Sosie Bacon Is the Newly Crowned Queen of Horror

Sosie Bacon has never been one to shy away from a good horror movie. Growing up in Manhattan, the young actress—and daughter of beloved actors Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon—fondly recalls spending Friday nights with friends, seeing mid-aughts films like Jennifer’s Body and House of Wax. “How do I explain it?” she says. “It’s just sort of romantic, going to the theater, knowing that you’re going to see something scary, and your adrenaline is going.” So it should come as no surprise that Bacon now stars in one of her own—Parker Finn’s chill-inducing Smile—which will satisfy today’s audiences for the very same reasons Bacon herself fell in love with the genre.

Bacon stars as Dr. Rose Cotter who, after experiencing a horrifying event at work with a young woman she briefly counsels, begins to endure the very same inexplicable episodes that plagued her former patient. The film is both clever and eerie, while managing to tackle some heavier subjects, too: what it looks like to face childhood trauma, the mental health crisis, and society’s inability to believe women when they speak up.

Bacon’s performance is a magnetic one to remember; her embodiment of a woman unhinged is both fully realized and deeply nuanced. As for the film as a whole? It’s a bona fide hit, raking in $37 million—and counting—since its debut last Thursday evening.

Ahead, BAZAAR.com sat down with the young star in the days just before Smile’s release to chat about the film’s more in-depth themes, her dream collaborator, and who she trusts most for advice. (Hint: It’s not exactly Kevin or Kyra.)

So from Mare of Easttown last year to Smile, it feels like a really exciting time for you. What were some films that inspired you early on or that you watched on repeat growing up?

I actually just was thinking about this the other day, because a couple years ago, I would've said something that I thought was "cool," like Pulp Fiction or something. But that's just a lie, so I'm going to go ahead and be honest, and say that the first movie that I could not stop watching—and I watched hundreds of times—is Grease.

Those are both classics. Do you remember your first celebrity crush?

I swear I'm not trying to be cool, but I was never the type to have posters of boys in my room. I think I was even trying to be cool when I was a kid, but I would probably say River Phoenix in Stand by Me.

You obviously have two parents who are revered in the acting world. When did you know that this was what you wanted to do and that you could really do it for your career and for a living?

I went to college for two years, and I feel like something really has to hold my interest for me to want to wake up and do it. I'm a very dreamy person who could go wherever the wind takes me. So for me to really feel determined, especially when I was younger, I had to really love the thing and find it super captivating. College just was not that way for me, and school wasn't that way for me.

I ended up doing a play in New York, and then I was like, "Well, if I am to wake up in the morning for a job, it's likely got to be this." I think I was, like, 19. Then I drove out to L.A. and started auditioning and working. I like working more than school learning, you know?

Did your parents ever try to discourage you from doing it?

They tried to just stay out of it. I don't think that they encouraged or discouraged either way. Having parents that are in this, you see a lot of the negative sides of it, not just the flashy, fun side of it. But that being said, as soon as I made the choice, it was like, "Amazing. That's exciting. Now we can talk about it." It wasn't like, "Oh, no."

So Smile is absolutely horrifying, but, of course, it's supposed to be. Were you a fan of the horror genre growing up?

It was always the choice for a weekend movie with friends. I loved that piece of it. I also love the way that horror can work out things that are difficult in our society, because it almost tends towards the ridiculous and sort of comedy, but it can also have a lot of weight, more weight than comedy. It's got a dramatic edge, so you can have those moments, and then you can have the ridiculously funny, over-the-top moments. I never thought about the fact that it wouldn't be all that fun to make, as the actor, but I did love experiencing them.

What are some of your favorite horror films?

It was the House of Wax, Jennifer's Body, lots of early-2000s movies. I obviously went back and watched the classics, because one must. But I actually have a real fondness of those sort of more silly ones.

How did the Smile script make its way to you? What drew you to the part of Rose?

This the first movie I've ever gotten without auditioning, ever. Usually, I have to do, like, 10 auditions. So I got sent the script, and I knew that it was a meeting and not an audition, which I was really excited about. Not because I didn't want to audition, but because it was so difficult, I didn't want to try to show that I could do this before I actually did it, if I was to get the role.

I am really terrible at reading scripts. I really like reading books, because they explain everything, and in scripts, I have a hard time visualizing what's going on. But what stuck out to me was, one, how in depth this character was and how it described how many scenes you saw from her whole life. Typically, you get what someone's experiencing now, and then you work backwards and build their life. But Parker had already done that, and I was really impressed with how much of a full character she was already.

There was this one scene that, from a horror perspective, I was stoked on, because I hadn't seen it done specifically like that before. It's kind of at the beginning, when she's in the house and the alarm goes off and her phone rings, the landline, then she answers, and then it rings again. Do you remember?

Oh, I remember. I was nauseous for the entire film.

Actually, that's a good point, it's quite nauseating. For some reason, the way that was even written, to me, was something that we hadn't seen before, that we had a different expectation of what was going to happen. A lot of times that happens, you turn around, someone jumps out or whatever. Just in seeing horror films a bunch of times, you have a good sense. And this one tricked you. I was like, "All right, I've never seen that before. As long as the rest of the script is good, I'm going to do it if I get offered it, because this is just so cool."

Your character is truly the embodiment of a woman unhinged. We watch the entire breakdown. The crying and the shaking … you feel her terror. How hard was it to go there for however many weeks or months that you were filming this?

I prepared for it the way that I have historically prepared for most roles, which is trying to live her memories through her eyes before I get there. Especially all the really important ones that inform her life. So if you think about your childhood, you can think about the things that have happened to you that inform how you behave today, right? So I did that with her, and it was actually a bit easier, because I didn't have to make it up. I am empathetic to an actual fault. I can take on others' pain in an incredibly unhealthy way. If someone has a stomachache, I'll literally have a stomachache. So it sort of comes naturally to me. That being said, it can be a detriment in the sense that it takes a real toll on me as well. I'm definitely learning to be more careful, because it definitely was dark.

What I wanted to show is that mental health is not something to be ashamed about, and it's not something that's our fault or that's an actual human fault. It's something that happens to people, and then the circumstances of their adult life, that make it happen. I definitely didn't want people to feel like, "Oh, well, she just played a crazy person," because I wanted people to understand that I think that it's not as though everybody's so far from that, you know what I mean? Our culture ignores women's pain, historically and currently. This could happen to really anybody, which is why I took it so seriously and which is why it was challenging.

As an audience member, you see what is happening to Rose, so you're on her side. You believe that she is seeing this demon that she says she's seeing. But no one in the film believes her. She is practically shouting, "This thing is happening, this thing is happening!" and nobody believes her. Was there also a bit of trying to show how so often in today's society, women are not believed?

Totally. Here's the thing, when I'm playing the part, I'm not thinking about all of the significant current events. You're really just trying to have the thoughts of the character and given circumstances every day, all day. So at the time, what I was thinking is, "Nobody believes me. Nobody believes me." I wasn't making comparisons to real life.

Afterwards, when I was processing the whole thing, I definitely felt even more strongly than I did before, that the constant denial of particularly things that are painful and hard for women, that it is the instinct of many, many people to, as soon as you say that, to say, "Well, have you ever thought that it might be in your head?" Or, "Have you ever thought that maybe it's the anxiety?" You know what I mean? That's the natural response.

I've developed this sort of Zen opinion of it. The only reason why people are saying that is because it's hard for them to watch pain in somebody else. I'm not blaming anybody, but it can make you feel like you are going crazy. If somebody continues to deny your pain, then you start to question your own pain. At a certain point, you're not allowed to have it. This is true for women and all marginalized groups. Because it's our instinct to go, "Well, it's not that bad for them." And we can't really judge how bad it is for anybody.

What do you hope the audience takeaway will be?

I hope first and foremost that they just have an experience that they enjoy, whether or not they're enjoying it at the time, it makes them think. My dream would be that people feel that the character, even if they don't like her, they kind of understand where she's coming from, as opposed to writing her off. And then, it builds in a way that you can empathize with her, I suppose.

Do you have a dream collaborator?

I would actually really like to work with—because I think that their mind is so insane—Donald Glover. Atlanta is so fresh. It's such an interesting take on both the male and female gaze. Oddly, it sort of combines them in this way that's fresh to me. I would love to work with him.

What's the best piece of advice you've received so far on your acting journey? And who is it from?

I think it's more a general encouragement to trust my own instincts, more than anything. I think that we are the only people that know what we should do. That's been from probably, namely, my mom. That's the best advice that you can get—check in, talk, listen, take your own kind of advice.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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