Inde Navarrette finally paid a visit to the Green Man Store in Burbank, the real-life esoteric shop where the One Wish Willow was purchased in Obsession. The location has become a destination for fans of the film, and for Navarrette, it was a first.
“We brought Nikki to where it all began, and she feels good in here,” she told the Los Angeles Times in a new profile, laughing at the shrine of candles, crystals and framed photos from the movie.
It is a long way from where she stood just a year ago. After Obsession premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, work was hard to come by. “I was really trying to find new work, and I wasn’t getting many jobs, but now I think everything’s changed and I’m really happy that Obsession showed people what I’m capable of,” she said.
The profile also digs into the story behind her name. Inde was a childhood nickname from her abuelito and her mother, short for independence. “My abuelito never called me Danielle at all. He called me Inde,” she said. “I felt closer to Inde because it felt more like me.”
She spoke warmly about the Latino fans who have embraced her, saying it made her happy to have people pull her in and say, “No, she is Latina and she’s ours.” On the memes that reduce her character Nikki to a stereotype, she gently pushed back, asking fans to look deeper: “There’s this idea that Latina women are just so intense and so crazy. But let’s look a lot deeper than that.”
And on the Oscar buzz swirling around her performance, she is keeping her feet on the ground, the way her seventh-grade English teacher taught her. “I don’t consider it a thing until it happens,” she said. “I wouldn’t wish for anything. I would work hard for it.”
Next up, she is preparing to play Rogue in filmmaker Jake Schreier’s upcoming X-Men movie. “I’m doing everything humanly possible because I love that character,” she said. “I want to do it justice.”
Navarrette’s breakout year keeps building. As TDN previously reported, she will host SNL’s Halloween episode on October 31, with Rogue waiting in the wings. A year ago she was struggling to find work; now Hollywood is struggling to keep up with her.