Lawless told Vogue Singapore she wanted to stretch beyond horror and would “love to do some comedy.” Crushed makes good on both counts.
As Deadline reported last month, Lawless leads the indie romantic comedy Crushed as Joss, a romantic at heart who never seems to have her crushes reciprocated, so she sets out to find the one perfect crush who might finally be the right person for her. The film marks the feature directorial debut of Stephanie Donnelly and went into production in Chicago.
Lawless played Sarah in Obsession, the friend watching Bear (Michael Johnston) fall hard for Nikki (Inde Navarrette). Curry Barker’s $750,000 horror movie went on to earn more than $500 million worldwide, and Focus Features’ $15 million bet on it out of the Toronto International Film Festival became one of the great festival success stories, as TDN reported when Netflix’s rival bid came to light.
Crushed is not the only new direction on her slate. Lawless was also announced last month for Ping, a psychological thriller from writer and director Richie Gordon about an aspiring creative director whose remote dream job turns into a nightmare under a boss she can never mute. She stars in it alongside WWE champion Liv Morgan.
Before Obsession, Lawless appeared in Finding Carter, Table 19, The Hate U Give and The Girl From Plainville. No release date has been announced for Crushed yet, but a romantic at heart hunting for her perfect crush is about as far from Sarah’s world as it gets, and that is exactly the point.