Charlie Houpert breaks down what makes a smile charismatic by analyzing examples like Will Smith and Nancy Pelosi. He explains the facial muscles that separate a genuine smile from a fake one and how body language plays into it.
What's up, everybody? Charlie from Charisma on command here. And I want to do a very quick video breakdown to illustrate the answer to a question I get asked sometimes, which is what makes for, like, charismatic facial features and particularly what makes for a charismatic smile. So I think the perfect illustration of someone that just has a completely radiant smile is Will Smith. And I'm gonna click play in just a little bit. And you'll see it and probably feel it. But I want to explain to you first why his smile is so compelling and so engaging. And a lot of it has to do with the musculature that he engages so his smile is revealed. First off, the teeth. His teeth are revealed. You can see right here by pulling up on his top lip. You can see that dimple there. Some people smile by pulling down and over on the sides of their lips or the bottom lip. I'm going to show you an example of that in just a second. But. But that's the first thing. The second thing that you can also see here is that his eyes, right, he's got some tension on his upper cheeks, and he's got. They're called orbiculus oculi. Those are the muscles that surround your eye. They form crow's feet. Sometimes you can smile from your eyes by using those muscles. And in fact, if you just say cheese and just sort of clench your teeth together and don't engage those muscles, the smile looks incredibly fake. And. And one of the things you'll see that not only does Will Smith engage those eye muscles every time he smiles, he keeps them going even when he's not smiling with his teeth, which basically just makes him radiate positivity to everyone that he interacts with. The last thing I want you to keep an eye out for is how relaxed his lower jaw is, right? Almost when he laughs, it just completely goes open. You can see a gap between his teeth. Often when you clench those teeth, you get these sort of mangled, like, here are my fangs type smile. That is not what he does. And then to tie it all together, he speaks through this smile, which is to say that these muscles are always sort of flexed. They're like he's near a smile at all times when he's laughing or joking or listening. So just pay attention to all of those things here, man.
We did the. Thank you for doing the hip hop dancing.
No, that was fantastic.
That was, like, beautiful.
So right here, when he laughs, it's formed by his lower jaw sort of dropping down, creating space. It's completely relaxed. You can see right here, these muscles under his eye are flexed. And again, the smile is revealed with the top of his. With his top lip being pulled out.
We can show you because we did it. We did it a couple times.
A couple times? A couple times. You know, didn't go as good as the time you showed.
Well, I was heavy. I was breathing heavily.
Yeah, no, I was concerned. I was concerned.
At one point, I go, this is how I die.
Again, there's a full laugh, and it's formed by that top lip going back and complete relaxation of the lower jaw. Eyes are completely engaged.
Hip hop dance with Will Smith.
Yeah, this is it.
And just a coincidence that we wore the same outfit.
I know Jessica. We both came in with the same.
And a great laugh there. So I want to show you, just to illustrate how not to do a job, somebody who does not. And don't mean to pick on her, but Nancy Pelosi has one of those smiles that just comes off fake. So I'm gonna show this. Here she comes out on stage. Notice the difference. Notice what's happening with her eyes. There's not that. That sort of upper cheek tension. And notice how she forms her smile. So that one's not so bad. But when you saw it, it's just a few seconds ago when she came out, that one is sort of formed by her pulling to the sides on her smile. And I don't know if she's genuinely happy or. Or if this is just the musculature that she's trained, but it comes across very, very false. Adam's finger. That's a little better right there.
Okay.
But again, right there, she's got this lower jaw completely clenched, and she's flexing that lower. That sort of lower lip to reveal the smile. And you don't see the same sort of tension in her upper cheek, which would indicate a genuine smile. So it looks like she's being false, like she's fitting. Faking that smile. I want to go. I think it's around here to her telling a joke just so you can see her difference between a real smile and a fake smile. One thing to keep in mind is that as she tells these jokes, when the camera cuts back to her, she often has a fake smile on, though when she finishes a joke, she almost laughs at herself and releases. What's a real smile? House salad. So keep going here.
Number six.
So right there, a completely, like, forced smile right here, waiting for the camera to come back. Every month, we're tested for steroids and that. Look how different that smile is, she's got that lower jaw relaxed. You can actually see space between her teeth and it's formed by that top lip going back still. Her eyes don't have that in incredible sort of infectious positivity that Will Smith has, but it feels much more genuine. So what does this mean? You want to get a Will Smith type smile. The way to do that is to actually feel positive. And there's tons and tons of different things that you can do to do that. Go into them in the book Charisma on Command if you want to get it. It comes with a lot more videos like this. And I'm sure that I'll add a link somewhere nearby where you can sign up for early access to that. But basically, long story short, you use your body. If you look at Nancy Pelosi here, she's very, very stiff. She's obviously uncomfortable, she's hardly moving her hands. She's trying to be politic. If you look at Will Smith in that last video and watch it, he moves around in the chair, he opens up his gestures. And studies have shown very, very clearly that the way that you use your body has an immediate effect on your brain chemistry to the degree that the dopamine in your head, that thing that makes you feel happy, is going to be flowing much, much more if you have these open, expansive gestures and if you activate a real smile. So there's a positive feedback loop there, tons and tons of other ways. There's a lot more depth there. But don't want to get into that in this video. Hopefully this has been helpful. If you want more, there's plenty more videos here. There's going to be lots of free ones and even more if you sign up for early access of Charisma on Command. For now, hope this has been helpful.
