Inde Navarrette lives to scare people after her 'Obsession' breakout

Brian Truitt, USA TODAYSun, May 17, 2026 at 12:30 PM UTC

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We're discussing light spoilers for the new horror movie “Obsession” (in theaters now), so beware if you want to go in totally cold.

Inde Navarrette has reached that special point in every young actor’s life: She can’t talk about her next project.

“I feel like it's just a little me, myself and I. A little secret,” she says with a giggle.

That may be under wraps but her talent isn’t anymore. Navarrette turns in a multifaceted, star-making performance in the horror film “Obsession." But this scream queen is far from a final girl. She’s the one doing the scaring.

In director Curry Barker’s take on the “monkey’s paw” trope, awkward dude Bear (Michael Johnston) has a crush on his co-worker Nikki (Navarrette). Using a mysterious One Wish Willow trinket, Bear wishes that she will love him more than anyone else in the world. It triggers something in the down-to-earth Nikki, who becomes a devoted girlfriend, going to terrifying extremes to show her adoration and keep others away from her man.

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Inde Navarrette has a chilling, and star-making, turn in the horror movie "Obsession" playing a young woman terrifyingly affected by a friend's wish.

Nikki cackles, sobs, screams (a lot), begs, rages and everything in between. There’s something definitely wrong with her, and Navarrette, 25, captures a lot of it just in her vivid expressions. “My mom's always said that I am an open book on my face,” she says. “You can just read what I'm thinking.”

After appearing in the TV series “13 Reasons Why” and “Superman & Lois” and the Dave Bautista action flick “Trap House,” Navarrette tried out horror and now is hooked: “I’d do it for the rest of my life. It's the best.” Here’s what else her new fans if they’re obsessed:

Inde Navarrette connected with the themes of ‘Obsession’

With “Obsession,” “I wanted to try something new and this was nothing but new,” Navarrette says, and with Nikki, “there's six different characters in one person.” On one hand, it’s a simple story of a love gone wrong, but the movie deepens thematically when it’s revealed that the real Nikki is trapped in her body. The actress saw it as “a terrifying betrayal of somebody who's supposed to love you and protect you."

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There’s a moment when someone says to Bear that it seems like Nikki’s not taking care of him. “In all actuality, she's the one that's being hurt,” Navarrette says. “I really wanted to make sure that it was gut-wrenching and real and raw and vulnerable. I've heard a lot of people say that this movie has made them sick, because it's such an innate fear of everything being out of your control and not being protected but being manipulated.”

She gets a kick out of scaring people – just not herself

Bear (Michael Johnston) makes a wish that Nikki (Inde Navarrette) would love him and it goes eerily awry in the horror movie "Obsession."

One new thing Navarrette realized about herself making “Obsession” is “how much I would be excited about scaring people.” The way Nikki looks at Bear or screams in his face, or even just wears the most chilling perma-grin you’ve ever seen, leads to some of the film’s most unnerving moments.

There is one scene, however, that even she refuses to watch: Bear wakes up in the middle of the night, and there’s a goosebump-inducing moment where Barker cleverly plays with shadows and an unseen Nikki is talking to Bear from a completely dark corner. On the set that day, she caught “a glimpse” of the scene on a monitor, and now never wants to see it again. “Sometimes your performance is for other people. I don't need to experience it, because I think it's such a scary thing to be scared of yourself.”

One of Inde Navarrette’s earliest inspirations? Natalie Portman

Director Curry Barker (far left) attends a LA screening of "Obsession" with his stars Inde Navarrette and Michael Johnston.

Born in Tucson, Arizona, Navarrette “ping-ponged” across the country when she was growing up because her dad’s a Marine, and she first tried out acting in summer YMCA camps. There, Navarrette would re-enact scenes of the movies that she’d watch with her mom like “Gladiator.” She recalls, even as a young child, "understanding what the movie was about and feeling really warm in my body. Like I, too, wanted to express that emotion.”

Navarette also found inspiration watching Natalie Portman in “Leon: The Professional.” One reason was “she looked like me,” Navarette acknowledges. Also, it "was the first time that I had ever seen myself in a film, being like, ‘Wow, it's a young girl, and she has these kind of adult problems,’ ” says Navarette, who moved to LA with her mom and “officially” started acting when she was 18.

Another fun fact: She earned the nickname “Inde” very early in life. The actress, whose legal name is Danielle Fabiola Navarette, explains that the first two words she said were “I do.” Her “hands-on” mom “would want to do my hair and help me with things, and it was just, ‘No, Mommy, I do,’ ” she says. “She was like, ‘Yeah, she's so independent.’ So then it just turned into Inde. People think it's for Indy 500 or Indiana Jones, and sometimes I just go, ‘Yeah!’ ”

‘Obsession’ actress ready for a roller-coaster of roles

Navarette’s next film is the upcoming thriller “Invertigo,” about a group of teens who sneak onto a theme-park ride before it debuts and get stuck high in the air courtesy of a system failure. She filmed in Thailand and, yes, rode a roller-coaster quite a bit. “I’ve always loved them, because I love the feeling in my belly,” she says. (Her fave: the big drop on Disneyland’s Guardians of the Galaxy ride.)

As far as future roles, she recently rewatched “Erin Brockovich” and wouldn’t mind playing a similarly grounded character in a real-life drama. But really, from action to fantasy, she’s game for “a little bit of everything,” Navarette says. “You go make a dragon movie, or you go whoop some butt, and then come back to a psychological thriller.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Obsession' star Inde Navarrette breaks out in 'real and raw' role

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