Bear wishes for his crush to fall in love with him and receives a twisted outcome. Nikki becomes bewitched, showing unnatural devotion that drives her between terrifying extremes and moments of near violence. The performance makes Nikki frightening while still sympathetic, including brief breaks in the facade when the real Nikki emerges. The portrayal adds relatable pathos to alarming behavior, reflecting how love can push people toward losing control. The actor’s first genre role required embracing personal fears and using self-soothing habits to manage anxiety. Preparation included keeping lights on, using multiple audio sources, and relying on comfort routines while filming demanding material.
"Bear (Michael Johnston) wishes for his crush to fall in love with him, he gets much more than he bargained for in writer-director Curry Barker's twisted fable. Navarrette plays the bewitched Nikki as a raw nerve, a woman whose unnatural devotion to her boyfriend has her swinging between terrifying extremes. Nikki is one of the more frightening horror characters in recent memory, constantly teetering on the edge of violence - but she's also, in Navarrette's hands, surprisingly sympathetic."
"It's not only in the brief moments where the real Nikki, trapped by Bear's wish, breaks through the façade. Navarrette brings a relatable pathos to Nikki's most alarming behavior. Who among us hasn't gone a little crazy in love? Her performance is even more impressive when you consider that this is Navarrette's first real foray into the genre - not to mention her second feature film, after stints on the series 13 Reasons Why and Superman & Lois."
"For the actor, who calls herself "quite sensitive" to horror, making a movie like Obsession required embracing the things that really scare her. "I remember my electric bill was $350 because I slept with all the lights on," Navarrette says. "I watched these two drag queens, Trixie and Katya, and so I'd have them playing, and then I'd have something on my laptop and something on my phone, and also Alexa playing white noise. I do many different things to self-soothe.""
"The Obsession script asks a lot of the person playing Nikki. When you first read it, was there anything you were scared about doing?Oh, I was scared of everything. I knew everything was going to be a challenge. But I kind of just saw it as a way to challenge myself. I was scared of - I didn't know how to scream before."
Read at Vulture
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