The Big Picture

Naomi Scott returns to Collider Ladies Night for
Smile 2
!
During her second Ladies Night conversation with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Scott explains how she’s using her platform and production company to create more opportunities for aspiring artists.
She also discusses why there was zero hesitation when committing to
Smile 2
, a wildly intense horror film that demands she take it to an 11 from start to finish.

Horror films are rarely embraced on the awards circuit, but there’s no denying that Naomi Scott gives one of the very best performances of 2024 in Smile 2. After depicting an intimate and grounded nightmare in 2022’s Smile via Sosie Bacon’s Rose, a therapist, writer-director Parker Finn is putting the Smile curse on a bigger stage in the sequel. Scott headlines the new film as Skye Riley, a hugely successful pop star whose career took a downturn due to substance abuse struggles and a devastating car crash. Now, however, Skye is gearing up for a comeback tour. She’s already feeling the immense pressure to deliver while constantly being in the public eye, but then she gets an added challenge — not only must Skye make the most of her one and only chance to relaunch her career and brand, but she’s got to do so after catching the Smile curse.

How exactly does one hit the point in their career when they’re enthusiastic about a hugely ambitious role that demands they take it to an 11 from start to finish? That’s exactly what I dug into with Scott during her return to Collider Ladies Night after appearing on the show back in 2021. During that first Ladies Night chat, we dug into Scott’s journey in film and television from a business perspective, retracting her steps from project to project. This time around, however, we put the spotlight on the evolution of her craft — a craft so well-refined and powerful that Scott is willing and able to take Skye to places that demand every ounce of her being, both emotionally and physically.

How Naomi Scott Found Her Path in Film & Television
“I actually think there’s a lot of people where there are barriers to entry when it comes to drama school.”

A particular thing that’s often emphasized on Collider Ladies Night is how every path in film and television is different. For example, some actors benefit from studying their craft in a formal school setting, while others prefer to learn via experience. However, there’s a wrinkle to that divide that Scott stressed; there are many who’d like to study acting in school but can’t due to particular barriers, like financial barriers. She explained, “I don’t think it was something I chose. I think for a lot of people, drama school can be quite expensive, and it was just that it wasn’t something necessarily super financially viable in the moment.”

Ultimately, Scott found another way in. She was scouted by Kéllé Bryan, formerly of the girl group Eternal. Bryan became Scott’s first agent and long-time friend, and gave Scott an avenue into the industry without needing certain resources drama school can afford. “I do believe that drama school is where a lot of people find their creative communities, their creative collaborators, and I think all of that is so great.” She added, “I probably would have loved it, but it’s not to say that it’s the only way.”

Scott soon recognized that her preferred way of learning was heavily tied to closely observing others.

“I think my advantage was just that I was on set early, so
I was able to watch other people more experienced than me
. So surrounding yourself and listening and asking and being curious about people who have experience. Watching is sometimes your best teacher, to be honest. I was lucky to just be around people who were great and consummate professionals, and watch how they took responsibility for their own performance, their process. Also, everyone’s process is different. Honestly, I think I’ve got to a point where some of my closest friends, who are
fantastic
actors, we couldn’t be more polar opposites in terms of the way in which we approach performance, and that’s great because it doesn’t matter. Whatever makes you feel like you can get the performance — so long as it’s not infringing on someone else’s performance, which I’m not with, then I think, yeah. But definitely just observing and asking questions.”

Naomi Scott Is Changing Filmmaking for the Better and You Probably Don’t Know About It
Scott is giving aspiring artists more opportunity via the New Name Fund.
Image via Paramount Pictures

Clearly Scott found a path that worked quite well for her, but that doesn’t mean the resources she didn’t have access to were forgotten. “I actually think there’s a lot of people where there are barriers to entry when it comes to drama school and some of those institutions.” She added, “I’d like to think that, also, there are ways in which we can take down some of those barriers for young people who actually want to pursue it.”

That isn’t something Scott is just thinking about anymore. She’s doing it via her production company, New Name Entertainment.

“Our production company that we started, it’s called New Name Entertainment,
we started the New Name Fund, and it’s just basically financial aid to young people where there are those barriers of entry in terms of drama school
or courses like NFTS (The National Film and Television School), or someone wants to go into producing or writing or directing. Because a lot of the time, it’s hard to articulate what they are, but it is kind of the financial pressure of having to juggle different things whilst trying to just purely be creative.”

Why Naomi Scott Was Willing to Go So Hard for ‘Smile 2’
There was zero hesitation when taking on this ambitious role.

In addition to encouraging, supporting and inspiring others artists behind the scenes, Scott also continues to do so on screen — this time in her very first horror movie, Smile 2.

If you want an example of an actor giving every single thing they’ve got to an incredibly demanding role in pursuit of crafting a hugely tense and thrilling horror movie, but one that also rocks great emotional weight and thematic heft, look no further than Scott’s portrayal of Skye Riley in Smile 2. Every single role is a commitment that calls for an actor to give a significant amount of themself to the character they’re bringing to life on screen, but Skye is on the extreme end of that spectrum.

How exactly does one decide to go there for such a role? Here’s how it happened for Scott:

“It was meeting with Parker [Finn]. When I met with Parker, I hadn’t read a script yet, but I was a fan of Parker because I’d watched the short film in 2020 during lockdown. I was there on my laptop and I watched
Laura Hasn’t Slept
, and I thought, ‘Wow, this is really cool. Such a great concept, such great filmmaking.’ So then, when the movie came out, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’ve got to go see this!’ I just felt like I was a fan. His filmmaking, the way in which he uses character in his movies, it’s like he prioritizes that.
The character isn’t used as a way to push the plot forward, his movies
are
the character.
You are intimately following these characters. And Sosie [Bacon]’s performance I thought was brilliant, honestly. And Kyle [Gallner] is so good. And Kyle is so good in this movie, by the way. But
Sosie in that first movie was so present and so wonderful
. Literally five minutes into that movie, I turned to the person next to me, and I was like, ‘Who is she? She is so great!’”

Related Sosie Bacon Details Her Approach to Nailing Her Extremely Demanding Role in ‘Smile’ Bacon, Jessie T. Usher, and Kyle Gallner also reveal the people they’d tell if they ever caught the smile curse in real life.

From there, it was a planned 30-minute meeting with Finn that turned into a two-hour conversation. Scott continued:

“I think because we’re both so animated and we’re both very passionate people, it was just like
ping, ping, ping
. Because he started talking about the character, and I was like, ‘Wait, wait. So she’s a musician. What? Wait.’ And I was also working on my own project at the time, and so it was just this weird moment. It felt like we already began to be collaborators, and that never ended. It still is the case today. It was Parker, really. I just wanted to work with him. That’s what really drew me to it.”

This Was the Most Challenging ‘Smile 2’ Scene for Scott
“You’re doing two things that are extreme in different ways.”
Image via Paramount Pictures

One cannot headline a movie like Smile 2 without having maximum trust in their director. Every single time you think Scott cannot take it even further with her work in the film, Smile 2 rolls into its next wow-worthy set piece.

The performance and film is deserving of a conversation that breaks down and celebrates every single acting feat Scott achieves, but given this interview couldn’t last hours, I opted to ask Scott for the particular scene that caught her by surprise in terms of how challenging it wound up being. Her answer well highlights one of Smile 2’s greatest assets — yes, it’s a horror movie with a brilliant and catchy core concept, but that core concept isn’t the film’s top priority. Rather, the Smile curse is in service of a film that functions as a character study.

“I didn’t realize how difficult the freezer would be. Four days we did the freezer scene, and we also did some reshoots on that, too. That was the hardest scene to shoot by far because also, I’m doing a bit of a Lindsay Lohan,
Parent Trap
thing. [Laughs] … I think the hardest thing to do was when I’m in the car seat on the ceiling, I’m really having to use my own strength to hold up my body, which was quite painful because of the specific stunt move. But then also, it’s the mourning scene, where I’m mourning the death, so
it was both simultaneously incredibly physically demanding, but then I had to get up to a place emotionally that was the height of intensity
. So that was the hardest thing, because you’re doing two things that are extreme in different ways, and the most extreme version of them.”

Looking for ever more from Scott on finding her voice in film and television, and her experience making Smile 2? You can catch our full conversation in the video at the top of this article!

Release Date October 18, 2024 Director Parker Finn

Smile 2 is now playing in theaters nationwide. Get tickets below:

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