[The following story contains spoilers for Smile.]
Smile may have been a nightmare for Sosie Bacon’s character, but the experience was a dream come true for the actor.
The Parker Finn-directed horror film not only topped the call list for the first time, but was also her first number-one film at the domestic box office, grossing $22.6 million last weekend. In Smile, Paramount’s sixth box office hit in 2022, Bacon, Dr. Rose Cotter, a supernatural curse from a patient who committed suicide in front of her while smiling in the craziest and most disturbing way.
Ultimately, Rose wasn’t going to be a “last girl” according to genre conventions, and Bacon is more than happy with the outcome.
“I would have been more disappointed if this movie had a happy ending,” Bacon tells .
In a recent spoiler talk with THR, Bacon also discusses the most terrifying scene to film on set and why Rose isn’t responsible for her childhood trauma.
So have you braced yourself for the likelihood that random strangers will throw you their spookiest smiles for the rest of your life?
(laughs) To be honest, it doesn’t bother me. I just don’t want someone yelling at me to smile. Women are told that often enough.
I should probably knock on wood not to jinx the rest of your life.
(laughs) How dare you!
During the casting, did everyone have to capture their craziest smile?
No, I don’t think anyone did! I really don’t. I find [Parker] just cast people he knew could do it. kyle [Gallner] has spoken about how his smiling scene was the scariest day for him. He told me he panicked before he could smile. I said, “Kyle, it’s okay.” (laughs)
During filming, did you and Kyle reconcile the fact that you are both victims of Ghostface in the Scream Franchise?
(laughs) No, we didn’t talk about it [at the time]. But we were doing interviews together the other day and I was like, “We’re Scream alum!” This is our alma mater.
Sosie Bacon and Jack Sochet star in Smile Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
So, to smile you were number one on the call log for the first time. Have you changed your approach to set the tone and set an example for the rest of the cast and crew?
Definitive. Up to this point I’ve been supporting other actors who are great and I’ve really been able to observe how they act and how they lead. Number one sets the tone. So everyone is somehow number one. So I was looking forward to taking on this difficult job. I think the most important thing I managed to do was just be very committed. I care a lot. I know my lines. I think that encouraged everyone else to do the same, not that they wouldn’t anyway. So everyone was incredibly dedicated and respectful of what we were doing. I definitely didn’t do everything right; I have to learn a lot. (Laughs.)
Rose is a workaholic. She has a hard time letting go and decompressing at the end of the day, and it’s probably her way of distracting herself from this unbridled childhood trauma. Did you also find it difficult to eliminate this character at the end of each day?
For sure! I didn’t actually put them away. I stopped working because I was exhausted, but my kind of anesthetic was reality TV. Sometimes I couldn’t sleep so I just watched shitty TV until morning. It was my distraction. So yeah, it was hard to put down.
I assume you shot like most of the films in the series. So, before each day of shooting, did you have to record or calibrate where Rose was on her breakup?
Yes, Parker was really helpful with that. I gave him total carte blanche to remember what happened before and what happens after with every scene. The beginning in the hospital is when she’s more composed, but that’s what we shot in the end, so it was down to the hair, makeup and wardrobe to make this corpse look alive. (Laughs) But it actually helped because there’s a real heaviness to her in the beginning, and that’s because she has such a dark past.
As a cat owner, I’ve felt the mustache moment from a mile away, and it still shook me. Are you currently a cat owner?
I don’t have a cat right now, but I do have dogs and a horse. So I’m an animal lover, and yes, that was tough. It was really very sad.
Sosie Bacon stars in Smile courtesy of Paramount Pictures
Of all the disturbing images you saw as Rose, was the scene with Kal Penn and Jack Sochet in the hospital room the craziest of the day?
Strangely no. I don’t think so because combat stuff like that is so technical. The scariest moment for me was probably Caitlin Stasey’s character cutting his neck and then lying on the floor in that position with all that blood for so long. It was just awesome.
If I were an actor I would do anything to get a horror movie. The genre is almost a rite of passage. I also think that every actor should do some form of historical film. Is that how you think about your career at all and want to tick certain boxes?
We have a lot less control over our careers than people think. I’d love to outline my career, but prior to this film I’ve accepted every single job I’ve ever been offered. Those jobs were exactly what I was offered, but I always knew I wanted to direct a horror film. It’s been a dream of mine since I started acting. So Smile is more like a dream come true. As for a period piece, I was once told that I couldn’t play a period and that it wouldn’t work for my face. And I was like, “What the hell?” But next is a western.
Rose dove into major spoilers and found herself in a lose-lose situation. Either she dies by suicide or she has to kill someone else to break the curse. So, even though this entity ultimately won, were you at least relieved that it didn’t resort to murder?
Yes absolutely. Gosh it’s so hard to think of actually going there. I don’t think she would have had a happy life if she killed someone. So I was glad she didn’t resort to murder.
When her sister (Gillian Zinser’s Holly) mentioned over dinner that she had torn down her old house, I stuck to that line, and when it seemed like Rose had actually burned down her childhood home, I thought it made perfect sense that the For Rose, the key to overcoming this curse was finally coming to terms with this monument of trauma. But then the ground is pulled out from under our feet. Were you stunned that you didn’t end up being a “last girl”?
I was amazed! It’s just so sad for her. She went into the house knowing that she would either be eaten by the monster or that she would burn the house down if she could. But at least she wouldn’t pass [the curse] further, that was the idea. So that was her value, and I felt sadder for her that she didn’t get any of those things. But I think I would have been more disappointed if this film had had a happy ending.
Yes, she unintentionally passed the curse on to Kyle’s character (Joel), but she did everything she could to isolate herself from him and her loved ones. She thought of other people until the very end.
Absolutely. It was out of her control, but she tried.
I understand her sister Holly’s intent in the story, but when Rose falls through the glass coffee table after the mustache moment, is there any defense for Holly not rushing to her aid? As far as we know, Rose bled to death.
Yes, I can defend anyone. I can defend her fiancé’s [Jessie T. Usher] Treatment. I can defend your sister. The other thing to remember is that her sister dealt with the same trauma as Rose. It wasn’t all the same, but she was there. So everyone plays a role in their family, and all have their negative traits. So I don’t think there should be any judgment on how anyone reacted to Rose. Her behavior was erratic and frightening. I really have no judgment of anyone.
As a child, Rose basically let her ailing mother die. She could have called for help, but didn’t. So it’s such an intriguing response to trauma that she dedicated her entire adult life to helping complete strangers.
Yes I thought baby rose was brave to protect herself as a child and the unfortunate thing is she didn’t really process and understand that she did it to survive. It’s not her fault her mother died. Children don’t have the same tools, and as we grow up we try to apply the tools we have as adults to our child selves. It’s pointless. So I wish she wasn’t so angry with herself, but she became a therapist mostly out of guilt. As someone who’s been through things, she just has a level of understanding that her fiancé, Trevor, doesn’t. That’s not to say he doesn’t have trauma of his own, but often therapists and psychiatrists have gone through things themselves and given them a deeper acceptance.
Sosie Bacon smiles courtesy of Paramount Pictures
Decades if you remember them to smile Experience, which day on the set will you probably remember first?
Oh god, there are so many, but one of the craziest nights was when we drove to this field where her childhood home was built. That was the night we were going to light it. So we really burned the house, and all these water trucks were there. It was somewhere in New Jersey, and all these water truck guys from the union were there, along with the fire department. So we burned the house, and it was both awesome and crazy.
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Smile is in theaters now. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.