Making just about any movie requires physical demands of an actor, and when it comes to the horror genre, there is standard stuff expected like fried vocal chords from a day of screaming or doing lots of cardio while fleeing from a monster/killer. Parker Finn’s Smile 2, however, offered a unique challenge for star Naomi Scott, as one of her character’s frequent habits is chugging sizable bottles of water, and it was an aspect of the performance to which she fully committed.
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In Smile 2, Naomi Scott’s Skye Riley explains that drinking water is part of her effort to commit to sobriety, and over the course of the movie, she does a hell of a lot of therapeutic imbibing. What made this particularly tough is that sequences where Skye downs some H2O weren’t all completed in a single take, resulting in a lot of guzzling. She pointed specifically to a continuous take sequence early in the film when Skye is in her apartment at night and the curse that has now infected her starts to terrorize her. Said Scott,
The sequence in question begins with Skye drinking a glass bottle of water, putting it on the counter in her kitchen, and then discovering that the bottle has somehow fallen and shattered on the floor. The takes weren’t filmed one after the other because cameras, lighting and props had to be readjusted each time Parker Finn called cut, but each one still saw Naomi Scott throwing back some Voss. She continued,
Playing the lead role in Smile 2 meant Naomi Scott not only being tormented by a grinning demon but also portraying a world famous pop star (requiring her to flex her musical and dancing skills), but in reflection, chugging a lot of water would definitely be on her list of “Challenges Faced” in the making of the film.
For what it’s worth, director Parker Finn did give her an out. She told me that he offered to come up with a workaround, but she bit the bullet as a professional:
Also starring Kyle Gallner, Lukas Gage, Ray Nicholson, Dylan Gelula, Rosemarie DeWitt, Raúl Castillo, and Peter Jacobson, Smile 2 is now playing in theaters everywhere, and after earning critical acclaim (you can read my four-star CinemaBlend review), the film topped the box office in its opening weekend.
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Eric Eisenberg
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Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.
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