For Naomi Scott, Playing a Troubled Pop Star in ‘Smile 2’ Meant Alternating Between Joyful Dance Rehearsals and Bloody Hallucinations

[Editor’s note: The following article contains spoilers for “Smile 2.”]

2024 has been a year dominated by headlines about pop stars struggling to balance their own mental health with their endless performance obligations. It was good timing for “Smile 2,” which stars Naomi Scott as Skye Riley, a fictional pop icon looking to relaunch her career after a deadly car crash sent her to rehab and put her life on hold. Scott gives one of the year’s best horror performances as Riley, who quickly spirals out of control after falling victim to the same chain of creepy grins that caused trauma observers to hallucinate in Parker Finn’s original “Smile.” Reality becomes indistinguishable from her nightmares as she’s haunted by warped visualizations of her own worst fears after witnessing the death of her drug dealer. As she prepares for a comeback tour that could make or break the rest of her life, living up the world’s expectations of a saccharine teen idol becomes a harder and harder task.

In a recent conversation with IndieWire, Scott opened up about joining Finn’s horror franchise and crafting her own take on a pop star that could hold her own against the director’s unflinchingly dark vision.

“I had actually seen Parker’s short film in 2020 and I was a fan. And so then cut to a couple of years later I went and watched ‘Smile’ in the cinema. The fact that it was his first feature was just astounding,” Scott said when asked about her initial impressions of the series. “Then we met and he started talking about Skye and it was just very clear to me that this character was fascinating to me. And then when I read the script, all the reasons to do it were just mounding on top of each other.”

In Riley, Scott saw the kind of role that she could really sink her teeth into. At the film’s point of attack, the character was already close to her breaking point from the pressures of sobriety and stardom. The fact that the film’s supernatural twist only builds from there made it an irresistible challenge.

“When we first meet her, there’s already so many complex things going on with her, which I really love. It’s kind of like you’re dropping us into the start of a movie where she is suppressing so much and there’s a numbness that’s kind of laying over whatever is bubbling underneath,” she said. “There’s this feeling of her wanting to be someone who is constantly trying to prove themselves because they just want to really be seen and loved without condition. And I find that fascinating, with someone who’s at the top of their game in terms of talent or ability or success.”

The bleak psychological journey was offset by the fun of playing the world’s biggest pop star. Scott ended up co-writing several of Riley’s songs with producer Alexis Idarose Kesselman — and saw the recording sessions and dance rehearsals as vital breaks from a mentally taxing shoot.

‘Smile 2’©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection

“I think two days after I was cast, I was in a studio,” she said. “That was really fun because you’re just basically playing a character, but you’re singing in character. So I’m singing in an American accent… And then the dance, I think I had two and a half dance rehearsals, two and a half days of dance rehearsal. It was really fun. That part was fun for me. That’s the treat that I got in the midst of doing this very intense psychological thriller/horror.”

Even by the standards of horror movies, “Smile 2” builds to a bleak climax, with Riley killing herself in front of thousands of screaming fans at her first concert of the tour. Scott wasn’t bothered by the fact that her character was ultimately helpless against the trauma that she spent so much of the film rebelling against. In fact, she said that the shocking finale was proof that she was working with a filmmaker who had something meaningful to say.

“I love how uncompromising Parker is on his vision. I love any artist who just is like, ‘She’s never going to defeat this smile,'” she said. “I think it’s just a very interesting look at how trauma manifests, along with the fear of not being believed or misunderstood and the importance of surrounding ourselves with people that we can be vulnerable with. Because I think isolation is just one of the most potent words that comes up when I think of Skye. And that’s one of the main themes I feel like of the movie. She’s always isolated. Even in her apartment, she doesn’t really look like she belongs. And there’s always just that distance in terms of her and everyone else in the movie.”

“Smile 2” is now playing in theaters.