Not only does Parker Finn’s feature directorial debut, Smile, continue to prove that 2022 is a very, very good year for horror, but it also solidifies Sosie Bacon as one heck of a feature headliner.

Bacon leads as Dr. Rose Cotter, a clinical psychiatrist working in an emergency psychiatric unit. One day, a new patient comes in and that patient begs Rose to believe her when she explains that she’s being followed by a smiling being threatening to kill her. Ultimately, that patient takes her own life right after Rose and soon after that, Rose starts seeing visions of her own.

With Smile hitting theaters nationwide on September 30th, I got the chance to chat with Bacon and co-stars Jessie T. Usher and Kyle Gallner about their experience making the film with a heavy focus on the fact that Smile marks Bacon’s very first lead role in a feature film.

Sosie Bacon in Smile
Image via Paramount

Here’s what Bacon said when asked if there’s anything she saw a #1 on the call sheet do on a past project that she applied to her own work as the lead in Smile:

“I learned a lot. I didn't do everything as well as some of the people that I've worked with, you know what I mean? And that's okay. I think that they probably had to learn that themselves, too. I was trying to emulate those amazing number ones that I've worked with that really, no matter what was going on, had your back and all that stuff. I think that I learned a lot. It was definitely trial by fire. This is a very intense one to also take on the leadership position that you need to hold, so I'll do things differently next time and also take a lot of stuff with me that did work.”

Continued growth is important and clearly, Bacon does see an opportunity for that, but Gallner and Usher were eager to sing her praises right now and highlight how above and beyond she’s already going as a leader on set. Gallner began:

“You really set the tone, right? So if you're coming to set late, if you're coming to set unprepared, if you're coming to set not knowing your lines or whatever, it kind of sets a tone on set that if somebody doesn't care, why do I care? And every single day Sosie showed up, she delivered, she knew her lines, she was ready to go. Not only did she knows her lines, she brought it every take every day and that, as an actor, makes you want to step up to the plate and rise to the occasion of what your co-star is putting down. It’s a really good thing, and it's a hard place to be. I mean, you're captain of a ship that’s [600], 700 people sometimes and it is, it's a lot. And a film like this that is so intense, it's like running a marathon. To be able to hold that together and keep everything moving as well as Sosie did, especially for your first film, it was incredibly impressive.”

Sosie Bacon and Kyle Gallner in Smile
Image via Paramount

Smile is absolutely packed to the brim with deeply unsettling visuals, jump scares, and then some, essentially making it so that poor Rose, and therefore Sosie, doesn’t get a moment to breathe throughout the entire film. If Bacon can’t take things to an 11 and stay there from start to finish, Smile just plain old doesn’t work. But she does do that and Usher jumped in to praise that commitment:

“Her level of commitment scene by scene, take by take was so impressive. It's so impressive to watch because eventually you start to see fatigue set in or you start to see a lot of things that we as actors cannot control, but to be able to still stay committed to the role and committed to the scene, committed to the story, to this character and to be real time and time again is very impressive. It's also extremely hard to do so.”

Given how demanding the role of Rose is in this film, one might wonder how someone balances the need to nail the performance while also taking care of themselves in the process. Bacon admitted she didn’t really do the latter, but also explained why frequently recommended forms of self-care just weren’t realistic options:

“I think that the second one was a bit forgotten. But I also do think sometimes in times of great stress we also need to just kind of survive. I feel like there’s a lot of societal pressure put on self-care and self-care, and we have to make sure that we’re also getting a massage and a facial. That’s not realistic and nobody’s able to do that in the real world, so I don’t really know why it would be — you know what I’m saying? Like reality TV, if I had to watch it all night and not sleep because I need to distract myself, I was like, okay. It’s just kind of radically accepting that you’re trying to survive, you know what I mean? I think everyone can use a dose of that.”

Looking for more from Bacon, Usher, and Gallner on the making of Smile, and also a little The Boys Season 4 tease from Usher? Be sure to check out our full conversation in the video interview at the top of this article!