Actor Bill Skarsgård opens up about playing the terrifying and infamous Pennywise in the upcoming Andy Muschietti directed IT, inspired by horror author Stephen King’s bestselling 1986 novel, and reveals that the adaptation is not a remake of the the original mini-series.
Turned into a famous horror movie icon by Tim Curry in the 1990 mini-series, Pennywise the clown is a demonic entity of evil that preys on the town of Derry’s children and humans every three decades and has the ability to transform itself into its prey’s worst fears. The story follows seven children known as ‘The Losers Club’ as they are terrorized by the clown and make a vow to destroy the entity once and for all. The latest adaptation stars Jaeden Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, Nicholas Hamilton, Jackson Robert Scott and Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise.
In an exclusive interview with Bloody Disgusting, Skarsgård talks about how he used King’s massive novel to create his own interpretation of Pennywise, how the film is different from the original mini-series and more. Here is what the actor said:
“I worked really hard to create my own interpretation of the Stephen King character. Tim Curry’s performance is understandably iconic, still, but the whole [miniseries], to me, at least, felt like something that might be worth a remake of, or rather, a re-adaptation, is kind of how I want to see the film. It’s not a remake of the TV show or the original miniseries, but it’s a re-adaptation of Stephen King’s book.
I think it’s almost 1200 pages, but I used the book because what was in the script is not much at all about who this character is. I read the book and I took a lot of notes on anything that describes Pennywise in any way, or describes ‘It’ in any way, so and there’s a lot of like great chapters, where It, like the entity, is the narrator. You hear his thoughts and what he thinks and all these things, and so there was this huge source material to go from, like, ‘Oh, what is this saying, why is he here, what does he think like, what does he like, what doesn’t he like?’ — I could use all of those things to come up with my own interpretation and my own version of what It is, and then also what Pennywise is in terms of his embodiment.”
Based on everything we have seen so far about the upcoming IT adaptation from the terrifying latest trailer to Skarsgård revealing that his Pennywise is going to be a new take on the classic character, the upcoming film is sure to bring some fresh scares to audiences who grew up with the original miniseries and those experiencing Pennywise the clown for the first time.
