The Big Picture

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff speaks with
Smile 2
writer and director Parker Finn about his sequel.
Starring Naomi Scott,
Smile 2
follows a global pop star who begins experiencing terrifying events ahead of her world tour.
During this interview, Finn breaks down an impressive oner and digs into spoilers from upping the violent death sequences to creature design to plans for
Smile 3
.

Smile was a domestic and international box office smash, checking all the boxes with a strong, visceral premise, grounded performances and universe, and an amazingly gonzo advertising campaign. This is in no small part due to the writer and director of the franchise, Parker Finn, who returns to helm Smile 2.

The disturbing still expressions of the Smile world return in this highly anticipated sequel, as global pop star Skye Riley, played by Naomi Scott (Aladdin), experiences a series of inexplicable, horrific events. As she prepares for a new world tour, Skye is forced to confront her dark past before her life spirals out of control. The sequel sees the return of Kyle Gallner and introduces Rosemarie DeWitt (The Boys), Lukas Gage (Euphoria), and Miles Gutierrez-Riley (The Wilds).

Before Smile 2 hit theaters, Collider’s Perri Nemiroff had the opportunity to sit down with Finn to pick his brain on returning to this world of his creation. During their conversation, Finn discusses challenging himself with a larger scale, gorier death scenes, and even more creature design than before. For all of this and Finn’s ideas for Smile 3, check out the full conversation in the video above or in the transcript below.

Why ‘Smile 2’ Enters “The World of a Pop Star”
“It was important to make sure that Smile was coursing through the DNA of this film”

PERRI NEMIROFF: There were a million opportunities for you to pursue with a story for a sequel, so I am wondering, is this particular story the first one that came to your mind, or was there any trial and error in the development phase?

PARKER FINN: There was definitely some trial and error. I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t whatever obvious continuation may have come to mind first. I really wanted to challenge myself and push myself to try to go for something that was really fresh and unexpected and quite different from the first film. It was important to make sure that Smile was coursing through the DNA of this film, but also give it its own identity, its own metabolism. This world of a pop star, I got so excited about it once I landed on that, and I just dove right in

Kyler Gallner Makes the Most of His “Oppressive, Suffocating” Oner
Image via Paramount Pictures

That opening oner is absolutely exceptional. I could do an hour-long interview, if not more, for just that one particular sequence, but given we don’t have that kind of time today, can you pick the single part of that oner that was most difficult to execute?

FINN: When I wrote that oner, I wrote in the script that this is going to be a single unbroken shot. I knew the oppressive, suffocating nature of it was really gonna dial up the anxiety. There were a lot of challenges both in prep and execution. Certainly finding the location that would all work in was quite a challenge. But I would say what was so interesting about that oner is that we’re in this small, gutted house, and there are a lot of people running around making things happen right off camera, and the challenge of making sure nobody enters frame while things are getting very gross and wet, and destroying things inside, that was a huge challenge.

But I’d say the biggest thing was a challenge not for me, but for Kyle Gallner. Kyle really had to stay in it, and I am so blown away by his performance. It’s such a bravura performance. He makes the most of it and does his own stunts. He does everything himself. He’s incredible.

The part that I couldn’t wrap my head around filmmaking-wise was when he goes out the window. So that is him?

FINN: Oh, yes, definitely.

‘Smile 2’ Is “Even Bigger, Crazier, and More Unhinged”
“I’m always looking for actors who are willing to get in the passenger seat with me and just kind of go crazy.”
Image via Paramount Pictures

It’s very clear that you have an eye for hugely talented actors who will excel in a horror movie where they have to go hard; people like Kyle, Naomi [Scott], Sosie [Bacon], Lukas [Gage] — I could go on and on at this point. They’re all different artists with different ways of approaching their work, of course, but is there a shared quality you saw in all of them that signaled to you, “You can go as big as I need you to with these roles?”

FINN: Definitely. I love big performances. It’s something I’m always chasing. I think it was much easier after the first film came out that people kind of knew what my style and vibe was. I, of course, wanted to dial everything up to 11 in the sequel, and so we go even bigger and crazier, and more unhinged.

But I think the biggest thing is people who I can connect with creatively, who I can see as a creative partner. I love these actors who are willing to link arms with me and sort of jump off the deep end with me, and I think that’s where we work best together. It becomes this situation of, we talk so much about the characters, about the tone and vibe of the film, and how things are going to work. I’m incredibly specific with the way I shoot my films. I don’t spray a lot of random coverage. I try to be very bespoke and particular with everything, and it’s all about creating this level of trust. So, I’m always looking for actors who are willing to get in the passenger seat with me and just kind of go crazy.

Image via Paramount Pictures

I was so excited to ask this next question because this item has a major presence in the movie, and I feel like this can be a pitfall for a lot of films — product placement. You have a particular kind of water here. What was it like figuring out how to incorporate that water with a purpose, where it serves the story rather than distracts the viewer?

FINN: So funny thing, that’s actually not product placement. I had written into the script that she’s drinking water constantly. It’s a big thing.

Do you have to clear that with them?

FINN: Well, I don’t know. That’s a good question for the clearance department. [Laughs] But we didn’t ask them for any product placement or anything like that. For me, Skye’s drinking of water is something that, at first, seems like a strange quirk, and then we start to learn about its meaning and then the way it begins to hopefully stress the audience out every time she’s drinking water — as well as all the crew, by the way, watching Naomi do that over and over and over again.

Related A New Star, New Victims, and 4 Other Things You Need to Know About ‘Smile 2′ Say cheese… it’s time to smile again!

That’s not VFX? She’s actually chugging?

FINN: No, no, she’s actually doing it. By the way, all you’re seeing are the takes that made it into the movie, but she also did a bunch of takes that didn’t make it in the movie. But I knew, of course, that if I wanted the water to play this important role, it needed several things. It needed to be something that felt sort of fancy, like a pop star might have it on their rider, a little bit obnoxious, maybe, but also — spoiler — a bottle that can break was really important. At the end of the day, we looked at all different kinds of stuff, but I just love the way that the VOSS bottle is photographed.

I hope they call you and thank you. That was one of my favorite elements.

FINN: We didn’t even get a case of free water.

[Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Smile 2]

‘Smile 2’ Has “One of the Most Violent Kills’ Finn’s Ever Done
Image via Paramount Pictures 

There are so many gore-heavy scenes that I want to focus on right now. The first question I’ll give you in that department is, of all of the outrageously violent scenes you have in this movie, is there any particular one that made you say, “There’s no way we’re ever going to get the OK to do this,” but now it’s in the finished cut of the film?

FINN: Oh, well, I will say that for me, I feel that what I did to the Lewis character, played by Lukas Gage, is certainly one of the most violent things I’ve ever done to a character. I knew that that was always going to be a bit of a parallel echo to the Laura character played by Caitlin Stasey in the first film. Caitlin uses this piece of broken pottery that’s very sharp, right? There’s a lot of slicing going on, and I was like, “I wanna go in the complete opposite direction with this. I wanna find the heaviest, bluntest, just worst thing you could hit yourself with.” And I love this idea that Lewis’ character, when he is hitting himself with that, he sort of creates this game of peek-a-boo, where every time he hits himself, we have to wait to see how bad the damage is, the new damage that he’s done.

It was this really exciting thing, and Lukas had to go through multiple rounds of practical prosthetic makeup, and then we had to tie all those together. He was such a trooper. He probably spent a total of over 12 hours in the chair between those three makeups. The final effect with just a tiny bit of VFX lift together with all those practical effects and the flowing blood, for me, that’s one of the more devastating things in the film.

Another effect that really impressed me is the creature, the Smiler demon reveal at the end. We obviously did get to see the demon in the first film to an extent, but here it’s got a little bit of a different look, and I think that sequence is even more ambitious because, like you said, you’re going even bigger with the sequel in many ways. What were some goals you had in terms of making sure it felt similar enough, but also upping your game with the demon’s look?

FINN: I really wanted to, of course, bring the Smiler back at the end of the film. We had seen him very restrained at the end of the first one, and I knew I wanted to do that again, but if I was gonna bring it back, I wanted to do the bigger, better, crazier, more deluxe version. Also, I wanted it to emerge in a slightly different way. I found this really wonderful setup with Skye and with these scars that she has, and it felt very apropos to have it come out of this sort of symbol of her worst trauma, of her rock bottom.

Image via Paramount Pictures

It’s much larger. In the first film, it’s like 8.5 feet tall. The new one is over 12 feet tall and required multiple performers inside. Alec Gillis and his team crushed it. They’re incredible. He told me it was the biggest thing he’s built since the Alien queen. What I really loved about it is that hanging piece of the Skye torso that’s still beaming the camera. If you take the end of the first film and put it next to the end of this film, there are parallels. There are echoes of each other with those wide tableaus, but what happens in a very creepy cabin on the first one is now on the main stage in this one. It felt like such a really exciting frame to create. It was something that was such a really special image that was in my head that made it all the way through writing and production.

Will There Be a ‘Smile 3’?
“There are some really interesting tricks still up the sleeves of Smile.”
Image via Paramount Pictures

Given the fact that the smile now affects a large group of people, is there any possibility that Smile 3 can again be a story told from a single perspective or do you expect to go wider with it?

FINN: Well, I will say this, I think there are a lot of interesting roads that any future Smile could go down. For me, I love all the stuff that goes bump in the night, and all the really frightening things of the big concept of Smile and the Smiler. But really, for me, Smile is a vehicle to tell really intense and hopefully thoughtful character stories, and so I’d wanna make sure, regardless of if more than one person might have it, that we still find a way to really invest intimacy into the storytelling. That’s super important to me. But I think there are some really interesting tricks still up the sleeves of Smile.

Smile 2 is in theaters now. Click the link below for showtimes.

About to embark on a world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame, Skye is forced to face her past.Release Date October 18, 2024 Director Parker Finn Distributor(s) Paramount Pictures

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