Naomi Scott can no longer look at a smiling face with absolute innocence. This Autumn, the British actor takes the lead in Smile 2, Parker Finn’s sequel to his acclaimed 2022 horror, which saw demonic grins pop up across the world as part of a viral advertising campaign before taking things much darker on-screen. In the follow-up, Scott plays Skye Riley, a global popstar whose overwhelming pressures and anxieties manifest as the grinning, evil entity. Redefining the horror blueprint, Scott’s portrayal brings a psychological angle to the traditional format, exploring notions of trauma and mental health. This is exactly the type of multi-layered story the British actor and her partner Jordan Spence hope to bring to the fore with their production company, New Name, founded in 2020 to provide a platform for thought-provoking narratives born from curiosity and authenticity.

Like Scott, Bridgit Mendler is a Disney Channel alumni, but has since cut a career trajectory like no other. From her years as an award-winning actor and musician, Mendler pivoted to the research field, first earning a degree in anthropology at the University of Southern California, then a master’s degree at MIT and becoming one of the university’s Media Lab’s Director’s Fellows, before completing a Law PhD at Harvard University. Now, as a co-founder of Northwood Space, a pioneering start-up broadening space accessibility through innovative satellite data networks, Mendler stands at the forefront of a current communications revolution. On individual paths, both Scott and Mendler share a passionate desire to change their respective industries for the better.

Bridgit Mendler: Hello!
Naomi Scott: Hey!

BM: In all our years of friendship I haven’t interviewed you before; you did appear in my music video.
NS: Oh my gosh, I so did. Do you remember I had to stand on that apple box to hug you?

BM: I do.
NS: Justin Bieber was staying at the hotel! There were all these people outside running around, it was pandemonium. At The Langham in London. We have some crazy stories. You know exactly the one I’m thinking of…

BM: That one is not coming out today. [both laugh] How did we first meet, Naomi? Do you remember?
NS: Yes, I remember. Was it in the rehearsal space that we met, or in the production office?

BM: I’m remembering a very large rehearsal space.
NS: I remember thinking, “Oh, she’s the star,” because you already had a show, you were famous, la, la, la. But there was a moment really early on where I was literally like, “Oh my god, she is just a nerd!” I was like, “She’s absolutely not cool, couldn’t be if she tried.” [both laugh] The moment I realised that, it was just us three girls – obviously we all had so much fun on that movie [Lemonade Mouth] – but in particular me, you and Hayley [Kiyoko]. You were genuinely shy, a nerd, and the sweetest little pumpkin ever, and I just fell in love with you.

BM: And you were just so cool from the get-go. I mean, with your fake American accent.
NS: [laughs] You two used to take the piss out of me for my American accent because it was so over the top.

BM: I thought you were actually doing quite a good job, when you switched back to British it was like,“Woah, who’s this different person?”
NS: Lindsey Lohan in The Parent Trap, that’s how Icould do the American accent, because I watched that movie so much and wanted to be Hallie.

BM: I mean, you basically were. You were so fun. Do you know what I remember? Your staring contest with Chris Brochu. Do you remember that in the hotel lobby?
NS: Vaguely…

BM: I remember being like, “Damn, she is determined,” because you had a tear rolling down your face but you were not going to break eye contact. I was so impressed by that.
NS: Isn’t it weird how you remember things like that? We need to rewatch it with Hayley with some wine.

BM: So many good times. How many years ago was that now?
NS: Was it 2011 that we shot that? Let’s have a look [checks on her phone] 2011, so we would’ve shot it in 2010? So, fourteen years ago, that’s not OK.

BM: Fourteen years of friendship, this is beautiful.
NS: Isn’t it so funny when you’ve known someone as a kid, that is just a different type of bond.

BM: We’ve seen each other through so many different phases.
NS: You’re too talented for your own good, you could literally do anything. There have been so many hats you’ve worn and tried on. Then I’ve been like, “I’ve got this job.” [laughs]

“As an actor you’re very much like a colour in a painting and you aren’t necessarily the artist”

BM: No, they’ve all been really interesting. Something I’ve always admired about you is that you have such a high bar for what you take on. Like, how do you know that internally?
NS: Oh babes, you know, so much of it isn’t a choice necessarily. For a long time, so many things were my North Star, but I wouldn’t get them. It seemed that the things I did get, which were equally blessings, just different, would be a certain type of thing, which seems to be remakes of movies [laughs]…

BM: …Massive franchises.
NS: Trust me, I have so much love and appreciation for every single job I’ve been on. You learn so much and you grow so much. I’ve been really blessed. But in terms of choosing, a lot of it isn’t choice, and there have been times when the only choice you have is to say no to something and that can leave you with bigger gaps – anyone in a creative field or who goes job-to-job understands that concept.

BM: You can always learn something from it.
NS: Absolutely. You know this, as an actor you’re very much like a colour in a painting and you aren’t necessarily the artist, right? You have the director and their vision, the editor – and movies really are an editor’s medium in that sense. Honestly, I’m just so grateful that I’ve worked in a range of things and have been afforded the time and space where I can maybe at a certain point be choosier and begin to look into producing and what I want to say, what do me and Jordan want to say in that space, what’re the stories we want to tell, what’re we curious about and have a unique advantage to help shepherd something to being made. How can we make something better? The power we always do have is to say no.

BM: It’s a really hard thing.
NS: I also want to mention the privilege to be able to say no and be financially OK with saying no to things, not having as much pressure because of that is such a blessing. There have been lots of paths I could’ve taken, and I look back and the throughline is that there’s this feeling you get, which is… How can I explain it? It’s the childlike sense of, is this going to be creatively fun and challenging for me?

BM: Yes.
NS: There’s a range of what that can be, but the through line is always, can I play with this? Can I do something with this? I’m now at a point where I just really want to work with people who excite me.

BM: We were talking a couple of weeks ago about Smile and your deep dive into something darker. What was that like?
NS: The thing is B, I think you’ll understand this. This film made the most sense to me. When I sat with Parker [Finn] when I first met him, I had no idea of the concept around this movie, I just knew he was doing a second Smile, I’d watched the first movie in the theatre and really loved it, specifically the filmmaking. It was a very general meet and when he began to explain what the movie was and then when I read the script and started working, it was so weird but it made the most sense to me that I would do this movie. It weirdly felt very natural for me.[laughs] That sounds so crazy. I was cast so quickly after the strike because they had to go in a couple of weeks, I had to record all these songs, and I had two dance rehearsals. It was so quick but I felt like I didn’t mind because I knew what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. The dark stuff and some moments are incredibly technical and they are more of a stunt than they are about being true to the moment as it would play out in real life.

BM: The choreography?
NS: Right. Then there are ones that are technical and also very dramatic and you want to be completely grounded in the truth of where you are. And then there were also wonderful moments that didn’t have to be technical and really were just about playing the truth of the moment and being in that. For anything that was technical, one thing that would really help me was that I created this sort of system on set where I’d set my own action. Or I told them when I was ready, I’d do maybe a couple of breath things or whatever and then depending on how intense it was, I’d even make a gesture to camera, or I’d just say, “Set.” A camera would say set, and then I would also say it, as we’re moving together, it’s a team effort. What was really unique about this experience was that I got to do all of it. It’s not just a horror movie where my character is being used as a prop to propel the story forward, I remember Parker saying to me when we first met, “This is really a character piece.” It’s funny, people can say that, but I have to say, he really kept to his word. Both in the making of it and also in watching it. I got to play a little bit, be in it, live in it. There were some really difficult scenes, of course, it’s not so much about being in a dark place mentally… I have friends who like to remain in a space for the duration of the movie but I’m not one of those people, I want to conserve my energy and go, “OK, this scene, how can I be most efficient in getting myself to a place emotionally that I need to be.” It was kind of like being an athlete in that way. But there were a couple of scenes where, you know, I had a couple of panic attacks. I’m doing some crazy shit.

BM: You had real panic attacks?
NS: Oh yeah. Totally.

BM: My goodness. Because you were amping yourself up?
NS: They were very quick. Well, one of them was super quick. It was after one of the most intense scenes in the movie and it’s all one shot, a real team effort. I love the crew’s and the team’s notion of making a movie. You know, me and steady cam Dan just being like, “Right, this is me and you, this is choreography, we’ve got this.” It’s like being on a sports team. The focus has to be on the shot.

BM: So it started as soon as you were done with the scene? Your body held off until they called cut?
NS: The only times it happens is when you’re pretty much having a panic attack in the scene. It just tricks your body. I feel like if you asked anyone who has done an intense thing like that they’ll probably say the same thing.

BM: You get your body worked up.
NS: It’s the same as playing grief, that’s never fun. You can’t half-arse that. But also, you know what I’m like B, I’m done, I have five minutes and then laugh it off. That’s my way. There’s one other time where I’m screaming manically right into the camera in the car, and I’m the sort of person who, when they called cut I’m like, [does the 20th Century Fox theme] and I’m like snotting everywhere, but I weirdly have to break the tension.

“I feel really grateful that [Smile 2] is one of those times when I feel incredibly proud of the work”

BM: [laughs] I can totally see you doing that. The other thing that I love is that this movie got you singing. It got you on stage making music. This is a beautiful year for Naomi Scott music, we have Smile music and then when do we get Naomi Scott music? [Naomi is currently recording an album under her own name] I’m dying to hear, I need it.
NS: Well I’m going to send you a link to what I’ve been working on for such a long time. With Smile, what was really fun was I got to create this character, playing into this really, hot, pop, superpop. Alexis Idarose Kesselman – she is a writer and producer who wrote and producer two of the five songs – she created a foundation that I was able to latch onto through what she was doing. We had a Zoom a couple of days after I was cast and then we met and I just knew we’d have fun writing together. So we also got the opportunity to write two other songs for the soundtrack as Skye. I’ve been writing music for yonks, but what’s really lovely and fun is writing without the pressure that it’s for you as an artist.

BM: You can put on a character.
NS: Yes, you’re not as precious with it. It really felt like [Alexis] had created this language for Skye’s music. She really went for it, went for a swing, something that was giving early-2010s, it’s got a bit of [Lady] Gaga going on. There’s one song that’s a ballad Skye plays on the piano and I wanted to play it live, because I didn’t want it to feel like when you’re watching a musical and it goes into playback. She’s just tinkering [on the piano] in her own apartment, but that song should feel more raw. The end credits song we also did was just a pure pop song, it’s Skye’s club anthem – we had so much fun. We wrote that in two days. When me and Parker first met, I was going to a studio session after and he was like, “What’re you up to today?” I said, “I’ve got a session for a music project I’ve been working on.” And it was so funny, because I didn’t know that the movie had anything to do with music and I just saw Parker start fidgeting and now I know what that means because I know his body language. I could tell he just wanted to tell me everything in that moment. I really wanted people to believe that this is a real popstar, and I really appreciate that Parker felt the same way. But yes, I’m releasing music next year and I’m very excited. Honestly though B, you know my whole journey with music, I’m just in a place where I really love what I’m making and what I want to say. There’s almost this feeling of, I just want to share it. And also how blessed [I am] because the music industry is in such turmoil and it’s so wrong in the way that it’s structured and heavily weighted against the people who should be getting…

“[Smile 2] will always and forever live as something that I poured my heart and soul into…”

BM: It’s not incentivised for artistry.
NS: Exactly. There’s so much wrong with it. My friend Raye can speak way more eloquently on those matters, so I’d just say go listen to my girl Raye about what she has to say about the music industry and I’d second that. I genuinely feel like I’m in a place where I’m really blessed to share and connect. That’s ultimately what it is. So whoever it finds and whoever fucks with it, we’ll have a beautiful fun thing between us, and that’s great. As you know, it’s taken me a long time to figure out who I am as an artist, and it’s funny because I look back on the music I released a very long time ago and there have been times when I’ve gone, “Oh my goodness, I don’t know what I was doing.” But now I go, “Yeah, it’s not quite right, but I see the through line with the music I’m working on now.”

BM: You’ve had the time to refine it and put it all in its proper place.
NS: That’s exactly it. There’s a nostalgia there, it’s kind of pop through the lens of what was on my dad’s Windows Media Player growing up. I didn’t grow up with loads of music, but what I did have was my dad’s playlist, which was basically a lot of gospel music, a lot of Christian music. I’m a pastor’s kid, so I grew up on a lot of pop gospel, Mary Mary, Kirk Franklin, Yolanda Adams. But then also there was Genesis, Phil Collins, Chris Cross.

BM: I totally hear that in your music.
NS: Yeah. Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, and then there’s the MJs, the Stevies, very much that 80s thing. I’ve always loved the drama of that type of music.

BM: It’s been really cool to see your commitment to discovery.
NS: You know how I feel about you as an artist, songwriter, your voice. You were signed so young and had a song that was humungous. What’s your relationship with music now? When you look back on that moment do you feel like there’s more that you want to say in that space?

BM: I grew up in a household of what I call very ‘mission-driven’ parents, they were super passionate about what they were doing. My dad designing car engines with higher fuel efficiency and driving me to school in a car he built himself, my mom being an early architect in green design and one of the first women in her field, and them both being super passionate about the climate. Really hammering in, “Whatever you do with this time on Earth, make sure it’s something that matters.” I think I started to feel a bit of that disconnect with what I was doing in my day-to-day, in entertainment and started to put out feelers into more of the research domain. Then visiting the MIT media lab, I just felt like it was such fertile territory to explore something about an impact that would go into a different space, andbeyond. I palpably remember that point in the transition, because music is always my first love, I love it so deeply, but I remember being at South by Southwest and just feeling… Lonely. Finding your artistic community can be so hard.
NS: But the way you came up though, no wonder. For you to find your artistic community amongst all that. That’s difficult, you’re kind of hacking away…

BM: I was pushing the whole time. I think that’s a fair part of artistic discovery. At a certain point with music, I just didn’t find my people to make it with. I’ve dabbled with production myself and admire artists who can be self-sufficient in that way, and I think I could, but there’s also so much joy that comes from making it with other people.
NS: I completely agree. My slogan is ‘Not everyone’s Prince’. Not everyone can play every instrument, mix and master – and god bless those artists, these incredible geniuses that drop from the sky. But the majority of my favourite music is all about collaboration. If you know who you are as an artist, you can be so secure to play with it, and that’s the difference. You hit the nail on the head, it’s all about community and collaborators.

BM: Those lessons you learn the hard way can be so informative. I think I was a crap collaborator in my early days of music. That’s something I took forward with me, how do you encourage people? How do you find the strengths that other people have and how to cultivate them?
NS: I want to do the Hot Ones thing where it’s like, “Tell the people what you’ve got going on.” I really do want you to speak about what you’re doing now, your journey to get to where you are with your collaborator, your husband, you make such a fantastic team.

BM: Yes, with my husband Griffin Cleverly, and Shaurya Luthra, our dear friend, we co-founded this company called Northwood. It is a space company, but it’s a different kind of space company, we actually send data for satellites, and we do that through building these big-ass antennas on the ground. Basically, the space industry was built to accommodate different kinds of missions with NASA, just a couple of satellites in space doing these really bespoke government missions. But now we have a whole commercial space industry where we’re launching hundreds of satellites all the time and there’s going to be hundreds of thousands of satellites in space. So we thought we needed a different solution in order to actually accommodate that. Going back to my family origins of why I think this is meaningful, I grew up with parents who said, “Do something in your life that matters.” When I think about the things I’ve been exposed to in my life, for us millennials, we’ve lived through a number of different communications revolutions, you remember before the Internet and after the Internet. The dial-up days when you had to take turns with people using the phone and the Internet, as opposed to now where the Internet is everywhere, people meet their spouses through the Internet, people figure out what disease they have through the Internet. You pay for things, there’s e-commerce. There’s all these things you’d never have imagined. I also remember before and after cell phones, where you could go outas a kid and nobody would know where the hell you were, but now, people know where you are constantly, you’re constantly available. And then with social media, you didn’t used to advertise yourself on the Internet, but now everyone can share content, share world events. I believe that satellite technology will propel the next communications revolution. And I think the really important thing about that is that it’s global by design. For hundreds of years, we’ve been laying the same infrastructure on top of itself, re-enforcing the benefits for certain parts of the world through communications. Now for the first time, we’re able to provide it to everybody because space is everywhere, satellites don’t judge what country you’re in, they just keep on orbiting.
NS: When you say offer something to everyone, what do you mean? What do you feel this can offer? For the laymans, meaning me.

BM: Totally, well a lot of people don’t know what satellites do. Satellites provide GPS, tell you where you are, they tell cars where to go, they send communications, you can use satellite Internet, satellite cellphone and they capture data about our planet. They tell the weather, they can show deforestation, they can show how to more efficiently do agriculture in different parts of the world to conserve water resources, control wildfires as they’re blazing across an area, you can have a rapid response with that. They provide a ton of information that a lot of countries are using very intelligently. I worked on a project with the space agency in Rwanda, where they have so many different ways they’re using data from space to inform how they build out their city’s infrastructure or handle mining. There are so many applications for space data – it’s a huge equaliser. Then also people are building things in space. One of our good friends is manufacturing drugs in space, they build different kinds of molecules because there’s zero gravity. There’s a huge amount of potential for what it can do for people in the world. When you’re thinking of analogies with the Internet, people didn’t know that they’d be meeting their spouses on the Internet, they didn’t know that was what the Internet was for. There are so many different uses that we just don’t know about yet but we’ll find out once we can actually build something that can support a real mainstream infrastructure. That’s what we’re excited about doing.
NS: Damn, this woman I swear. This woman called me not long ago and was like, “I’m going to go do a law degree at Harvard.” I can never keep up. I think my favourite thing about our relationship is Bridgit having to re-explain everything to me every time we see each other. [laughs] Slowly but surely I do start to understand the concepts behind it. The way you just explained it makes sense and is really cool.

BM: The thing you and I share is making things with our spouses. I found you and Jordan really inspiring because you’re such a great team. I’m sure people ask you all the time, “Oh, how can you work with your spouse?” But what do you think about this model? Because I think it’s pretty powerful. I think for women of our generation there’s a lot of aspiration of like, “You can do anything!” But then as you grow up, the pathway becomes less clear on how that actually worksin adulthood. But something I love about working with your spouse in this dual career and pursuit of making your project a joint project, spouses aren’t pitted against each other for one person’s success or the other. You can succeed together and have your family empire.
NS: I honestly think it depends on what type of relationship you have. It just so happens that I’m in one where we’re both very driven, both curious, both very competitive, but we also have the same values and beliefs. The competitiveness is not about reaching some sort of goal for our own ego, although the ego is there and we absolutely have to check it constantly, but we have the same world view on why we’re here, who we are, what our identity is, our faith and how that’s our foundation. The other thing is that we have very polar opposite skill sets, some things crossover, for sure, but in terms of how our brains work, it’s completely different. So we make up for each other in areas, which works incredibly well. And you guys love working together, too?

BM: We do. We’re so lucky to be doing our dream job – I’m sure that’s how you guys feel too.
NS: One hundred percent. It’s actually ridiculous. I’m going to do a whole full circle back to Smile, are you ready for this? You don’t always get to have an experience where – again, when I said that you’re a colour in a painting – when you watch it you personally love it. I feel really grateful that this is one of those times when I feel incredibly proud of the work, and of what Parker has done. The rest is not up to me. I hope people love it, but at the end of the day, it will always and forever live as something that I poured my heart and soul into, and then really enjoyed the result. That’s our foundation. The other thing is that we have very polar opposite skill sets, some things crossover, for sure, but in terms of how our brains work, it’s completely different. So we make up for each other in areas, which works incredibly well. And you guys love working together, too?

BM: We do. We’re so lucky to be doing our dream job – I’m sure that’s how you guys feel too.
NS: One hundred percent. It’s actually ridiculous. I’m going to do a whole full circle back to Smile, are you ready for this? You don’t always get to have an experience where – again, when I said that you’re a colour in a painting – when you watch it you personally love it. I feel really grateful that this is one of those times when I feel incredibly proud of the work, and of what Parker has done. The rest is not up to me. I hope people love it, but at the end of the day, it will always and forever live as something that I poured my heart and soul into, and then really enjoyed the result.

Heroine 21 is out now.

hair ADLENA at BRYANT ARTISTS; make-up MAKI RYOKE; fashion assistant ALEXA LAVINE; production JENNY PIO; post production FRISIAN; special thanks THE KOTA ALLIANCE