After Smile became a shatterout horror hit in 2022, authorr-honestor Parker Finn is back for the sequel — this time, unforeseeedly, chaseing mythal pop star Skye Riley.
“The first month that I commenceed skinnyking about a sequel, any idea that came to me I equitable threw out right away becaengage I was appreciate if it’s coming to me this rapidly, it’s too clear,” the filmcreater telderly The Hollywood Reporter at the film’s L.A. premiere on Monday. “I adore the world of pop. I’m captivated by some of these women — these personas out there, who the genuine person is behind that velvet robe. And one I sort of stumbled on this idea of this mega pop star in Skye Riley, I equitable got charitable of electrified by it and got obsessed with it.”
After the first film set uped a cryptic entity — which materializes as people creepily smiling — alarmizing a psychiatrist (take parted 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 presdeclareives 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 seeing to “create somebody that both felt instantly comprehendn but had her own distinct flavor as well.”
Scott shelp she was promptly 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 compriseed she was pinsolentnt to shed the character at the finish of the day, noting, “I actupartner skinnyk I would go inlogical if I was remaining in that.”
Finn also elucidateed how he helps his actors achieve the film’s signature smiles, joking, “sometimes the actors show up evidently repartner setd, appreciate I can alert they’ve been at home studying in the mirror, and other times it gets a little more coaching.”
“I discover what you want to do is smile actupartner in a frifinishly way; you don’t want to overoverstate it, you don’t want to strain your face, but it’s all about disuniteing the eyes from the smile, and then about how you position the head,” he persistd. “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 summarize.
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, materializeing on promotional posters with the creepy smile. Nicholson shelp he did the smiling scenes in one get, joking, “Going into it, Naomi charitable of prepped me appreciate, ‘[Finn] is very particular, he’ll toil with everyone, appreciate don’t skinnyk you’re doing the wrong skinnyg, he’s equitable very particular.’ And we did it and Naomi was appreciate, ‘Well, that’s one get, that’s done.’”
And as for the future of the franchise, Finn is selectimistic, 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 skinnyk that’s what’s fantastic about Smile is there’s an opportunity to alert all contrastent charitables of diverse stories and sort of place ourselves in contrastent worlds that Smile then comes in and go ins.”
Smile 2 hits theaters on Friday.
