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!
00:00It was more like the emotional stuff that was scary, but when I left the movie after watching it
00:05I definitely did feel a little bit like tweaked by people smiling. It does give a very eerie feeling
00:12Watching it and leaving and yeah
00:14I
00:25Was curious throughout the film you're obviously around so many of the creepy smiles
00:30I was wondering if it's as scary on set as it is for us viewers when you were filming them
00:37No, it's not
00:39No, you've got you know, I mean, you know, you've got like a million people around and like
00:47There were funny things
00:50Throughout I don't think that it was much
00:52Yeah
00:52Like I think that it was also it what was most fun to me is like to see what every actor did with the smile
00:58and um
00:59How they were all different, you know, Robin Weigert, like she is like a theater actor and she like
01:06Did so much prep like she wasn't like it was amazing and then like, you know, every everybody
01:12Approached it differently and they all turned out amazing. It told me that today's the day that
01:17I'm gonna
01:19Do you see it right now here?
01:26There are so many amazing scares in this movie
01:29I was wondering if there was one particular that was really challenging for you to shoot
01:34You know, they all of the scares in the film were definitely, you know bespoke and and and logistical challenges for every single one of them
01:41I wanted to make sure that we weren't just scaring people the same way over and over again that there was a sort of an
01:46escalation to the scares and an
01:49unexpected nature to them
01:51certainly, you know the birthday party scene was a
01:55Major logistical challenge with the extras and and so many children around and also what Sosi?
02:02Had to do in the middle of all of that and I really really loved the way that came together
02:07And you know, we just premiered the movie the other night and to hear an audience
02:11React to that scene was really really fun
02:14Why is it that everybody else who's seen it is dead and you're alive?
02:19I've seen it too
02:24Like there was a great conversation to be had about mental health and and trauma and how it plays a part in people's lives
02:30I was wondering if you could speak to that element of the movie and your inspirations for the concept
02:35I was really interested in kind of
02:37Investigating the the sort of the stuff that we're all carrying around inside of our heads, you know, whether it's it's our fears anxieties traumas
02:45And and what we do to try to mask that from the world
02:50And then at the same time I wanted to explore
02:53and and really plates the the audience in the shoes of a character who feels like their mind is turning against them and
03:00What that might be like to experience and and sort of present that in a way that that audiences may not have
03:06Thought of before and I really wanted to you know, do something so like internal and psychological
03:12But also bring in these external extraordinary elements and kind of weave them together till they're they're indistinguishable
03:19something that I heard that kind of stuck with me forever is that no one is born bad and that kind of ties into
03:27All of these things that happen to us throughout our lives whether it's traumatic or whether it's something, you know
03:33medically that then affects us and it changes who we are and in the way that we see the world and I felt like
03:40Just even incorporating that aspect into this movie and then tying it to like a horror genre
03:45Says a lot. You know what? I mean? It is it can be horrific and
03:50A lot of times we were not really sure if it's a supernatural thing or if it's a mental illness or if you know
03:55If it's a traumatic experience that this person keeps reliving but it all sort of seems to have the same
04:01Reaction and or at least it can you know, it can't have the same reaction and that's pretty freaking scary. I am not gonna keep running
04:11I have to face it. How does that make you feel? I
04:18Have come across recently the cool marketing campaign at games and other televised event
04:25And I was wondering how much of a hand you had in that and if you can
04:29Paramount's marketing team has been nothing short of spectacular on this film and I got to give all the credit to them
04:35I mean they I think they got very inspired by the film and came up with these really clever ideas
04:42And I've loved watching it all go out and sort of infect the world
04:47You mind talking spoilers, I'll I'll tell you the whole plot of the movie
04:54I mean look, I love a brutal ending. I love like a mean ending
04:59I love like it's something not wrapped up in a nice little bow and and I'm hoping it's a one-two punch
05:07You know be like, oh shit, and then you're like, oh, no, you know, like I hope I hope
05:12I love that. I hope it really like makes everybody walk away and kind of be like, oh
05:19You know really I hope it's a gut punch for everybody, you know, I
05:23Don't love it when like an ending is tied up with a neat bow. I like messy endings that you know can be
05:30you know
05:31like deliver deliver an emotional catharsis, but also be ambiguous that that you know, and then potentially
05:38Sort of you know
05:40Pull the rug out from underneath you
05:43You know, I think
05:46The the the intention with the film
05:48Was to tell a self-contained story
05:51I think there could still be a lot of fun stuff to do with smile
05:53But if there was any story that was going to continue I'd want to make sure that it's not a retread of what we already
05:57Watched that it's a something new and that it would have more surprises in store for the audience
06:02I'm just really scared that something bad is going to happen
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