Spooky season is here, and Jessica Chastain is ready to bring some close-to-home scares to audiences with Other Mommy. The upcoming horror movie has already been going viral for its marketing, and the actress has shared the story behind how she found that horrifying smile that has been the creepy hook of the trailers.
CinemaBlend was recently in attendance for an Other Mommy Q&A at the Universal Lot, and Jessica Chastain shared a funny anecdote about how she found her inner Other Mommy, so to speak. In her words:
There was a moment I was working on the face and there was like a five-year-old in the makeup trailer. And I said, ‘Hey, what do you think about this?’ And I made the face, and he screamed. So [Director Rob Savage] and I were like: ‘All right, we got it.’
Hey, that’s one way to figure it out! It’s the scientific method, horror edition. This happenstance moment for Jessica Chastain is sort of perfect, given the movie is from from the perspective of a young girl who’s being haunted by an entity that takes the form of her mother. Kids aren’t naturally afraid of their parents, even in a cinematic sense, so it helps that Chastain’s look sparked such a palpable reaction.
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Chastain spoke further about creating the character, pointing out how her glued-on smile ended up being both a time-saving and cost-saving addition, saying:
Initially, I think we were gonna go with some light prosthetics or something to differentiate. We didn’t have a lot of time. And, Rob and I were talking a lot about it, and I was trying to say, ‘Please, what if we try without it? What can we do performance-wise?’ And I just started to think about where Other Mommy holds the tension. Like, I thought, ‘What if it’s painful for her to hold this shape?’ And, that’s the tension.
During the Q&A event, we also got to see the first 15 minutes of the movie, and it’s not long before it’s set up that “Other Mommy” can actually take on many shapes – while looking like the mother of Arabella Olivia Clark’s Bela is merely one form she frequents. Bela’s real mom is often busy and working outside of the house, with “Other Mommy” often showing up during those times in hopes of going into “her heart” in reference to the young girl. As Chastain also said about finding her very creepy role:
Then also, she’s trying to appear so nice and welcoming, but there’s all this tension and pain behind her eyes that she’s lying. Like, she’s not being authentic of what she’s feeling or who she is. And, when you have that kind of tension, it’s gonna come out at some point. And so there’s that fear when you see someone literally lying in front of you with a smile and the way that they’re holding something so tightly together, you know that it’s all gonna fall apart.
The first Other Mommy trailer famously dropped unexpectedly during release weekend of The Odyssey, and audiences got jump scared over Other Mommy, who is seen with twisted limbs hiding under a table in the first look. I know I’m already very stressed over what other shapes Other Mommy can take, and where exactly she comes from. And, why is she preying on that little girl and her heart? I can tell this is already going to be one of those Jessica Chastain movies we are not going to forget anytime soon.
Other Mommy is one of this year’s freakier book-to-screen adaptations, as it’s based on Incidents Around the House by author Josh Malerman. The movie comes from director Rob Savage, who previously helmed Host and the Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman.
The 2026 movie schedule has been packed with great films, including that one weekend YouTubers took over the box office with Obsession and Backrooms. This feels like the perfect release to get us spooked out during Halloween season. Other Mommy hits theaters on October 9.
