Megan Lawless is not slowing down. The actress who starred in Obsession, one of the biggest independent horror films in recent memory, has officially been cast as the lead in Crushed, a romantic comedy that marks the feature directorial debut of Stephanie Donnelly. The news was confirmed exclusively by Deadline on September 17.
Crushed follows Joss, played by Lawless, a romantic at heart who somehow never seems to have crushes who feel the same way about her. Determined to change that pattern, she sets off on a quest to find the one perfect crush who might finally be the right person for her. The film is currently shooting in Chicago.
The move from horror to romantic comedy is a significant tonal shift for Lawless, and a deliberate one. In Obsession, she played Sarah, a character described as a close friend to Bear who may even harbour feelings for him, a role that already contained a quiet romantic undercurrent beneath the horror. Crushed puts that energy front and centre, giving Lawless the chance to lead a film built entirely around romantic longing and the comedy of bad timing. It is also a notable career move, demonstrating her range at a time when audiences are becoming increasingly familiar with her name.
Megan Lawless played Sarah opposite Inde Navarrette’s Nikki and Michael Johnston’s Bear in Curry Barker’s Obsession, the A24 horror film that Focus Features acquired for $15 million out of TIFF’s Midnight Madness section last year. That acquisition turned out to be a major success, as Obsession went on to gross well over $500 million at the global box office, becoming Focus Features’ highest-grossing film of all time and the highest-grossing film acquisition ever made out of a film festival.
Before Obsession, Lawless appeared in The Hate U Give alongside Amandla Stenberg and Sabrina Carpenter and starred in the Hulu limited series The Girl from Plainville. She has been building her career steadily, and Obsession’s extraordinary success has placed her at a very different level of industry attention than she occupied even a year ago.
Crushed is Stephanie Donnelly’s feature film directorial debut. The project was developed quietly, and details surrounding Donnelly’s background and the film’s producing team have not been officially disclosed at this stage. What is confirmed is that production is already underway in Chicago, meaning the film is moving quickly from announcement to shoot.
The casting of Lawless in Crushed reflects a pattern that plays out regularly in Hollywood: when an actress breaks through in one genre, some of the most interesting career moves can involve pivoting to something unexpected. The audience that discovered Lawless through Obsession is now curious about what she can do beyond that world. A charming, character-driven romantic comedy about a woman who cannot get her crushes right is the kind of project that could expand her fanbase considerably while showing a side of her screen presence that Obsession never had room for.
Crushed is currently in production in Chicago. No release date has been confirmed.
