‘Obsession’ Star Megan Lawless Unpacks Sarah’s Final Scene

[This story contains spoilers from Obsession.]

Sometimes, people miss what’s right in front of them.

In Curry Barker‘s Obsession, Bear (Michael Johnston) uses a One Wish Willow and wishes for his longtime crush, Nikki (Inde Navarrette), to love him more than anyone else in the world. The wish comes true, but at the cost of tragic consequences.

One of those comes when Nikki kills Megan Lawless’ Sarah after Bear sneaks out to talk to her in her car. While the scene shown in the final film is already brutal, Sarah’s death was originally more graphic in the cut that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. What made it even more tragic was that Sarah had feelings for Bear that she was seemingly about to vocalize — and then it was too late. “Sarah would have been the ideal choice. I think they would have just been perfect for each other,” Johnston previously told The Hollywood Reporter.

Now, as the hit film enters its second successful weekend at the box office, Lawless speaks with THR about Sarah going “out in an iconic way,” what could’ve happened if Nikki never showed up to the car that night, Nikki changing her appearance to look like Sarah in the ending and who she believes the movie’s villain actually is.

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One lesson from this film is to be upfront and honest about your feelings. Bear, of course, was too nervous to tell Nikki that he liked her. But Sarah also seemed too nervous to tell Bear how she felt. If Sarah had been honest from the beginning, do you think that would’ve changed anything?

That is such a good question that I’ve never thought about. Honestly, I think Bear was so caught up in his feelings for Nikki that I’m not sure it would have changed much. I think he still would have had tunnel vision towards Nikki. But I would have loved it if Sarah did that, because I feel like she’s got it in her to speak her truth to Bear. And I guess when she does, it’s too late. But if they had that conversation in the car earlier, maybe we could have avoided everything that ensued. (Laughs.) It would have been better if everyone had just come clean about their feelings earlier than they actually did.

When I spoke with Michael, he told me that Sarah and Bear would have been a great match, and she would have been the clear choice. What is your reaction to that? Do you agree?

I totally agree with that. Bear obviously needs someone that would reciprocate his feelings, and I also feel like you can tell from our dialogue that we have this depth and connection. Bear isn’t in love with an idea of me, like he is with Nikki. He knows real sides of me, and I know real sides of him. Yeah, I think we would have made a great match. I wish we could see what would happen.

The party scene was one of the creepiest, but also funniest moments, with Nikki reading her poem, and Sarah, Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) and Bear’s reaction to it, especially when she pulls your chair out. What was the atmosphere like on set during that scene?

From my perspective, I was getting over being sick, and it was an overnight shoot, and we were all wearing tiny little clothes. I’m wearing my little dress, and Nikki’s wearing her little outfit, and I remember us all being a little chilly. There’s pictures of us behind the scenes wearing big throw blankets over ourselves. But it was also really fun because it wasn’t often that we had so many of us on set at the same time. And all of the extras in that scene were also friends of Curry and Cooper, and friends of ours. Skyler Zurn, the casting director, was there. We all got to be bumming it out together behind the scenes of that, and when we were filming it, we didn’t take that super seriously. I love the comedic elements of that scene because we all understood them in the moment while we were filming, and we were getting a kick out of everything that was happening. I remember when Inde was doing that monologue, we knew the absurdity of it. Our reactions are genuine because it is so absurd, but once the cameras cut, we can fall into the humor of it more. Rather than when the cameras are rolling, it’s our concern, our reactions are more serious, and then once the cameras cut, it’s like, “Dang, what the hell was that?” (Laughs.)

Was that your first time seeing the freaky Nikki version of her?

It was my second time. The first time was when I visited set on some random day and Inde was performing one of those last scenes on the couch at the very end of the movie, where she’s screaming. That was absurd. I was so impressed by her because, up until that point, I hadn’t ever seen her perform Nikki. So, I was really happy seeing that, because I was like, “OK, this movie is gonna come together now that I’ve seen what Nikki looks like on camera. This movie’s really gonna work because Inde is so stellar.”

Sarah also has a brutal death scene. What was your reaction to finding out that your character was going to die like that?

I was happy about it, because you want to go out in an iconic way. Everyone dies, and my death really kicks things off well. You will not forget my death scene, and I was glad it was so momentous in the storyline and nuts, because I knew it would stick with audiences. Also, the scene in the car right before is so beautiful. When Michael and I were rehearsing it, I loved the dialogue. It felt so real and raw. An actor’s favorite thing is to perform a scene like that. Michael and I had the best time, and to know it was followed up by my brutal death was even more spectacular, because I knew it gave weight to both sides of that scene, the death and the conversation before. So I just feel honored to have such an iconic death scene in this film that no one will forget. (Laughs.)

I heard that it was also one of the funniest days on set, too?

I totally stand by that. That was my favorite day on set. It was just a little ridiculous, if you take a step back and you see everything that’s going on behind the scenes, because Inde was wearing this crazy wig that had a helmet underneath it, basically something to protect her head when she bashed into the glass. She looked so funny, it was just hilarious. She had to commit to running into the glass as fast as she could and charging at me. We had to play out this thing that felt a little silly, but with 100 percent commitment, as actors do. And we didn’t have many tries. We had two takes to get it right. They were like, “Don’t actually hold her head hard or push her head in. We can’t do that for safety reasons,” so she was holding her hand gently on the back of my head, and then I was miming, slamming my head into the brick, and that whole sequence is just funny. There was a doll version of myself that they placed in, and they bashed the head in next. It’s peak actors acting, that feels silly, but you need to commit. (Laughs.)

Originally, what premiered at TIFF was a more violent version of that scene, which would’ve received an NC-17 rating. What was it like for you to see that reaction since it’s your character?

It’s so funny you asked that, because the reaction was completely unexpected to me. I’m sitting here like, “Aw, poor Sarah gets brutally killed.” The whole theater at TIFF erupted into cheering at that moment. I was like, “Why is everyone cheering? Ouch!” (Laughs.) I did not expect everyone to be cheering. I thought people would be crying, maybe. (Laughs.) But I think it’s because the moment is so iconic. These horror fans, that’s their bread and butter. They just go bananas for something like that. And that version had me in ADR originally. Curry wanted me to make gurgling noises that he would add into that scene, after my head is actually kicked in. So, you’d hear Sarah gurgling, like she’s still alive, and they took that out when they edited it to not be NC-17, but it was brutal.

There’s a lot of discourse about who the true villain is in this movie. A lot of people are saying Bear, but there’s also some debate about whether everyone in this film is a villain. We have Ian secretly hooking up with Nikki and not telling Bear. And then Sarah is friends with Nikki, but she obviously likes Bear. Do you think it’s a little more nuanced about who the villain is? Do you see a clear villain?

I think it’s good to think about everything from a nuanced perspective and to have discourse about this. But obviously, I’m biased; I am Team Sarah till I die. (Laughs.) I don’t think Sarah is the villain. I mean, if you really put yourself in Sarah’s shoes, she and Nikki have this friendship, and Nikki has been telling her, “I’ll talk to Bear and tell him you like him. I know you like Bear. You guys would make a great match. You should go for that.” If your best friend was gunning for you to pursue your love interest, and then one day there’s a flip of the switch, and they’re dating, I would be so offended! I remember talking about it with Curry. From the moment they start dating, it irritates me, because my best friend is now dating the guy I like out of nowhere, when she had never expressed interest before? It feels like a slap in the face, and I feel like Sarah tries to go about it in the best way possible, being honest, that she doesn’t like it, and that it feels like a betrayal, in a sense. But also not overstep and tell them what they should do. I think she holds off for as long as possible in telling her friends, “You can do this and can’t do that.” But she can also be honest that it doesn’t seem healthy. Ultimately, in that car scene, she really knows that’s the time you need to step in, like Sarah knows it’s time to step in after seeing what she saw at the party, now I need to hold my friends accountable because whatever is going on is not OK. This is not healthy for anyone involved. Of any character in this film, Sarah is not the villain… I do think Bear’s the villain! (Laughs.)

What do you think would have happened if Nikki hadn’t come up to the car and interrupted Sarah and Bear?

I love this question. I’d like to think that Bear would have seen what was right in front of him the whole time. I don’t think I’d necessarily want them to kiss or break any boundaries. Obviously, from Sarah’s perspective, they are in a relationship still. I wouldn’t want to impose on that in any way, but for Bear to wake up and be like, “Sarah, this is not healthy, whatever Nikki and I are doing. And I appreciate you being honest with me about your feelings. Let me break things off with Nikki.” In a normal world, where the One Wish Willow doesn’t exist and Nikki isn’t obsessed and that would lead to disastrous consequences, that would be the ideal scenario. (Laughs.) Maybe they would have kissed, but I don’t think I really want that personally, because I think it goes against everything Sarah believes.

At the end, it’s so interesting that Nikki starts to change her appearance to look like Sarah by drawing on her tattoos and wearing her dress. Whose idea was that and what do you think about how she’s almost trying to become Sarah or mirror her in a way?

That was always written in the script, so it was Curry’s idea. It’s crazy because you see my dead body there naked and it’s because Nikki’s wearing my clothes. She’s even smoking the joint. I think that is such an eerie touch, and it continues to add to the theme of this unhealthy obsession that was against Nikki’s own agency, but also an unhealthy obsession in romantic situations: You will change yourself to appease the person you want and that’s not healthy either. So, adding in that layer to be like, “Don’t do this! Don’t try to become someone else. Don’t try to become whatever they want to be.” I think that is a nice touch at the end.

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Obsession is now playing in theaters. Check out all of The Hollywood Reporter‘s coverage here, including a Curry Barker profile and spoiler interviews with Inde Navarrette and Michael Johnston.