‘Smile 2’ Director on Casting Ray Nicholson in Tribute to ‘The Shining’

If Smile 2 continues to scare bigger audiences than its popular predecessor at the global and domestic box office, and director Parker Finn provides some insight into the decisions made in making his horror sequel.

While you’re talking to Weekly entertainment, the Smile Helmer said he “totally” cast actor Ray Nicholson in the lead role of Naomi Scott as a tribute to his “favorite movie of all time” – Stanley Kubrick’s seminal classic. The radiant.

“I think I always try to reference The radiant” he said.

“He auditioned for that role with Ray. The audition was so strong. Of course, Jack Nicholson is one of my favorite actors of all time. I love that Ray has really strong genes, and his smile immediately made me think, ‘Oh my God, it’s like looking at a young Jack.’

He continued, “What really struck me was how well he settled into the toxic yet charming character he plays in the film. He could bring back that feeling of: I’m really anxious, but some of it also excites me.

Although Finn said he did not create the role of Paul, the late husband of Scott’s global pop star Skye Riley, for Ray Nicholson, he called the casting “beautiful kismet.”

Many fans online have spotted, albeit obvious but still uncanny, similarities between father and son, with Ray Nicholson commenting on speaking to Deadline last week at the film’s red carpet premiere: “He’s my inspiration. Every night I ate with him. I studied it, that’s how I learned to be human. So of course we’ll be pretty much the same,” he said, adding that he calls his father his “hero.”

Later in the interview with EWFinn said his 1980 tribute to the genre went beyond just the casting of Ray Nicholson, with a gala scene in the film borrowing shades depicted in the Overlook Hotel bar scenes.

“Working with my costume designer, Alexis Forte, we started trying things out on Ray for that scene, and as soon as we put him in the costume from the movie, we were like, ‘Oh my God, this is The radiant. He looks just like Jack,” he explained.

Smile 2which premiered in theaters Friday, unfolds as a pop phenomenon grappling with the inexplicable and escalating effects of dealing with a hauntingly smiling figure who follows her wherever she goes. For the Paramount sequel, which also stars Rosemarie DeWitt, Kyle Gallner, Lukas Gage, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Peter Jacobson, Raúl Castillo and Dylan Gelula, Finn drew from the real-life stories of women affected by the often brazen machinations of fame. including Amy Winehouse, Whitney Houston and Britney Spears.