Hollywood newcomer Bill Skarsgard is taking a big leap by playing a living nightmare — the evil clown who terrorizes and eats children in New Line Cinema’s remake of Stephen King’s “It.”
As we approach the September release, Skarsgard will be sharing many a story about the trauma he’ll inflict on moviegoers as Pennywise, played previously by Tim Curry in the 1990 TV adaptation. In a very predictable and upsetting development, the actor terrified his child costars.
The youngest in his acting family that includes brother “True Blood” star Alexander and father Stellan (of “Thor, “Pirates of the Caribbean” fame), Skarsgard shared an anecdote about filming in a cover story for Interview magazine.
“At one point, they set up this entire scene, and these kids come in, and none of them have seen me yet. Their parents have brought them in, these little extras, right? And then I come out as Pennywise, and these kids — young, normal kids — I saw the reaction that they had,” Skarsgard told Alexander, who conducted the interview.
“Some of them were really intrigued, but some couldn’t look at me, and some were shaking. This one kid started crying. He started to cry and the director yelled, ‘Action!’ And when they say ‘action,’ I am completely in character. So some of these kids got terrified and started to cry in the middle of the take, and then I realized, ‘Holy s—. What am I doing? What is this? This is horrible,'” he concluded.
Andres Muschietti directed the remake, from a screenplay by Cary Fukunaga, Gary Dauberman and Chase Palmer. Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Jack Dylan Grazer, Chosen Jacobs, Wyatt Oleff and “Stranger Things” star Finn Wolfhard also star.
Skarsgard is one of several heat-seeking talents to appear in Interview’s Youth in Revolt issue, accompanying the likes of Zazie Beats, “Spider-Man” Tom Holland and Sundance breakout Timothée Chalamet.
See more from his Craig McDean shoot, and a trailer for “It,” below.
Let's Revisit the 1990 'It' TV Miniseries: 5 Floating Facts About Pennywise and Friends
With the new film "It" in theaters now, we asked John Campopiano -- one of several filmmakers doing a documentary about the 1990 version of Stephen King's "It" -- to take us deep into the history of that TV miniseries. Here are five things we didn't know.
Stephen King has said he decided to make his scary creature a clown because clowns scare children more than anything else. "They do have that kind of monstrous thing going for them," he told Conan O'Brien.
Jonathan Brandis, who portrayed young Bill Denbrough in "It," had worked on another Stephen King film adaptation the year prior. He did the voiceover for the opening scenes of the 1989 film "Pet Sematary."
Tim Curry's Pennywise makeup changed quite a bit during the production. It went from being very dramatic and articulated to more subdued. Curry had recently worked on the film "Legend" and was not excited about being in a lot of makeup again. He and director Tommy Lee Wallace agreed that he would have minimal makeup.
Despite being set in Derry, Maine, the miniseries was actually shot in and around Vancouver, British Columbia.
Many fans dislike the ending of the miniseries, specifically the scenes involving the giant spider. Even cast and crew members, including Wallace, have expressed disappointment with how it came together.
Bonus: King once had his own scary interaction with a clown: a man dressed as Ronald McDonald once said next to him on a first-class flight, lit up a cigarette and ordered a gin and tonic. He told King he had come "from McDonaldland."
With the new film ”It“ in theaters, we look back at the miniseries that made everyone hate clowns
With the new film "It" in theaters now, we asked John Campopiano -- one of several filmmakers doing a documentary about the 1990 version of Stephen King's "It" -- to take us deep into the history of that TV miniseries. Here are five things we didn't know.
