Pennywise Changed Bill Skarsgard Forever
Some roles stick with actors. Haunt them, even. But when that role is a shapeshifting killer clown from another dimension, it's a special kind of nightmare. Just ask Bill Skarsgard, the man who brought Pennywise the Dancing Clown to terrifying life in "It: Chapter One" and "It: Chapter Two." Though Skarsgard is no stranger to committing himself to a role—after all, he comes from a whole family of thespians— playing the shapeshifting monster left a mark on the actor as much as he terrified audiences (and occasionally his young cast mates). Here's how "IT" changed Bill Skarsgard forever.
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00:00 Sometimes, a movie role can have lasting effects on an actor.
00:04 This is surely the case with Bill Skarsgård, the man who brilliantly portrayed Pennywise
00:08 the Dancing Clown in It.
00:10 Skarsgård looks a little different without his grease paint on.
00:24 In fact, he's actually a bit of a heartthrob.
00:26 "You're kind of getting the rep as the hot clown.
00:29 What's it been like getting that response from fans online?"
00:31 "I don't know if I'm very hot in the film.
00:33 I hope not."
00:34 This isn't a big surprise, since he comes from a family of talented hotties.
00:38 His dad, Stellan Skarsgård, was most recently the horrifying Baron Harkonnen in Dune.
00:44 "Kill them all."
00:45 Stellan is a major Hollywood actor, with roles in everything from Good Will Hunting to Thor.
00:51 Bill's brother, Alexander, also starred in a Stephen King adaptation as Randall Flagg
00:56 in the CBS miniseries The Stand, though he's probably more famous for playing Eric the
01:01 Vampire in True Blood.
01:03 "Pam, Chow.
01:04 I thought in over a thousand years I'd seen everything there was to see."
01:10 His two other brothers are actors as well.
01:13 Gustaf played the legendary boat builder Floki in the hit show Vikings, while Valter has
01:18 appeared in lesser-known horror films like Lords of Chaos.
01:22 Bill started his career at the age of 9, and by the time he was 21, he had been given
01:26 the European Film Academy's Shooting Star Award to represent young performers from his
01:31 native Sweden.
01:32 His first major American film role was as Matthew in the Divergent series Allegiant
01:37 in 2016.
01:39 Only one year later, he would scare the pants off of audiences everywhere as Pennywise in
01:44 It Chapter One.
01:46 "Hiya, Georgie.
01:48 What a nice boat."
01:52 Pennywise is the embodiment of an ancient cosmic evil that preys upon the children of
01:56 Derry, Maine, roughly every 27 years.
01:59 He first appeared in Stephen King's 1986 horror novel It, before being played by Tim Curry
02:05 in the 1990 TV miniseries.
02:07 "Take your pick.
02:09 Billy boy."
02:12 Almost three decades later, Skarsgård assumed the iconic role for the movie adaptations.
02:18 He has the ability to shapeshift, change the way reality appears, and hang out in nightmares.
02:23 The scariest part?
02:24 Adults can't see him, so they aren't going to believe any of the kids who share their
02:28 terrifying stories.
02:30 In It, Pennywise draws the attention of the Losers Club, a group of kids in Derry, when
02:34 he brutally kills Bill's younger brother, Georgie.
02:38 Pennywise feeds on children both physically and metaphorically, their fear feeding him
02:42 just as much as Georgie's tasty arm.
02:45 "Ahhhhhh!"
02:47 Skarsgård really put his all into playing the evil entity.
02:52 In an interview with The New York Times, the actor explained,
02:55 "Normally, when you do a movie, you have those mundane days when it's like, 'Today's the
02:59 scene where I get coffee.'
03:00 With this character, there were none of those.
03:03 Everything I did took 100 percent of my energy.
03:06 It was by far the most exhausting character I've ever done, physically and mentally."
03:12 A big part of that energy was the physicality of Pennywise, which involved lots of big,
03:16 strange movements.
03:18 He also smiles in a bizarre way, pointing his lower lip downward to create a menacing
03:23 grin.
03:24 "And action.
03:27 Yeah, that's beautiful."
03:30 The coolest bit, though, is that Skarsgård can move his eyes independently, so that wild
03:35 reverse cross-eye effect is real.
03:38 Real enough, in fact, that he famously gave co-star Bill Hader a big scare on set.
03:44 Hader wasn't the only co-star Skarsgård spooked.
03:47 While he had a lot of fun terrorizing his child co-stars, he also worried that he might
03:51 be traumatizing them a little.
03:53 To make sure the kids had genuine reactions to Pennywise, director Andy Muschietti made
03:57 sure to keep them separate until filming started.
04:00 As a result, the first time they were all acting together, things felt a little too
04:03 real.
04:04 "He's so crazy, so carefree, that it makes it even scarier, because he doesn't have to
04:08 try to sound scary."
04:09 Skarsgård told Dazed that during filming, he walked into the scene, in character, where
04:14 a bunch of the kid actors were sitting.
04:16 Muschietti told him to grab one of the kids and walk offscreen.
04:20 When Skarsgård grabbed a kid, he screamed "bloody murder," and Muschietti told Skarsgård
04:24 to go for a different kid, trying to find one that wasn't quite so scared.
04:29 Skarsgård explains, "It was weird because as soon as they said 'cut,' some kids were
04:33 very shaken up about it.
04:34 I tried to be like, 'Oh, I'm just an actor, this is just pretend,' and they kind of looked
04:38 at me very suspiciously."
04:40 He went on to say, "It just hit me that it's this strange thing.
04:43 If I do my job right, and I'm as terrifying as I want the character to be, there are going
04:48 to be a lot of people that have this kind of reaction to the performance and the film.
04:52 It's a strange thing to have to deal with."
04:54 "Gotcha!
04:55 You filthy little children!"
04:59 The actor was especially worried about his more intense scenes, like the one where he
05:03 gets in Jack Dylan Grazer's face.
05:06 "Tasty, tasty, beautiful fear."
05:13 Skarsgård was worried he had truly shaken his co-star.
05:15 Instead, Grazer told him how much he loved what Skarsgård was doing.
05:20 Skarsgård said of him,
05:21 "He's turned on a dime, and I'm like, 'What are you?'
05:25 They're like little professionals."
05:27 In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Skarsgård said that playing a character in
05:31 a movie was a lot like being in a relationship with them.
05:34 He describes himself as going into a relationship with Pennywise, figuring out who he is, and
05:39 devoting time and effort to this other person, or in this case, this thing.
05:44 "This isn't real enough for you, Billy.
05:47 I'm not real enough for you."
05:49 It started taking its toll, in ways he didn't exactly notice himself.
05:53 He said,
05:54 "It's just like being in a very destructive relationship.
05:57 People don't really realize it until they're out of it.
05:59 All your friends go, 'You need to dump this piece of s---.
06:02 He or she is destroying your life.'
06:04 And then once you're out of it, you see, 'I was so miserable.'
06:07 But I wouldn't say I was miserable doing Pennywise, because I had a lot of fun with it as well."
06:12 Skarsgård didn't have to worry about actually dialing up the sewer-dwelling serial killer,
06:17 but it was all too easy for him to think like Pennywise.
06:20 "27 years I've dreamt about you.
06:25 I craved you.
06:27 I've missed you."
06:29 When he finished filming Chapter 1, he returned to his childhood home in Sweden, and realized
06:34 he didn't have to deal with the character's inner workings anymore — at least until
06:37 he would have to go back for Chapter 2.
06:39 He said that not having to think about Pennywise anymore was like an exorcism.
06:43 "We'll float down here.
06:46 Yes, we do."
06:48 Except if it was a real exorcism, Pennywise wouldn't keep showing up in Skarsgård's dreams.
06:53 He told Entertainment Weekly that Pennywise continued to visit him long after filming
06:57 wrapped.
06:58 He said,
06:59 "I was home, done with the movie, and I started having very strange and vivid Pennywise dreams.
07:04 Every night he came and visited."
07:06 Everyone's had dreams where they're naked in public or their teeth fall out, but turning
07:10 into Pennywise in the middle of Starbucks sounds like a special kind of night terror.
07:16 "She won't grow up."
07:25 (upbeat music)
07:27 (upbeat music)