Smile 2 Director on Inspiration From Kubrick Stare, Franchise Future
After Smile became a breakout horror hit in 2022, writer-director Parker Finn is back for the sequel — this time, unexpectedly, following fictional pop star Skye Riley.
“The first month that I started thinking about a sequel, any idea that came to me I just threw out right away because I was like if it’s coming to me this quickly, it’s too obvious,” the filmmaker told The Hollywood Reporter at the film’s L.A. premiere on Monday. “I love the world of pop. I’m fascinated by some of these women — these personas out there, who the real person is behind that velvet robe. And one I sort of stumbled on this idea of this mega pop star in Skye Riley, I just got kind of electrified by it and got obsessed with it.”
After the first film established a mysterious entity — which appears as people creepily smiling — terrorizing a psychiatrist (played by Sosie Bacon), the second sees the pop sensation (Naomi Scott) experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events, while at the same time dealing with the escalating horrors and pressures of fame.
Finn points to a number of inspirations for the superstar, including Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Sia, Olivia Rodrigo, Tate McRae and Charli XCX, while looking to “create somebody that both felt instantly familiar but had her own unique flavor as well.”
Scott said she was immediately drawn to Finn’s pitch of the film being more of a character piece than a classic horror flick and while shooting, it was all about “am I singing or dancing today or am I crying and screaming?” The actress added she was careful to shed the character at the end of the day, noting, “I actually think I would go insane if I was remaining in that.”
Finn also explained how he helps his actors achieve the film’s signature smiles, joking, “sometimes the actors show up clearly really prepared, like I can tell they’ve been at home studying in the mirror, and other times it takes a little more coaching.”
“I find what you want to do is smile actually in a friendly way; you don’t want to overexaggerate it, you don’t want to strain your face, but it’s all about disconnecting the eyes from the smile, and then about how you position the head,” he continued. “There’s a bit of a head tilt that happens; there’s the famous ‘Kubrick Stare,’ we sort of leaned into that idea, and then it becomes all about the filmmaking tools” of framing and sound design.
Ray Nicholson
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures
Jack Nicholson may be most famous for that stare, and his son Ray has a co-starring role in the movie, appearing on promotional posters with the creepy smile. Nicholson said he did the smiling scenes in one take, joking, “Going into it, Naomi kind of prepped me like, ‘[Finn] is very specific, he’ll work with everyone, like don’t think you’re doing the wrong thing, he’s just very specific.’ And we did it and Naomi was like, ‘Well, that’s one take, that’s done.’”
And as for the future of the franchise, Finn is optimistic, saying, “There’s so many exciting roads that Smile could go down. We’ll have to see how audiences react to Smile 2, but I think that’s what’s great about Smile is there’s an opportunity to tell all different kinds of diverse stories and sort of place ourselves in different worlds that Smile then comes in and invades.”
Smile 2 hits theaters on Friday.
