#Pennywise actor 2016 movie
#Pennywise actor 2016 full
#Pennywise actor 2016 tv

It was weird because as soon as they said ‘cut’, some kids were very shaken up about it. Andy (Muschietti) is behind the camera shouting directions and he’s like, ‘Bill, grab one of the kids! Grab one of the kids and walk out of the frame!’ So I’m running around these kids, laughing maniacally, and I grab one and he just shrieks! And Andy’s like, ‘Oh no, not that guy!’ – I had to change kids to find one that wasn’t so terrified. “They’d never even met me before, let alone seen me as Pennywise. “I walked into this scene, in character, where these kids were sitting,” says Skarsgård.

#Pennywise actor 2016 tv

(‘Never again’ here being a badge of honour – the film only requires one sitting to sear itself on to your brain, whether you want it there or not.) Just ask the extras from a scene in the film in which Pennywise appears on TV to terrorise a group of kids, all children younger than the main cast. He is set to be the default totem of fear for a new generation of nearly-teens, while It is anointed the new benchmark watch-once-and-never-again movie. In throwing out the goofy camp of Tim Curry’s turn as Pennywise for a truly unsettling, Vantablack-like take on the character as part-child, part-monster, Skarsgård has achieved what every actor sets out to do: leave a mark on his audience long after the end credits roll and the flip-down seats empty. It’s the strangest thing, ’cos obviously kids aren’t supposed to see this film, but there are kids in it.”

#Pennywise actor 2016 movie

I had people coming up to me all the time being like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re doing It! That movie just traumatised me, I was so scared.’ It’s kind of a fascination- slash-fear-slash-whatever it was that they lived through. “If you saw the mini-series when you were an adolescent it wouldn’t have affected you as much, but if you were the same age as the kids who are the victims in the movie, that was when it was most effective. “What was so iconic about not only the novel but also the mini-series was that kids saw it at too early an age,” Skarsgård offers. And everyone’s waiting with bated breath: the trailer for this new movie, directed by Andrés Muschietti, racked up an incredible 197 million views online in one day alone, setting a new record for the most views in a 24-hour period. But the tale, now considered a modern classic, has plenty to draw upon for a reimagining. As such, it’s a brave decision to put another spin on it. There is a lot of fond affection for the 1990 mini-series adaptation of Stephen King’s 1,100-page novel, published in 1986. The year is 1989, and it’s up to a group of young outsiders dubbed the Losers’ Club to stop more kids disappearing (or having their arm chopped off while chatting into a stormdrain). Pennywise appears in the town of Derry, Maine every 27 years, feeding on local children by exploiting their darkest fears. You’ll know the story of It, if only from legend. From now on, red balloons can only mean ‘get the hell out of here’. Once you’ve experienced Skarsgård’s performance as shapeshifting clown Pennywise in It, where his every conjuring is marked by a wandering red balloon, you will understand how something so seemingly banal becomes major. Distraction ensues for a split-second – not that the actor notices.

#Pennywise actor 2016 full

Want a balloon?īill Skarsgård is sitting on a couch in an east London studio, talking in full flow when, out of the corner of my eye, I catch someone walking past with a red balloon. Stepping into the shoes of Stephen King’s most iconic creation, Bill Skarsgård sets a new benchmark in terror as Pennywise the Clown.