'Smile 2' director admits taking inspiration from Jack Nicholson's 'The Shining'

Director and writer of Smile 2, Parker Finn has opened that he took inspiration from the great Jack Nicholson’s popular movie, The Shining.

Finn mentioned that the kind of smile director, Stanley Kubrick invented in his multiple films, coined a vision in him. Later, the director taught his actors to do the 'smile' for the horror flick.

While talking to the Hollywood Reporter, the 2022 Smile filmmaker revealed how he guided his cast members for the epic 'smile'.

“Sometimes the actors show up clearly really prepared. Like I can tell they’ve been at home studying in the mirror, and other times it takes a little more coaching.”

He went on to say: “I find what you want to do is smile actually in a friendly way; you don’t want to overexaggerate it, you don’t want to strain your face, but it’s all about disconnecting the eyes from the smile, and then about how you position the head.”

“There’s a bit of a head tilt that happens; there’s the famous ‘Kubrick Stare,’ we sort of leaned into that idea, and then it becomes all about the filmmaking tools”, Finn explained.

Numerous actors have pulled out the 'Kubrik Stare' in multiple films like; Full Metal Jacket and A Clockwork Orange. But out of all, Jack Nicholson did an outstanding job when he smiled in The Shining.