Before Obsession turned her into one of the most talked-about actors of the year, Inde Navarrette spent her waiting time doing anime homework. IGN reports that she studied Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer to understand how stories are built, then applied what she learned to her own screenwriting.
The comments came on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, published on 14 October and recorded in front of 500 students at Chapman University. Navarrette plays Nikki Freeman in Obsession, which THR describes as a $750,000 film that grossed more than $500 million worldwide. That success didn’t arrive on schedule, though. There was a gap between finishing the film and its release when she wasn’t sure what came next, and she used it to ask why she likes the things she likes.
Why she compared two anime
Navarrette says she moved from watching films to analysing them, and anime was the obvious place to start. Her question was why Jujutsu Kaisen feels so different from Demon Slayer. In her reading, the former plays with timelines while the latter is linear, and she wanted to know how that choice changes the storytelling.
Her answer centres on delayed payoff. She says she learned how a character can deliver a monologue at the start of an episode that only matters two episodes later, or even at the end, when the audience learns the person is dead. “I really dove into, ‘Why is Jujutsu Kaisen so good?’” she said, before adding that she tried to attach those lessons to her screenwriting.
Gaming, voice acting and Rogue
The anime study sits alongside another way she filled the gap. Geek Culture reports that she made ends meet by streaming games on Twitch, such as The Last of Us or the Call of Duty franchise. IGN notes the channel has since been scrubbed clean. Those streams are part of why she went viral, as we covered in our look at her Last of Us gaming streams.
The gaming interest is now pointing somewhere new. IGN says she’s looking at voice acting, with a Resident Evil game among her dream projects. In an August interview she said she’d like to start with something smaller to test the waters. We have more on that Resident Evil wish in a separate post.
Her bigger job is Rogue in Marvel Studios’ X-Men reboot. Navarrette said she’s “doing everything humanly possible” because she loves the character and has studied her, adding that she wants to do the role justice for herself, for director Jake Schreier and for fans. Her own take on the part is in our interview roundup on her Rogue role.
IGN’s closing speculation is that her voice-acting ambitions could someday lead to an English dub role in Jujutsu Kaisen. That’s the outlet’s guess, not anything Navarrette or the studio has said.
Which anime did Inde Navarrette study?
She named Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer, and compared the first’s shifting timelines with the second’s linear storytelling.
Is Inde Navarrette appearing in an anime or video game?
Nothing has been announced. She has said she’d like to try voice acting and that voicing a character in a Resident Evil game is a dream project.
What is Inde Navarrette doing next?
She’s preparing to play Rogue in Marvel Studios’ X-Men reboot, and says she’s putting everything into getting the role right.
