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.
