After Obsession’s breakout at the box office and a Certified Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, actor Megan Lawless says fans are rooting for her character Sarah the way she always hoped they would. In an interview, she talks about building Sarah from the page, t
The moment Megan Lawless read the script for Obsession, she says she already had a feeling about how her character’s story would end.
“Before I started reading it, [I] had a feeling…that my character would be killed off,” Lawless said, describing what she hoped would make Sarah’s death scene stick with audiences. “All anyone can hope for is that her death scene is iconic…[and] make audiences feel something.”
She didn’t have to wonder for long. Obsession—written and directed by Curry Barker—was made on a budget of less than $1 million. then landed in theaters with what Lawless calls a kind of whirlwind energy fans couldn’t shake. The film earned a 96% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed over $100 million at the box office in just three weeks. according to Box Office Mojo.
In the film. Bear (Michael Johnston) is a hopeless romantic who makes a wish on a One Wish Willow to make his friend and crush. Nikki (Inde Navarrette). fall in love with him. But what begins as a dream romance becomes a bloody nightmare that threatens Bear and everyone around him—and Lawless’s Sarah becomes a flashpoint inside that unraveling.
It’s Sarah’s presence that has fans leaning in, Lawless said. She told Digital Trends that she “always loved Sarah,” and she wanted people to root for her from the time she’s on screen.
“Now that I’m seeing everyone rooting for her…in the comments,” Lawless said, “it just makes me really happy that they love her the way I love her.”
Lawless doesn’t describe her performance as built from one big external reference. She said she “just read her off the page” and understood Sarah quickly, while also aligning with Barker.
After that, she brought in her own perspective—then leaned into the visual work that helped Sarah come alive. Lawless said she drew stylistic inspiration from Hayley Williams and “more punk rock-type girls. ” then looked at “punksy cool chicks on Pinterest” for hair inspiration because the production changed her hair for the role. She also credited Blair [James], the costume designer, for “getting everything aligned” so Sarah’s look “came together.”.
The emotional payoff, she added, wasn’t limited to the screen.
Obsession’s production, Lawless said, brought her unusually close to both cast and crew. She said she’d “never been so close” with castmates and crew as she was on this project. She described sleeping over with Inde Navarrette—“she slept in my bed”—and said they had sleepovers twice last weekend. Lawless also said she and producer Haley Johnson could call each other anytime. and that friendship has kept moving even after filming stopped.
“We throw game nights sometimes,” Lawless said, adding that she thinks it’s “another huge blessing” that comes out of Obsession.
That bond matters because the film is built on tension—especially between Sarah and Nikki. In the story, Nikki’s transformation puts strain on the group and pulls terror into everyday scenes. When asked whether she was ever genuinely terrified of Navarrette’s Nikki during production, Lawless said no.
“Inde does not genuinely terrify me because I just know her so well,” Lawless said. What she did describe was constant awe: the way Navarrette could “transform,” and how that intensity faded between takes when everyone could joke and be human again.
For viewers, the intensity peaks in the car scene. Lawless said she loved it—and she remembered the process of making it as “insane.” She also framed it as the point where everything changes.
“It’s the catalyst that leads us to the finale of the film,” Lawless said. “It’s just so momentous, and I love how much gravitas it has.”
She connected that to the feeling she says she experienced in theaters, too—where she could step outside the story and still be engaged.
The conversations online, she acknowledged, aren’t only about shock. They’re also about what Sarah is to the people around her—friend or rival. Digital Trends asked Lawless whether Sarah truly sees Nikki as a friend or more like competition for Bear’s affection.
Lawless described their friendship as long-established and complicated by the reality of what the wish does to their group.
“They’ve been friends for a long time. ” Lawless said. adding that they’ve “known each other since high school. ” and that the events of the film would have still pushed them “to different chapters of their life” even if the wish didn’t happen. She said Nikki wants to quit her job to work more on her writing. while Sarah wants to go to art school.
But she also insisted Sarah and Nikki are friends. The difference, she said, comes once Nikki’s behavior shifts and betrayal enters the picture.
“When everything starts to unfold,” Lawless said, “her friend has now kind of betrayed her.” She pointed to how Sarah’s feelings get exposed—“She exposed her feelings for Bear to Nikki”—and then Nikki is dating Bear “the next day.”
From Sarah’s perspective, Lawless said, that would feel like more than conflict—it would feel personal.
“Her friend has now kind of betrayed her,” she said, describing the doubt that would seed after something like that happens. “And it must feel kind of personal…if my best friend started dating the guy I’ve been telling her all about…that I like the next day. [It] would feel like an attack.”
The wish itself, she said, is a kind of structural problem for the group’s future—pushing people into paths they can’t come back from.
Still, Lawless was careful about what she believes might have happened if Bear never made that wish. She said she isn’t sure. but she “like[s] to believe” Sarah is close to telling Bear about her feelings. She also suggested there’s a version of the story where Sarah eventually realizes Bear isn’t emotionally ready for her.
“I like to believe at [the trivia night], she has been telling Nikki about her feelings,” Lawless said, then described how Nikki’s probing could lead to Sarah finally getting a chance. “After gauging his feelings, though, Bear has no feelings for her.”
Without the wish, Lawless argued, the characters would probably steer away from the danger around Bear.
“I shouldn’t even try, but I think without the wish…Bear is not suitable to be in any relationship,” she said. She described him as someone who needs “development and growth” first, and someone that a mature group would avoid getting tangled in.
“That’s just really, really dangerous…It’s just really damaging for all parties,” she said when reflecting on how desperation can turn destructive.
As for what comes next, Lawless said she will start filming another thriller next month. She wouldn’t name it, but said it’s “another feature horror” with a different “kicker,” and that she expects an article about the cast eventually.
She also said she’d love to work with Curry Barker again, as well as Inde Navarrette. Lawless pointed out that she already had a chance to collaborate with producer Haley Johnson again on a short they did before Obsession came out in theaters. after the film had been shot. She also said she wouldn’t be surprised if the whole cast reunited again.
For now, the feeling around Obsession is still building: a low-budget horror that hit big, earned strong critical warmth with a 96% Certified Fresh rating, and left audiences arguing over the exact moment things went irreversibly wrong.
And for Lawless, the strange beauty is that Sarah’s heartbreak didn’t disappear—it became the reason people kept talking.
Obsession Megan Lawless Sarah Curry Barker horror Rotten Tomatoes Certified Fresh Box Office Mojo One Wish Willow Inde Navarrette Michael Johnston thriller film