PopHorror Let's Get Scared
After making a name for himself in the medical and crime drama space on television, Peter Jacobson, best known for his portrayal of Dr. Chris Taub on House from 2007-2012, is diving headfirst into the world of horror with a role in SMILE 2.
Written and directed by Parker Finn, this sequel to the hit 2022 flick follows global pop sensation Skye Riley (Naomi Scott, Power Rangers 2017) as she begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events, just as Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon, Smile 2022) did before her. As Skye starts to question what’s real and whom she can trust, she encounters Morris (Jacobson), an ER nurse who is all-too familiar with the darkness that she’s experiencing, and who wants to end the terror once and for all.
PopHorror recently caught up with Jacobson, who discussed what drew him to SMILE 2 and the character of Morris, the ease he felt working alongside Scott and more.
PopHorror: SMILE 2 seems unlike anything you’ve done before. What about this film made you want to be part of it?
Peter Jacobson: I’ve definitely not done anything like it before. I’ve dabbled in the sci-fi, I’ve killed a bunch of zombies before. This is a whole other ballgame. This is a franchise film, a wonderful film in the horror genre. I’ve never done anything in the horror genre. I’m a fan of a great film and a great scary film, and I do love horror films, but I’m not somebody who sees all of them, and I’m not down for the jump scare at every moment. I always want a film that has a great script and great characters and great relationships. This first movie was just ridiculously terrifying and grotesque and horrifying, but it was a good movie, and it became a hit for a very good reason. Parker is a great writer, and he wasn’t just writing jump scares. I mean, Sosie Bacon was amazing, that kind of stress and tension for two hours was terrifying.
This movie was able to move onto a second level, and he has put Naomi Scott in it, who is equally able to hold that kind of terror and mystery for another two hours. He created a world that is completely unstable and mortifying, and sprinkled it with characters and relationships that all feel very real, and that’s why we’re scared. We’re not just scared because something came out of the closet. We’re scared because these are real people and, terrifyingly enough, it feels like a real situation, even though we’re not sure what’s real and what’s not. And he’s taken the first movie and just elevated everything on a global scale now. So, to me, terrific idea for a sequel. It looked great, the character I loved, so I was thrilled to be part of it.
PopHorror: I completely agree. I’m a big horror fan and this isn’t super gory. It’s as simple as a smile, but it’s terrifying.
Peter Jacobson: That’s the thing. You get a smile, which is obviously as universal as it gets. It is unnerving, it indicates that something really horrible is coming. It’s a great idea.
PopHorror: Tell me more about your character. What is he like?
Peter Jacobson: Morris is this sort of mysterious outsider. He crosses paths with Skye, the star, the rockstar, the popstar, who is obviously going through something very difficult. She’s not sure what’s happening, and she’s increasingly terrified. There are increasing moments of uncertainty and fear for her, and she doesn’t know. That’s the root of the terror right there for anybody watching. My character Morris has sort of a cloudy history. He’s a simple guy, he’s an ER nurse, but he has a past. He has crossed paths with this terror. What I love about him is, he’s just a very real, quiet, compassionate man who’s also got a head on his shoulders, and he uses it. He’s researched and he’s learned about this, and he’s probably the resident expert on this terror. He finds his way to Skye and he crosses paths to try to help her. He has a real sense that this thing, because he’s been affected by it in the past, he wants desperately to help her, to not only help her survive, but to help others who might also be affected survive. So we’ve got a couple very intense scenes where I convince her to let me try to help her, and then I try to help her, and that’s about all I can say.
PopHorror: Can you talk about your process of bringing Morris to life and just getting into the head of the character, especially since you mentioned that he’s an ER nurse and you have a background in medical dramas?
Peter Jacobson: There wasn’t a lot of actual medical lingo, but I was gonna jump right on that because that’s my sweet spot. Reading a script, again, Parker is such a great writer, and I read a lot of characters and scripts. You read characters and some speak to you and some don’t as much. Hopefully you get to see a wide variety of characters that you’re auditioning for. I got this guy right away. There was something about his anxiety, his softness, his compassion in the midst of this insanely dark event that I really latched onto that, again, you want to be human, and this guy is so human in how he handles himself, and how he handles himself with Skye throughout the film was out of compassion and humanity in the midst of this unbelievable mysterious terror. And I just love that juxtaposition that he wasn’t literally running around with his head cut off. He’s trying really hard to think and convince and cajole and help, and he just felt right in my skin. His anxiety, I don’t know, for some reason I play anxious people. You tell me, my therapist can tell me, I don’t know. It just felt like a really easy fit, and when I read it for Parker, obviously he thought it was a very good fit.
And working with him, he’s a wonderful director, he’s written these great characters. He’s real clear that the relationships matter, so he was real, real easy to work with, and very clear about how he wanted the scenes to go, and how he wanted Skye and Morris to interact. And they are just relentless, the two of them. This film is just relentless. You gotta go 100%. It is a terrifying ride, but he kept control of the things that matter, which are character and relationship. Plus, he’s an amazing filmmaker. What I loved about the first SMILE was just his eye. He’s a great filmmaker and he brings a different look to a genre that is not new. There’s a lot of horror films out there, and people responded because he’s doing something new.
PopHorror: This film has such a great cast. Naomi Scott, Drew Barrymore (Charlie’s Angels 2000) is in it. What was it like just working with everyone?
Peter Jacobson: My stuff was only with Naomi, I would’ve loved to have been around for Drew. I think she’s adorable and wonderful. The only other person I knew was not in this film, Kal Penn (American Horror Story 2022) was in the first one. We talked after that, especially when he knew that I was up for this part, and I knew Kal from House, we were doctors together on House. He does not come back in this film, so he left me alone. It was only me and Naomi, and you’ve got really intense scenes. In any TV or film, you sort of show up and go, “Oh, hi, we’re gonna pretend to have this relationship, and we’re gonna convince people that we know each other very well,” and that’s what acting is on TV and film. And Naomi was just instantly out of the gate the most relaxed, fun, easy, intense person to work with. She’s as relaxed and fun and intelligent as she is intense, and the intensity is necessary to carry this role and this film, which she does beautifully. She’s really quite extraordinary. I’ve been doing this a long time, met a lot of people and showed up on the day, “Here’s somebody you’re gonna play an intense scene with.” It was so easy with her, she is just a lovely and generous actor and a terrific talent, I think.
PopHorror: Obviously, the goal of any horror movie is to freak people out. But, in your opinion, is there a deeper message that you hope people take away from it?
Peter Jacobson: Oh, a deeper message, that’s a good question! Besides having the shit scared out of you? I don’t know that the story itself leads to a broader universal message about humanity. But because Parker has created real people, especially this woman Skye Riley, who is in a terror and she can’t tell who she can trust, and you see her lurching at the loved ones in her life, her friends, her family, she doesn’t know and it increases her terror, and we can all imagine that to be the most scary thing in the world. You’re struggling and you don’t know who to turn to. You don’t know what’s real. That is about as human as it gets. So if I’m gonna concoct a lesson, a universal lesson that Parker might’ve been going for, and I don’t wanna speak for him, but from what I’ve got, from playing this role, acting with Naomi and seeing the film, both of them, this is about how important it is to trust the ones you love, and to have people that you know and can trust because the movie cuts that and says, “You don’t know,” and makes us think to ourselves, “Oh my God, who do I know? Who can I trust?” Safety is with your loved ones and with your family. This movie cuts against it, but it’s a wonderful theme to play with.
PopHorror: Have you been able to look at people smiling in real life, or does it freak you out now?
Peter Jacobson: I’ve been freaked out since I shot it. I was in my bathroom for the last eight months until I came out for this interview because I just can’t look at anybody anymore. [laughs] No, I just did an interview for KTLA TV in LA and I thought I was gonna talk about the movie, but instead we wound up, there were four anchors and me at the table, it was a very quick interview, and we spent the whole time me teaching them how to do the smile. They wanted to learn, it was really great! There’s a very specific way to do that smile, and Parker has just got something. I had to have a lesson in it myself, it’s a very specific thing that you must be able to do. And when you do it right, it works. Anybody can do it, and anybody, that means, can scare the hell out of anybody else. But I have not seen others do it on the street. I’ve seen the poster and I kind of froze for a moment, but if anybody was to come up to me and do it, it would freak me out.
PopHorror: Didn’t they have people doing it in public as promo for the first one?
Peter Jacobson: At baseball games behind home plate. It was genius marketing that they did for the first film, obviously it worked. It’s a huge hit, and they’re all over the place with this one in a good way. There’s so much out there pushing this film, I think they know they’ve got something great. We all know now what that smile is. And that’s the challenge for Parker. Everybody knows the first story, so to have done something that’s even better and bigger the second time around, that’s a testament to a great director and a great writer and a great crew and great actors, that they were able to take something that’s known. We all know what it is now, so the surprise of that is gone. But again, they’ve exploded it onto a much higher scale. The stakes are now even further through the roof. It’s bigger and better. That sounds cliche, but it’s true. So those smiles that you’ll see, you’ll be seeing them in a bigger context now, and it’s gonna scare the hell out of you.
PopHorror: Was there anything additional that you wanted people to know about SMILE 2?
Peter Jacobson: You’re gonna love it. See it in theaters! In this day and age, I hope that most people would. I think if you’re seeing a horror film, you’re saying, “I’m gonna pay money to go be scared,” but that’s the joy. It’s like going to an amusement park, this is what people love to do. They wanna be scared, and if you wanna be scared, you wanna be scared around people, not just your family and friends on your couch, but with a group of hundreds of other people in a room seeing it on a big screen, choking on your popcorn. You wanna see it with others. That’s the way to go. Go to the theaters. See it with a lot of people, it’s gonna make it that much scarier and that much more fun.
PopHorror: I watched the first one by myself at night, it was the worst idea ever.
Peter Jacobson: There you go, folks! You heard it from her, go to the theaters! It’s better than any 3D, IMAX anything. You’re gonna love it.
Thanks for speaking with us, Peter! SMILE 2 is out in theaters Oct. 18.
