BUTTE — Don’t get me wrong, actor Jack Sochet, who’s been in Butte recently making a new movie, is a great guy—it’s just that his smile is a little unnerving.
Not his actual smile, but the one he created for the film "Smile" that is one of the top grossing horror films of the year. He spent time perfecting his grizzly grin for the film.
“How to have a good smile, but dead eyes—so, it’s like you’re smiling, but your eyes are not smiling with you,” said Sochet.
"Smile" took $17 million to make and has grossed nearly $140 million worldwide. Sochet is thrilled to be a part of such a hot film.
“An amazingly surreal experience, honestly, I’ve got to say, because I’ve heard from people that I probably haven’t heard from in 20 years, you know texting me and DM-ing me, friends from high school, saying ‘holy crap, I saw you in this movie theater,’” said Sochet.
He’s getting more work, including a project being shot in Butte.
“It’s a beautiful place to shoot, especially Butte is so historic that you won’t be able to find this anywhere in the country and they’ve kept the buildings, you know, a lot of places would have torn everything down,” he said.
Butte, along with the rest of Montana, has become a very popular place to shoot for the movie industry. Since 2020, there have been 195 productions shot in the state with a local economic impact of about $154 million and total tax revenue of almost $17 million.
“We’ve heard of people getting orders from film companies that are equivalent to a whole year’s worth of business to them and of people being able to renovate their homes, be an extra or get a higher paying job,” said Allison Whitmer of the Montana Film Office.