'Obsession' Is the Ultimate Antidote to the "Nice Guy" Horror Trope

4 weeks ago 33

Published May 12, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT

Summary

Collider's Perri Nemiroff chats with the cast of Obsession.
Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, and Megan Lawless discuss their chemistry and Navarrette's jaw-dropping performance.
They also discuss Bear's not-so "black and white" character and the horror movies that have stuck with them.

Curry Barker’s debut feature film, Obsession, has been making waves across the genre community since its world premiere at Toronto’s International Film Festival last year. Now, as it officially hits theaters, audiences are finally getting to experience what its stars have known since that very first screening: this original horror is truly something special.

Written and directed by Barker, Obsession follows Bear (Michael Johnston), a love-stricken nice guy whose sights are set on his co-worker Nikki (Inde Navarrette). After a harmless wish on a spontaneous crystal shop purchase, Bear’s One Wish Willow grants him his every desire: that Nikki would love him more than anyone else on the planet. And love him, she does. It’s not long before it all goes south, however, causing his friends (Cooper Tomlinson and Megan Lawless) to question their bizarre relationship.

But was it a harmless wish? Collider’s Perri Nemiroff had the pleasure of sitting down with the cast to dig into Obsession’s dynamics, on and off set. In this interview, Johnston, Navarette, Tomlinson, and Lawless talk about the chemistry before stepping on set, Navarrette’s unsettling and jaw-dropping performance as “Freaky Nikki,” and whether or not Bear is a “good guy or a bad guy.” Check out the video above or the transcript below, where they discuss all this and assign each other horror movie tropes!

'Obsession's Cast Knew What They Had Was Magic

"I just knew that whatever we were going to make was going to be special."

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PERRI NEMIROFF: Clearly, I know and love your movie, but I'm curious when you realized that you made something special. Whether it was when you first read the script, in production, or maybe when the movie was finished, can you tell me the first moment you knew to your core, “We made a next-level, special horror movie?”

MICHAEL JOHNSTON: There was a really specific moment on set the first week. I believe the first week was almost all the same location, which was my character Bear's house, and I was just kind of looking around in between takes at the attention to detail. I was so focused, on those first few days, on my performance and the storytelling, and it was the first time that my nervous system calmed down a little bit — a little bit — and I was just looking around at the whole crew, and I thought to myself, “Whoa, I don't think I have ever experienced such a committed team as a whole package.” And I just knew that whatever we were going to make was going to be special.

COOPER TOMLINSON: I think for me, actually, I was in the chemistry read for Michael and Inde, and you just could tell. The script was already great, but you could tell with them, like really seeing the freaky parts come to life for the first time, knowing these guys were going to be cast. It was pretty special. And I agree with Michael on the week, but it was great when they worked together for the first time. It was magic.

JOHNSTON: I'd never heard this before.

MEGAN LAWLESS: I feel like as soon as I read the script, I was like, “I can't put this down. I need to finish it!” Like in one sitting, I finished it so fast, and then I was just thinking, “I hope I book this, and if I don't, I need to see this movie immediately.” And I also watched some of Curry [Barker]’s shorts and stuff on YouTube, and I could just visualize it so clearly just reading the script and having those references. So, I was hooked.

INDE NAVARRETTE: Honestly, I think I had that moment whenever we saw it at TIFF, because of the way that the sound happened and the audience's reaction to it. It was electrifying, and I was really proud of the work, and I was really proud of everybody. So I knew that we had done it. We had finished the race, we got to see it there, we got to watch it with everybody, and I think that's the moment that it settled for me.

Fittingly, an Offbeat Chemistry Makes 'Obsession' Perfectly Unsettling

"We’re never really on the same page."

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Now to dig into some details here, Michael, I’ll come your way first. This is one of my favorite questions to ask, because I love hearing about an actor's experience having an “aha moment" with their character, but in particular when you're playing a character who is making questionable decisions and also turning the nice guy trope on its head. Do you remember the first thing that you thought of or did in prep or on set that made you stop and go, “I really get who Bear is and how to play him now?”

JOHNSTON: I think it happened before we ever made it to set. After I read the script, I could already see in Curry's writing that he wasn't making Bear, and the story, even, black and white, and I loved that.

So, I didn't actually audition for the movie first. It just started with I got the script, and I met with Curry on Zoom. So that was my very first sort of, I guess, audition, if you want to say, and that is the very first thing that we talked about instantly was just how we really want to make Bear really likable. You want to root for him, but as the movie goes on, he starts making these questionable decisions. And I mean, it's so fun because people ask me all the time, “Are you the good guy or the bad guy?” And I'm like, “I don't know.”

TOMLINSON: Spoiler.

It's so incredibly frustrating, and I mean that as the highest form of compliment.

To build on what was mentioned about your chemistry read, I'll ask the two of you this question — what was the first thing the two of you remember about the other that made you stop and think to yourself, “She is the Nikki to my Bear,” and vice versa?

NAVARRETTE: Honestly, I think it was the way that the scenes played out. Like, it wasn't what you said, it's how you said it, and also the way that we just vibed with each other. It was like a friendship first, and I think that that's really important for the Nikki and Bear dynamic, was they're actually just friends, and it's not so much like a romantic chemistry, sort of.

JOHNSTON: Like brother and sister. We clicked. It was like that, like, “Hey, bro.” I actually remember exactly the moment — I don't know if you remember this — I walked into the room meeting you for the first time, and the first thing you said to me was, “Sup?” And I was like, “Ah!” [Laughs] And you went, “No? Oh, okay. Leave me hanging.” And then we immediately started rolling, and I was like, “What the fu–? What is happening?” And that's kind of the vibe between our characters. Like, we're comfortable with each other, but…

NAVARRETTE: We’re never really on the same page.

JOHNSTON: We weren’t on the same page, and it's almost in a playful way, but it seriously worked. We just have this trust. It was this ease. I almost feel like, for me, with the other chemistry reads, everyone was amazing, but it was almost like we got along too well, if that makes sense. Or it was too like, “Oh, this could totally be very romantic and work with us.” With us, it was like, “I don't know if these two characters should.”

NAVARRETTE: Yeah, it’s like, “Hmm. We gotta figure it out.”

Inde Navarrette's "Freaky Nikki" Performance Shook the Whole Cast

"What the hell is going on?"

Inde, I apologize, I'm going to make this next question very awkward for you because I want to ask the three of you about watching her. I know it's still very early on in the year, but I would be shocked if your performance in this movie wasn't one of my favorites of the entire year. My jaw was on the floor. So, for each of you, can you tell me the first thing you saw her do on set, kind of in Freaky Nikki mode, that made your jaw hit the floor?

TOMLINSON: Okay, it actually wasn't on set. I live with Curry, and so he and Inde would practice all the freaky stuff at our place. So, you get to see her doing a bunch of freaky things, yelling and stuff, and I'm in my room, working, like, “What the heck is that?”

NAVARRETTE: You were there?

TOMLINSON: I’d go down, and she's doing all these crazy movements. That was my first time.

LAWLESS: I visited set on a day that I wasn't shooting, and I hadn't seen Inde do any of her stuff yet. It was on a crazy day — that's all I'll say — near the end of the movie, and I was like, “What the hell is going on?” [Laughs] But that got me so excited for how everything would turn out.

JOHNSTON: I mean, Inde did an incredible job playing the crazy, crazy stuff, but I think one of my first moments, because it was early on in shooting, was in the beginning, right after the wish has been made, where she's just a bit off. For me, that really just kind of impressed me. I mean, there's so much that she did. There are so many little quirky things that she did that really weren't scripted, and it just felt like every take was a little different, and I really didn't have to act. It was so much fun. I just reacted to whatever she did. And sometimes, I just remember it was like, “Alright, we got that,” and I was like, “Oh my god, wait, really?” I don't know. She just had so many little things. We had such a blast.

NAVARRETTE: Yeah. I told this story earlier. There's a moment in the car in the very beginning, whenever Bear drops Nikki off, and I'm supposed to come around and try to get his seatbelt, and the wish has just been made, so he’s genuinely so confused. I was also really confused because it’s 3:00 in the morning, and I was supposed to go a certain way around the car, but I went left when I was supposed to go right, and then I realized I was supposed to go right, and then I second-guessed myself, and I went back to the left, and then I realized I should go right, and he busted up laughing. He was like, “What are you doing?”

JOHNSTON: And it’s in the movie!

NAVARETTE: It made it in the movie, yeah.

JOHNSTON: I'm laughing at her, like, “What are you doing?” and it's literally in the film.

I wanted to squeeze in this question because your movie definitely made me think of it. I'm a big horror lover, but I especially love when horror movies make me do something differently in my everyday life. So, can you each share something you saw in a horror movie that has stopped you from doing something in your day-to-day? One of my favorite examples to give is every time I am behind a truck with logs, or literally anything in the back, I’ve got to move away because of Final Destination 2.

JOHNSTON: I do that too. No joke. Logs on a truck, I’m changing lanes.

LAWLESS: Yeah, I don't drive behind trucks with cargo.

TOMLINSON: I have a huge fear of… I always run up the stairs. I always feel like somebody's chasing me, like Ghostface is chasing me.

You're not supposed to run up the stairs!

TOMLINSON: Well, I'm always running up stairs or walking up stairs! I don't like when someone is behind me. [To Navarette] Especially you.

JOHNSTON: Anywhere I go, a hotel or somewhere I've never been before, if I’m spending any time in that room, I always open all the doors and check the closets. It’s probably because of Halloween, Michael Myers. So, I just check the closets. I just look anywhere anyone could hide. I just do a quick check.

NAVARRETTE: I don't really watch horror movies. I'm very sensitive. But with the horror movies that I’ve watched, specifically because we watched Hereditary for the film, I didn't stop doing stuff, I started doing things, which is looking up whenever I walk into rooms just in case something’s on the ceiling. I did that for a proper while.

I got a very clear visual as you said that just now.

NAVARRETTE: My electricity bill was really high that month.

Toni Collette as Annie Graham screaming in fear at something unseen in Hereditary (2018)

I love how you say you don't watch horror movies, and then the first one you name-drop is Hereditary.

NAVARETTE: That's the first one that they made me watch!

JOHNSTON: She was forced to watch the movie.

LAWLESS: On our cast bonding day before we started filming.

Really throwing you into the deep end right there!

NAVARRETTE: Really. What was yours?

LAWLESS: I can't think of one. I'm just kind of like, “La dee dah!” [Laughs]

JOHNSTON: You’d die first.

LAWLESS: Probably.

Do you have a favorite scary movie?

LAWLESS: I like Get Out, I like Invisible Man, but I don't get scared very easily. I also love Alien. But yeah, I don't get scared very easily.

With the idea of “dying first,” can you each assign each other a horror movie cliché? Who is the first to die? Who's the one you think is dead but comes back at the end to save the day? All that good stuff.

LAWLESS: Oh my.

NAVARRETTE: You would end up being the killer.

JOHNSTON: I'm the killer, absolutely.

TOMLINSON: Yeah, I agree.

LAWLESS: Michael?

NAVARETTE: Oh, 100%.

JOHNSTON: Unassuming, right?

NAVARRETTE: No, he'd bake you sourdough and then kill you with it.

JOHNSTON: Poison.

TOMLINSON: Do we have to do first, second, third, or survive? Because, yeah, [to Lawless] you’d probably die first or second.

LAWLESS: Oh! You think? [Laughs]

TOMLINSON: Yeah. I think Inde would be the final girl.

LAWLESS: Inde’s a badass.

TOMLINSON: And I think I might make it. It’s up in the air. It's a coin flip.

JOHNSTON: You would go back. Even though you could have escaped, you'd go back to help somebody.

NAVARRETTE: You’d come out in the second movie, and we'd be like, “Dog, where have you been?”

TOMLINSON: I'd be dead in the sequel.

You literally just described Randy.

TOMLINSON: I am Randy.

NAVARRETTE: You would die first, but then you would show up in the sequel with, like, a missing arm. You're like a bartender, and I show up, and I'm like, “Dude, I thought…”

TOMLINSON: A bartender with a missing arm? I’m like, “Hey, let me pour you your drink.” The one-handed bartender.

LAWLESS: You’re like, “Let me tell you about a story I have…” [Laughs]

Obsession is in theaters on May 15.