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]