'Smile' - Cast Interview
Audiences are raving about the new horror from Paramount Pictures “Smile.” CinemaBlend sat down with the cast behind the film including Sosie Bacon, Kyle Gallner, Jessie T. Usher, and Writer/Director Parker Finn. We discuss their brilliant marketing campaign, how the film tackles mental health, reactions to the brutal ending and much more!
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00:00 It was more like the emotional stuff that was scary, but when I left the movie after watching it,
00:05 I definitely did feel a little bit like tweaked by people smiling.
00:09 It does give a very eerie feeling watching it and leaving and yeah.
00:25 I was curious, throughout the film you're obviously around so many of the creepy smiles.
00:30 I was wondering if it's as scary on set as it is for us viewers when you were filming them.
00:36 No, it's not. No, you've got, you know, I mean, you know, you've got like a million people around
00:45 and like there were funny things throughout. I don't think that it was much, yeah, like I think
00:52 that it was also, what was most fun to me is like to see what every actor did with the smile and
00:58 how they were all different, you know. Robin Weigert, like she is like a theater actor and she
01:04 like did so much prep, like she was, like it was amazing and then like, you know, everybody
01:11 approached it differently and they all turned out amazing.
01:14 It told me that today's the day that I'm gonna...
01:18 Do you see it right now here?
01:21 There are so many amazing scares in this movie. I was wondering if there was one particular that
01:28 was really challenging for you to shoot? You know, they, all of the scares in the film were
01:32 definitely, you know, bespoke and logistical challenges for every single one of them. I
01:37 wanted to make sure that we weren't just scaring people the same way over and over again, that
01:41 there was a sort of an escalation to the scares and an unexpected nature to them.
01:47 Certainly, you know, the birthday party scene was a major logistical challenge with the extras
01:54 and so many children around and also what Sosie had to do in the middle of all of that.
02:00 And I really, really loved the way that came together and, you know, we just premiered the
02:05 movie the other night and to hear an audience react to that scene was really, really fun.
02:09 Why is it that everybody else who's seen it has stayed in the theater?
02:13 I've seen it too.
02:17 You?
02:18 Get her away from me!
02:20 I feel like there was a great conversation to be had about mental health and trauma and how it plays a part in people's lives. I was wondering if you could speak to that element of the movie and your inspirations for the concept?
02:31 I was really interested in kind of investigating the sort of the stuff that we're all carrying around
02:36 inside of our heads, you know, whether it's our fears, anxieties, or whatever it is that we're
02:41 carrying around inside of our heads, you know, whether it's our fears, anxieties, traumas,
02:44 and what we do to try to mask that from the world. And then at the same time I wanted to explore
02:52 and really place the audience in the shoes of a character who feels like their mind is
02:59 turning against them and what that might be like to experience and sort of present that in a way
03:04 that audiences may not have thought of before. And I really wanted to, you know, do something so like
03:10 internal and psychological but also bring in these external extraordinary elements and kind of
03:16 weave them together until they're indistinguishable.
03:18 Something that I heard that kind of stuck with me forever is that no one is born bad. And that kind
03:25 of ties into all of these things that happen to us throughout our lives, whether it's traumatic or
03:30 whether it's something, you know, medically that then affects us and it changes who we are and
03:36 in the way that we see the world. And I felt like just even incorporating that aspect into this
03:42 movie and then tying it to like a horror genre says a lot. You know what I mean? It is, it can
03:48 be horrific. And a lot of times we're not really sure if it's a supernatural thing or if it's a
03:54 mental illness or if, you know, if it's a traumatic experience that this person keeps reliving, but it
03:58 all sort of seems to have the same reaction. And, or at least it can, you know, it can have the same
04:05 reaction and that's pretty freaking scary. I am not going to keep running. I have to face it.
04:12 How does that make you feel?
04:13 I have come across recently the cool marketing campaign at games and other televised events
04:24 and I was wondering how much of a hand you had in that and if you came up with a concept at all.
04:29 Paramount's marketing team has been nothing short of spectacular on this film and I got to give all
04:34 the credit to them. I mean, they, I think they got very inspired by the film and came up with
04:40 these really clever ideas and I've loved watching it all go out and sort of infect the world.
04:46 For you Kyle, do you mind talking spoilers?
04:49 I'll tell you the whole plot of the movie right now.
04:53 I mean, look, I love a brutal ending. I love like a mean ending. I love like something not
05:01 wrapped up in a nice little bow and I'm hoping it's a one-two punch, you know, being like,
05:08 "Oh shit!" And then you're like, "Oh no!" You know, like I hope, I hope, I hope it really
05:14 like makes everybody walk away and kind of be like, "Oh." You know, really, I hope it's a gut
05:21 punch for everybody. You know, I don't love it when like an ending is tied up with a neat bow.
05:26 I like messy endings that, you know, can be, you know, like deliver an emotional catharsis,
05:33 but also be ambiguous that, you know, and then potentially sort of, you know,
05:39 pull the rug out from underneath you. You know, I think the intention with the film
05:47 was to tell a self-contained story. I think there could still be a lot of fun stuff to do with
05:53 Smile, but if there was any story that was going to continue, I'd want to make sure that it's not
05:56 a retread of what we already watched, that it's something new and that it would have more surprises
06:01 in store for the audience. I'm just really scared that something bad is going to happen.
06:06 Oh, it's not gonna be...
06:08 [SCREAMING]