Experience the Horror of ‘Smile 2’ with Rosemarie DeWitt & Miles Gutierrez-Riley
When you hear the name Rosemarie DeWitt, you likely think of her work in indie fare like ‘Rachel Getting Married’ or the critical darling that was ‘The United States of Tara.’ Maybe you remember her as Ryan Gosling’s sister in ‘La La Land.’ Whatever it may be, your mind likely doesn’t jump to horror, and that’s because DeWitt only has two horror credits to her name. One is a remake of ‘Poltergeist,’ and the other, ‘Smile 2,’ is the follow-up to the unexpected box office hit of 2022.
Miles Gutierrez-Riley is quickly rising through the ranks of Hollywood. He made his TV debut on Prime Video’s ‘The Wilds’ and recently joined the powerhouse Marvel Cinematic Universe in ‘Agatha All Along.’ Gutierrez-Riley is not a familiar face in the horror genre, and ‘Smile 2’ marks his first foray into this world of blood, guts, and supernatural entities.
‘Smile 2’ follows Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), who is about to embark on a world tour. Skye’s previous tour was canceled because of a tragic car accident that left her injured and killed her boyfriend (Ray Nicholson). Unfortunately, the chronic pain from those injuries is not Skye’s only problem. She is also infected by the smile entity from the first film. Once the entity has latched on, the host has no more than seven days before they meet a violent death. As Skye’s mental health deteriorates, her mother/momager, Elizabeth (DeWitt), and devoted assistant, Joshua (Gutierrez-Riley), find themselves torn between caring for Skye and ensuring that the show goes on.
Check out the full interview with DeWitt and Gutierrez-Riley below, or continue scrolling for the remainder of the article.
What was it about ‘Smile 2’ that brought DeWitt to the horror genre? As a movie fan, DeWitt stays away from films with intense amounts of gore. Even though ‘Smile 2’ fills that bill, DeWitt signed onto the project because she felt it was a “real story.”
‘Smile 2’ is about “a person who had fallen once before and was trying to get back up. For me, with the role of Elizabeth, I was curious about that intersection of money and family. Like, do I really care about my daughter's well-being?”
“I like how operatic horror is,” DeWitt continues. “I like how far you can go. I like that you can't get it wrong in terms of emotion. You think of Naomi in this movie. She can't be scared enough, you know what I mean? That's a really fun thing to play. The size of it is really fun for actors.”
“It's Parker’s eye for detail, 100%,” says Gutierrez-Riley about why ‘Smile 2’ is becoming a genre standout. “He is such a precise filmmaker who really, really cares about the technicality of the project, the aesthetics of the project, and the spiritual underbelly of the project…I think a different filmmaker may not have taken the time to really flesh out how we’re telling the story.”
Horror often brings blood and gore, and DeWitt has her moment to be covered in blood. Toward the end of the film, her character dons the creepy smile and meets her demise. It’s this scene that made DeWitt interested in signing onto the project.
“I don’t want my small children to ever see me in this movie,” laughs DeWitt. “But I did want to be like, what's it like to do that? You're all juiced up in a good way. The blood and the wetness and the coldness in your underwear and in your bra was not my favorite. I chose to spend those two days on the floor with a hot water bottle on my belly because getting up just felt so bad. I kind of just chose to just lay with my eyes closed like a vampire in a coffin and then be like, you ready for me? Okay, let's do it, now let me go back to sleep.”
While DeWitt may have had her day to be covered in blood, that day never came for Gutierrez-Riley. Though given the chance to plot his character’s demise, Gutierrez-Riley has a few ideas for what might be the end of Joshua.
“I had this phone strapped to me, which is very assistant-core. I also had a lanyard at all times because of this all-access pass. When I would get into costume and get my things, I mean I'm like a bag lady. So, probably something with those two lanyards around my neck. It's probably a cool cross-suffocation situation that you can do with that, kind of medieval in a way. Maybe hung from the rafters or something,” laughs Gutierrez-Riley.
Unsurprisingly, for a movie called ‘Smile 2,’ writer/director Parker Finn knew exactly what he was looking for when it came time for DeWitt and Gutierrez-Riley to do their creepy smiles. Finn would ask them to show a few more teeth, shift their lips ever-so-slightly, and make other minute changes to get the exact look. DeWitt described it as “face athletics” and likened the shooting experience to posing for a photo that is taking forever.
Gutierrez-Riley says he’s been perfecting this smile his whole life. “I have a huge mouth,” he laughs. “I always have. When I was little, my family used to comment on how humongous my smile could get if I was hopped up on sugar or whatever. It's pretty easy for me to move my mouth into those positions. But Parker definitely had a specific idea for what he wanted.”
Together, DeWitt and Gutierrez-Riley’s characters are popstar Skye Riley’s support system, but they have their own intentions. ‘Smile 2’ is bigger, bloodier, and more brutal than its predecessor, thanks in part to the all-out performances from Gutierrez-Riley and DeWitt.