Riding high from box office hit Obsession, star Michael Johnston is making moves in the agenting world. The actor has signed with Gersh in what is described as a competitive situation to land the star.
Johnston was without an agent amid the rollout of Obsession, which has become an outsized hit, earning him an overnight high profile. Focus acquired the indie film out of September’s Toronto International Film Festival, and since bowing May 15, has become the specialty label’s top-grossing film of all time, both globally and domestically, with a global haul of $234.5 million.
Before Obsession, Johnston was a relative unknown, with credits in Teen Wolf, the indie feature Slash, and Lionsgate’s Endangered Species. He landed in Obsession after filmmaker Curry Barker struggled to find the right actor to play Bear, the protagonist who makes an ill-fated wish that his crush will love him more than anything in the world.
But casting director Skyler Zurn remembered Johnston from auditions on other projects and showed Barker some old tape of the actor. The filmmaker called him in for chemistry reads with actresses vying for the role of Nikki, and when Johnston and eventual co-star Inde Navarrette read together, the casting was clear. No one knew how the ride of the $750,000 would go on, with the film becoming the first movie since 1982’s E.T.: The Extraterrestrial to have bigger second and third weekends than its first.
Johnston will continue to be repped by Tash Moseley Management, Atlas Talent Agency for voiceover, imPRint and Johnson Shapiro.
