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How would you describe the expression on Scarlett Johansson's Smirk?

Eddie Davidson 🚫
Updated:

Obviously, she is capable of many expressions as an actress.

However, she has this curled up lip/dimple that is difficult for me to describe and I am not happy with "Mischevious Smirk"

(don't worry these are not NSFW. If you don't immediately know what I am talking about here are two good examples, you can also google "Scarlett Johannsen Smirk".)

https://i.redd.it/01oeo7wz3h741.jpg

https://external-preview.redd.it/Y9IsEO86WGNTV6nZSUcOyA3CIVR_Evw4fJXUYa1VCzc.jpg?auto=webp&s=66e3d902c090e275cad0a32497a0722a90536fba

Let's say you are writing a character who sort of looks like this. You are describing their facial expression in two sentences or less.

Using a term like "She had an uneven smirk" doesn't quite do it justice. There is a lack of symmetry but in that she is beautiful and distinctive.

I am looking to grow as an author and I am getting tired of playful smirks and wintry smiles.

Dominions Son 🚫

@Eddie Davidson

I'd call both a smile, not a smirk.

I don't think it's something she's doing, not even subconsciously.

Nobody is perfectly symmetrical. I think one corner of her mouth is just higher than the other, giving her smile a crooked appearance.

Replies:   Eddie Davidson  Remus2
Eddie Davidson 🚫
Updated:

@Dominions Son

Hers is particularly noticeable and distinct. I'm just asking how you would describe it in a sentence in a story.

I have a thesaurus and I'm not afraid to use it, but frankly just saying "it's a smile" doesn't paint the word picture I'm looking for.

Its a clever smile, that looks like she is about to crack a joke or she just farted and nobody knows it. I'm looking for a way to write that a better way.

Oftentimes I post in this forum and get back snark or "no, that's not a thing"

Just asking for help as an author. Yes it is a thing. Many notable celebrities have very distinguishable features and expressions. It helps if i could paint the picture without saying "looks like Scarlett Johansson"

These are lazy crutches I want to get rid of

Dominions Son 🚫

@Eddie Davidson

I'm just asking how you would describe it in a sentence in a story

And that was in my comment if you read it carefully.

I think one corner of her mouth is just higher than the other, giving her smile a crooked appearance.

awnlee jawking 🚫
Updated:

@Eddie Davidson

Scarlett Johansson peeled her panties down her perfect legs. Then, standing with her back to me, she bent double at the waist. Between two cheeks that could crack a walnut was a beaming smile from where the sun most definitely did shine.

She was smirkin' from her merkin ;-)

AJ

Remus2 🚫

@Dominions Son

I think one corner of her mouth is just higher than the other, giving her smile a crooked appearance.

After looking up multiple pictures of her in the proverbial wild (on the street/out of a studio), I don't think her mouth is non-symmetrically placed on her face. One side does appear to have either weaker muscle mass or disturbed nerves.

Replies:   Dominions Son
Dominions Son 🚫

@Remus2

One side does appear to have either weaker muscle mass or disturbed nerves.

Which results in her face appearing asymmetrical.

Replies:   Remus2
Remus2 🚫

@Dominions Son

Appearance yes, actually asymmetrical no.

Eddie Davidson 🚫

@Eddie Davidson

I do wonder if her butthole has the same curve to it.

But that's still not what I'm asking.

Quasirandom 🚫

@Eddie Davidson

The first picture, I'd call that a playful smirk. The second looks closer to a sneer to me.

Ernest Bywater 🚫

@Eddie Davidson

To me, one looks like a wry smile and the other looks like a forced smile of the type to put on when a smile is expected but you don't want to smile at them.

palamedes 🚫

@Eddie Davidson

There are some people who have this type of facial paralysis or weakness and the causes can be from stroke, skull fracture or injury to the face, head or neck tumor, middle ear infection or other ear damage, Lyme disease, Ramsay-Hunt Syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Guillain-BarrΓ© syndrome, You can also have facial paralysis at birth due to certain congenital syndromes, such as Mobius syndrome and Melkersson-Rosenthal syndrome.

Then there are the ones who get Facial Piercings and damage the nerves in the face.

Replies:   awnlee jawking
awnlee jawking 🚫

@palamedes

and damage the nerves in the face.

wisdom tooth extraction can do that too :-(

AJ

garymrssn 🚫
Updated:

@Eddie Davidson

I'd just call it a crooked little smirk. Too many words or too flowery language just clutters the mental image.

Edit to add; And I cannot think of a single analogy that describes it better.

fritzdb 🚫

@Eddie Davidson

Her lips quirked upward, their mischievous expression mirrored in her eyes.

JoeBobMack 🚫

@Eddie Davidson

like she is about to crack a joke or she just farted and nobody knows it

I like those - either or both! Funny, and they get to what is important - what's inside her, especially if, in the scene, she really is in a playful or mischievous mood.
I guess one question is the purpose of your description. If it is to help make a character memorable so the readers goes, "Which blonde? Oh, yeah, the one with the lopsided smile," then a short, easily-repeatable and recognizable description, such as lopsided, might work best (especially if that expression is indicative of her general emotional state, see below). If the description of an expression is to indicate an emotional state, then I think it best to describe then name the emotional state (if you're writing from the POV of the smiling character) or what the POV character judges the emotional state of the smiling character to be. It is impossible to convey internal emotional states by descriptions of external expressions. ("Did you see Tom; he looked sad. Bet he's missing Jane." "Oh? I thought he looked pensive. Probably thinking about what his options are now." - Two different characters observing the same expression and reaching different conclusions, something that happens IRL all the time.)

For the second picture, I agree with the comment already made that the smile does not reach her eyes. It is not a real smile. In psychology, a smile that reaches the eyes (crinkles the skin around the eyes due to activation of small muscles) is called a "Duschenne smile." In one interesting study, women who were able to produce a Duschenne smile for their senior picture in their college yearbook were more likely to be satisfied with their marriages in mid-life.

The replicability crisis in psychology, medicine and other fields should raise yellow flags for any point backed by one study. However, there's been further research on this and the idea that a Duchenne smile indicates authentic positive emotions most times in natural situations seems pretty solid, although there are cultural components. A recent literature review done, in part, by a researcher I respect indicates that such smiles are a good marker of a chronic positive mood, and CPM correlates with greater success in love and work, as well as better health, longevity, etc. Thus, if an author wrote, "His frequent smile - the kind that re-shaped his entire face into a poster for happiness - reflected his fundamentally positive stance toward the world, was what drew her to him most strongly," it should ring true to most readers because it would fit what they intuitively believe.

samsonjas 🚫

@Eddie Davidson

The first pic looks predatory, the second looks fake like she wishes she was elsewhere.

irvmull 🚫

@Eddie Davidson

Quirky smirk?

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