Arturo Hilario
El Observador
Naomi Scott is an English actress and musician, but despite being in popular media since she was a child she says she is lucky to still be able to go to coffee shops without being recognized, unlike her character in the new horror film, Smile 2, where she portrays an ultra-famous pop star in the same vein as Ariana Grande or Lady Gaga.
Most recognized for her work on the screen as Jasmine in Disney’s live action Aladdin, and as Kimberly the Pink Ranger in the 2018 Power Rangers reboot film, Scott is also a musician who started off her career by using her multiple talents in the Disney TV musical Lemonade Mouth.
In her real music, she croons to soulful pop rhythms and piano ballads; in Smile 2, she had the opportunity to channel a different sort of musician, the pop superstar whose songs are designed with catchy top-40 production and tailored for arena tours. Scott even had the opportunity to co-write some of the original songs that she sings in the film.
In this new sequel to the highly popular 2022 hit Smile, Scott plays Skye Riley, the aforementioned pop superstar who is embarking on a new world tour but is plagued by terrifying visions and events in her life. As the weight of these horrors and her fame begin to chip away at her, she has to look back into her dark past to find a way beyond the ‘smile curse’.
Recently we had the opportunity to speak with Scott about Smile 2, what the experience was of being able to portray a fictional musician and help write music for the character, what she did or didn’t bring in from her real career, and why she has become a recent fan of the horror genre and its exploration of humanity.
Smile 2 is now in theaters.
To start off, I wanted to ask if you’re a fan of the horror genre in general, and if the current spooky season is a time when you delve into what the genre has to offer?
So the honest answer to that is that I did not grow up watching horror movies at all. And horror has been something I’ve genuinely discovered as an adult. And it’s been a genre that I’ve truly fallen in love with. There’s so much that I yet have not seen.
I’m by no means a horror expert, however, I think watching horror as an adult, I’m watching it from the perspective of really appreciating the craft of what horror has to offer in terms of It really allows us to explore certain parts of humanity that I think are hard to talk about. And I think it also just allows artists and filmmakers to really go for something and to take a swing, which I always love because I love things that are potent.
“Horror has been something I’ve genuinely discovered as an adult. And it’s been a genre that I’ve truly fallen in love with.”
-Naomi Scott
I think some of the greatest movies ever made are horror. The Shining and some of my favorite horror movies, Don’t Look Now and Let the Right One In, which are very emotional as well. I cry watching those movies, I think they’re beautiful and very poetic. And then, of course, you have the other end of the spectrum, which is jump scares and fun. And it’s still always saying something about humanity, but it’s high-level entertainment. So, I’m all in, but I still have a lot to discover.
In Smile 2, you play a pop superstar, Skye Riley. Could you give a little breakdown about your character and her motivations, and how she ends up in this “smile situation”?
So Skye is a pop star, and she’s someone who is internalizing a lot that she is going through, one could say she’s masking, right? And she’s about to embark on a global tour, and I think she’s both dreading it because she knows that she probably needs to stop and deal with some things that she needs to deal with. But I also think she wants to do it because she then doesn’t have to deal with it.
So, I think she’s conflicted and is feeling somewhat detached from herself and her own body and the people around her. And there’s loneliness that she’s feeling because she doesn’t feel seen, and she doesn’t feel like she can open up to people around her. So, as she then comes into contact with a smile curse, I think what that does both physically and emotionally is begin to peel back some of those layers to reveal what really is going on.
And since you are involved in the world of music as well as acting, what was that experience of stepping in to the role of a musician in the film? And where did you pull inspiration from, whether it be personal or from other areas for Skye?
Yeah, great question. It was really fun because I’m truly playing a character, even in the studio. When I signed on to do the project, there were three songs that were written for Skye already. So there were already things in motion about who she was as an artist. And two of the songs were written and produced by Idarose (Alexis Kesselman), and her vocals were on the demos, and I really felt like that was my blueprint, and that was going to be my way in in terms of how she sung.
So Alexis was really the way in which I found Skye’s voice. And we worked together to figure out how she’s singing, and in terms of producing, how Alexis produced the vocals. And I’m singing in the American accent. I’m really leaning into that, and we got to co-write two songs together as well, one of which is the end credit song, “Death of Me”.
And we actually wrote that after I’d shot the movie. So it was fun because I feel like we’d solidified her sound by that point, and we could just have the most fun, and it was amazing. But yes, very much I’m in character. So I think that was my way in, and it was fun to do things that I would not do as an artist myself.
Removing the supernatural aspect of it, how did the role connect to you in your own life being in the public eye, and in which ways, if any?
Well, I think I have the privilege of moving through the world relatively obscurely in the sense that I can live my life and go to a coffee shop. And that’s not the case for Skye. She cannot just be in public. And I think that can isolate a person because You feel like eyes are on you constantly, which is people constantly looking at you, perceiving you, but not really knowing you.
So, I think that’s something I guess I’ve been around and understand to a degree. So maybe I think some of that was there already. But I also think all of us can see that happening and see the pressures of it, whether we engage in or are complicit in it as a society or not.
I think we’ve all witnessed that happen countless times in terms of someone who is being intensely perceived and maybe needs to have an injection of obscurity in their life in order to heal and deal with things.
