Inde Navarrette’s ‘Obsession’ Breakout Changed Her Career in Just One Year, She Claims

One year ago, Inde Navarrette arrived at the Toronto International Film Festival with a small movie that few people could have expected to become a major career turning point. Obsession started as a low-budget horror romance playing in TIFF’s Midnight Madness lineup, but its success quickly grew far beyond the festival. Now, Navarrette is looking back at the project and everything that happened after it changed her life.

Navarrette returned to TIFF with writer-director Curry Barker for an anniversary event celebrating the movie’s first screening. The reunion gave the two filmmakers a chance to talk about how quickly things changed after that night. For Navarrette, the difference between where she was before Obsession and where she is now is especially huge. Speaking at the event, she said, “Everything has changed for me, I’m now in rooms I could never even imagine.”

The actress had already built a name for herself before making the movie. She spent four seasons playing Sarah, the daughter of Lana Lang, on The CW series Superman & Lois. But Obsession gave her the chance to move away from that kind of television role and take on something much stranger and more intense. Navarrette has explained that she was attracted to the project because she wanted to challenge herself and show audiences a side of her acting they had not seen before.

Speaking about her decision to take the role, Navarrette said she wanted to do something completely different from her earlier work. According to Variety, the actress was looking for a project that would push her as a performer and give her the chance to prove what she could do. That decision ended up having a much bigger impact than she could have expected when she first signed on.

The movie’s rise has been remarkable. Obsession premiered at TIFF on September 5, 2025, before Focus Features gave it a much wider theatrical release the following May. What began as a production made for roughly $750,000 eventually earned more than $500 million worldwide. That kind of result is extremely rare for a movie made on such a small budget, turning Obsession into one of the most surprising box office stories of its time.

The success also changed Barker’s career. Before Obsession, he was best known for making and appearing in short films on YouTube. After the movie became a breakout hit, he signed an eight-figure deal with Universal and Blumhouse for his next feature. Navarrette’s own next move is just as significant, with Marvel Studios casting her as Rogue in its upcoming X-Men reboot.

That new role shows just how quickly Obsession changed the way Hollywood sees Navarrette. Going from a television supporting role to leading a low-budget festival movie and then landing one of Marvel’s most recognizable mutant characters is a huge jump. Her performance as Nikki has also started attracting awards attention as the fall festival season continues, giving the movie another reason to stay in the spotlight.

The TIFF reunion showed that the film’s impact was not limited to box office numbers. The anniversary event reportedly attracted a large crowd, with people lining up at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre well before the discussion began. Fans have also continued sharing memes and different interpretations of Nikki online, giving the character a life beyond the movie itself.

That kind of response is especially impressive for a film that began as a risky Midnight Madness title. Instead of disappearing after its festival run, Obsession became a word-of-mouth hit that kept growing as more people discovered it. The internet played a major role in that process, helping the movie and Navarrette’s performance reach audiences who may never have heard about it during its original TIFF premiere.

Looking back one year later, Navarrette and Barker now have very different careers than they did when they first arrived in Toronto. Barker has a major studio deal, while Navarrette is preparing to play Rogue in one of Marvel’s biggest upcoming projects. Their TIFF reunion was therefore more than a celebration of an old movie. It was a reminder of how one unexpected festival screening can completely change the future of the people who made it.

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