“I feel like I’m Dorothy in the tornado,” Inde Navarrette, the star of Curry Barker’s acclaimed blockbuster Obsession, says on the latest episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, which was recorded in front of 500 students at Chapman University. The 25-year-old, who is now generating best actress Oscar buzz for her portrayal of a young woman whose free will is stolen by a friend’s wish that she love him “more than anyone in the fucking world,” continues, “It’s a bit of a whirlwind, but I’m very honored and thankful.”
Before Obsession, Navarrette was just one of countless young actresses fighting for a shot in Hollywood. A military brat who fell in love with acting at YMCA summer camp at the age of nine, she relocated to Los Angeles after her freshman year of high school and began auditioning for professional gigs. She landed parts on the Snapchat show Denton’s Death Date (2019) and the TV series 13 Reasons Why (2020) and Superman & Lois (2021-2024), but in-between there were stretches of rejection, unemployment and doubt.
Then, in 2024, came an audition for a low-budget indie — it ended up costing just $750,000 — centered around a complex female lead: Nikki Freeman, who is introduced as an ambitious and independent young woman, and then, on the flip of a dime — or the snap of a One Wish Willow — becomes a totally different, almost demonic version of herself.
Navarrette landed the part, her first leading role in a film, which seemed like the biggest thing that could possibly happen for her. Then, she and her director Barker, a YouTuber only a year older, went to work, and things began to come together better than they ever could have hoped. The film was accepted into the Toronto International Film Festival, which was their shared dream. But never could they have imagined just how well it would be received at its midnight premiere on Sept. 5, 2025. That night, she says, “Everything changed.”
The film played like gangbusters and sparked an overnight bidding war, ultimately selling for $14 million to Focus Features. Eight months later, on May 15, 2026, it was released in 2,615 theaters in North America, and, on the back of a 94 percent tally on Rotten Tomatoes and an A- CinemaScore, grossed $17 million in its opening weekend, a remarkable triumph. But, as it turned out, it was just getting started. In Hollywood’s equivalent of defying gravity, it made even more money than that in each of the next five weekends, and has now grossed more than $514 million worldwide, making it one of the most commercially successful films of all time.
As the film exploded, so, too, did interest in Navarrette. Her performance was described by THR as “a virtuosic performance,” by the Los Angeles Times as “instantly classic,” by The Guardian as “a barnstorming breakout” and by the New York Times as “an Oscar-worthy turn.” And she was suddenly omnipresent in memes, gifs and think-pieces, and on casting wish-lists.
Over the course of this episode, the actress reflects on her path to Hollywood; the challenges of making Obsession, and the moral questions raised by the film; how she has processed the film’s success and her own sudden fame; how she feels about the possibility of reuniting with Barker for a sequel; her next roles, among them Rogue in Marvel’s reboot of X-Men; her passion for gaming and anime; plus more. You can watch or listen to the full conversation above, or read excerpts of it — lightly edited for clarity and brevity — below.
On pursuing the role of Nikki in Obsession…
“I had told my team I really wanted to do something that showed range and difference, because sometimes people can’t see what you’re capable of until you quite literally show them… they sent me Obsession, and I read it, and I was like, ‘This is going to require a lot of me that I don’t know if I’m capable of.’ But even as I was having that thought-process I was like, ‘Shut up, you are so capable of this.’ So reading it and then sending in the tape, I felt pretty confident.”
On being thrown right into the deep-end on the shoot of Obsession…
“We shot when they’re making out on Bear’s bed and she goes, ‘What the—?!’ and then she shoots backwards. That was our first day. And that was a pretty big task. Before going in, I told Curry, ‘I’m really sorry, but I’m not going to show you any of the freakouts in rehearsal.’ And I think I saw him die, because… it’s very important for the character. But I felt like if I gave it away too early, it wasn’t going to be as authentic as I needed it to be… I really wanted to keep that safe before it needed to come out in order to play it true. And so we’re in the first day, I know Curry’s nervous, I know that I’m really being a dick by saying ‘I’m not going to show you anything.’ But I mean, he’ll even say now that it was a weight lifted off of his shoulders when we did that first freakout, because he was like, ‘Oh my God, okay, she can do it! She just needs privacy with these things.'”
On the period between the completion and release of Obsession, when she did a deep-dive on anime…
“I transitioned into studying film and watching movies and asking, ‘Why do I like them?’ What I like is anime, so like, why do I like that? I mean, Jujutsu Kaisen I find to be a very fascinating anime, but why is it so different than Demon Slayer? Why is it so different than other ones? With Jujutsu Kaisen, they play with timelines, right? With Demon Slayer, they don’t, it’s very linear. And what does that mean and how does that affect with storytelling? I really dove into, ‘Why is Jujutsu Kaisen so good?’ And I learned about timeline and about storytelling — how a person can have a monologue at the beginning of the episode that matters two episodes later or even at the end, and that person’s dead and you don’t learn it until then — and then attaching that to my screenwriting and trying to learn that way.”
On what it’s like to suddenly be memed, giffed and very famous…
“I am figuring this out. There’s no perfect way. Of course, attention feels great, but I think that it’s really important to recognize how it makes you feel and where you get your cup filled. The way that I’m handling it personally? I have this thing where, ‘It’s none of my business.’ I love the way that it shows up in my family members’ lives where now I can tell my dad [via a texted meme of her in Obsession], ‘No, no, no, no, don’t do that.’ [Asked to confirm she really texts memes of herself…] Oh, absolutely, are you kidding me? I don’t think anybody in this audience, if they had the memes, would not do that, it’s the best. But it’s a two-hander. On the one hand, it feels wonderful and I can kind of he-he, ha-ha with it. But also, at the same time, the way to kind of keep my feet on the ground and head not up in the clouds is to go, ‘You know what? This is really fun, but some of it isn’t my business.'”
On whether or not Obsession has changed the way she views or approaches real-life relationships…
“Not necessarily… I kind of take what I learned from Nikki — ‘Don’t allow people to have control over you, you should be very independent’ — but also, at the same time, if you’re in love with somebody, then you’re in love with them and there’s nothing wrong with that. Relationships are very beautiful. As I’m growing up, I really want to give myself grace in not understanding everything. I’m very happy in mine [relationship] right now. [Audience applauds, prompting her to burst out laughing.] What’s the clapping? I can’t wait to tell him that… A relationship should not define who you are at all whatsoever, and the amount of attention or love that you are getting from somebody else does not define yourself whatsoever — I think it’s really important to remember that. Just know that you are loved and important and love everything. Love as much as you possibly can.”
On what she thinks happens to Nikki after the credits roll in Obsession, and whether or not she’d be up for doing a sequel…
“I would totally be open to doing a sequel. Are you kidding me? Who am I to say no? And what is she doing afterwards? I think the non-pretty answer, which I think is more important to give sometimes than kind of just giggling through answers, is she’s starting a grief process. When things happen that are completely out of our control, like losing a loved one, losing a parent, losing autonomy, having an experience that wasn’t your fault, it’s very difficult to understand anything. She’s just starting the grief process.”
On her outlook for the future, including signing on to play Rogue in Marvel’s upcoming X-Men reboot…
“I think the future is looking like really hunkering down because I’m in a very specific opportunity in my career where I can kind of make it last as long as humanly possible or throw it all away. I really want to be specific with the next couple of my decisions to really solidify what I want to do in this industry. And what I want to do is play characters that are people and grounded and really thought-through. And I really want to not look like myself in some characters. I attached myself to The Waffle House Index, and essentially I want with that character to either gain a lot of weight, lose a lot of weight, add eyebrow piercings, maybe shave my head, and do everything humanly possible to look different. Because I also recognize that with acting comes the freedom of being a completely different person, one of those people being Rogue, Anna Marie… paying homage, paying respect to the incredible writers that are a part of Marvel, with Jake Schreier directing, taking what they want to do, adding my own sauce, and then going from there!”