seem like it, I am quite shy,” she confessed, adding, “Which I think was great because there are so many moments where I scared the shit out of him.”
Barker and Navarrette also discussed some crucial changes that Navarrette made to the character of Nikki, who was originally written “as the girl next door.” According to Navarrette, Barker was “incredibly game for ideas,” including her idea to call Bear “babe” and act “playfully flirty” toward him.
“I wanted the audience to understand why Bear would have the obsession because everything is seen from Bear’s perspective — her laughter, her enticement,” she shared. “I wanted to show what would convince Bear to make that wish.”
At one point during the chat, Kuplowsky brought up the “memeification” of Nikki online, which Navarrette addressed.
“You know, sometimes I feel like it’s not for me, you know what I mean? Because there are so many things growing up that I got to experience of other people,” she offered. “So, I just kind of roll with it. It’s not really for me to analyze one way or the other. It’s kind of for you guys and I love that.”
“It starts to feel like it’s not mine anymore,” Barker said of the life his film has taken online. “It’s not mine anymore.”
Growing up, Navarrette said she was inspired by “Léon: The Professional,” which taught her that young people could act too. She also spoke about how Charlize Theron’s Oscar-winning performance as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in “Monster” made her want to modify her looks for future roles, and, ultimately, how different things are for her since that fateful TIFF premiere.
“Everything changed for me,” she admitted. “I am now in rooms that I could not even imagine. I’m now pitching my own projects and am hopefully able to produce and direct my own stuff. It’s been really, really exciting because I love cinema and I love filmmaking and being a part of Midnight Madness last year lit that fire for me… My whole life has changed, and I just take it day by day.”
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