Obsession Star Michael Johnston Talks About Being at the Center of the Most Correctly Named Movie of the Year

I spoke to the actor about the huge breakout hit movie, what it was like to make it, and why it's resonating the way it is.

I saw Obsession a couple of weeks before it opened at a press screening last month and was instantly sure I’d seen something great, calling it both an excellent horror movie and one of the year’s best movies to date in my review. But did I predict what was about to happen? Hell no! How could anyone?!

This was a super low budget movie, made for less than a million dollars, but factoring in the $15 million Focus paid for the rights to it, following its first buzzed about screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, I felt sure it would be a success after I saw it because of how clearly it delivered something so engaging and exciting. But I was thinking “It could make $50 million by the end of its run!” You know, success on a small horror movie level.

…and then it actually opened. And here we are, barely a month after the film came out, and Obsession has made an astounding $200 million domestic and $300 million worldwide so far, powered by some of the most amazing word of mouth and week to week box office holds of any wide release movie in recent memory. This was a movie that went up in both its second and third weekend, something that almost never happens anymore. This is something special.

This week, I got to interview one of Obsession’s stars Michael Johnston for an in-depth conversation about his experience being at the center of this massive sensation. I had a great time speaking to the Teen Wolf alum about what the past month has been like from his perspective and why it is that this movie has become the kind of out of nowhere breakout hit that we truly only see happen once in a generation or so.

Johnston went into detail about the making of the movie, collaborating with writer/director Curry Barker, and what it was like when his co-star, Inde Navarrette, would throw him a curveball with one of her many bold choices playing Nikki, the girl his character Bear wishes would love him, only to have all hell break loose.

As rightfully attention-getting as Navarrette’s amazing performance as Nikki is, Johnston is also terrific in Obsession, playing an average guy who ends up becoming hatable thanks to his actions — or in many cases, his lack of action when it comes to dealing with what he’s set in motion — and the actor had a lot of interesting thoughts about what makes Bear tick.

Oh, and of course I had to ask Johnston about his upcoming voice role as Nathan Summers in X-Men ‘97 Season 2!

You can watch my full interview with Michael Johnston below.