Cinematic terror is something of a family business for Sosie Bacon, the lead in Paramount Pictures’ terrifying horror thriller Smile. Her father, Kevin Bacon, has appeared in several iconic genre films, including Stir of Echoes, Flatliners, and the all-time classic Friday the 13th. “My dad is a big scary movie fan, so I gained an appreciation for them early on, and I still like them a lot,” says the actress.
In Smile, after witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can’t explain. As an overwhelming terror begins taking over her life, Rose must confront her troubling past in order to survive and escape her horrifying new reality.
Bacon’s innate warmth and her natural gift for connecting with people struck director-writer Parker Finn as essential traits to portray an empathetic clinical psychiatrist. Just as importantly, she had the acting skill to capture the emotion and anxiety of someone on a perilous downward spiral. “I believe Sosie’s given one of the most astounding debut lead performances in recent years,” Finn says. “She’s in almost every scene, and she’s operating at extreme levels of stress, fear, and panic for most of the movie. Maintaining those emotions can really take a toll on an actor, but she’s deeply committed to her craft and just knocked it out of the park.”
Bacon describes Smile as an intense psychological horror film told through the eyes of a character that you can’t help but root for. “I play a woman who’s been coping with a lot of pain in her life, and after witnessing a violent incident at work, she’s forced to confront a supernatural threat that fixates on her,” she says. “It’s visually striking and it will absolutely freak you out!”
Although Bacon has been acclaimed for her nuanced supporting performances in film and television series including “Mare of Easttown” and “13 Reasons Why,” Smile represents the biggest role of her career so far, and she admits it affected her emotionally and physically. “Truthfully, I wasn’t fully aware of how much this part would wear on me when I began the movie,” she says. “It’s physically demanding, because your body doesn’t understand the difference between acting and real life. But honestly, I don’t know that anything can prepare you for an experience like Smile.”
In cinemas across the Philippines September 28, Smile is distributed in the Philippines by Paramount Pictures through Columbia Pictures.