A person might transform for certain movie roles. When you portray someone like the deadly Pennywise the dancing clown from “It,” pretending to be someone else for the duration of a movie shoot might cause that person to enter your thoughts, which is a little frightening. The white and red greasepaint was applied by actor Bill Skarsgrd not only once, but twice for the films “It: Chapter One” and “It: Chapter Two.” Despite receiving praise for his portrayal from both reviewers and fans, Skarsgrd hasn’t been the same since he played Pennywise.
See, Skarsgrd is a little bit too proficient at his work. In addition to having to worry about terrifying his cast members, he spent so much time in Pennywise’s head that the figure began appearing in his dreams. Like he does in the movies, you know. That would be enough to give anyone a slight sense of unease.
A Bit About Bill
When Skarsgrd is not covered in greasepaint, he appears somewhat different. He comes from a family of attractive hotties, so it’s hardly surprising that he’s a bit of a heartthrob. Most recently, his father, Stellan Skarsgrd, played the terrifying Baron Harkonnen in “Dune.” Stellan is a well-known Hollywood actor who has been in everything from “Mama Mia!” to “Thor.” While he is better known for his role as Eric the vampire in “True Blood,” Bill’s brother Alexander also acted in a Stephen King adaption as Randall Flagg in the CBS miniseries “The Stand.” Gustaf and Valter, brothers who are also performers, are a little less well-known in the United States than Stellan or Alexander.
At the age of nine, Skarsgrd began his career, and by the time he was 21, he had won the European Film Academy’s Shooting Star prize for young actors from his native Sweden. In “The Divergent Series: Allegiant” in 2016, he played Matthew, which was his first significant American cinema role. He would terrorise audiences worldwide as Pennywise in filmmaker Andy Muschetti’s “It: Chapter One” just a year later.
Getting Into the Mind of a Killer Clown
Approximately every 27 years, the children of Derry, Maine, are preyed upon by Pennywise, the personification of a primordial cosmic evil, according to Warner Bros. He first appears in Stephen King’s horror novel “It” from 1986. Tim Curry portrayed him in the 1990 TV miniseries, and subsequently Alexander Skarsgrd played him in the film versions. He can alter reality’s appearance, shape-shift, and hang around in nightmares. The scariest aspect? Adults won’t believe any of the children who tell them scary tales since they can’t see him.
When Pennywise viciously murders Bill’s younger brother Georgie in “It,” dragging him into the sewers, he attracts the attention of the “Loser’s Club,” a group of children in Derry. Children are both literally and figuratively the food that Pennywise eats, and their fear is just as important to him as Georgie’s delectable arm.
Skarsgrd gave his performance as the evil force his all. The actor explained in an interview with The New York Times:
“Typically, when making a movie, there are those routine days when you have to act out the scene where you get coffee. There was none of those with this character. I gave everything I did all of my energy. It was by far the physically and intellectually taxing character I’ve ever played.”
A significant portion of such intensity came from Pennywise’s physicality, which included numerous large, peculiar motions.
Additionally, he makes an odd smile while slanting his lower lip downward in a frightening grimace. The most impressive aspect is that Skarsgrd can independently move each eye, making the bizarre reverse cross-eye effect true. He was so genuine that he famously caused co-star Bill Hader a serious scare when they were filming.
He Scared the Crud Out of His Co-stars
Skarsgrd’s other co-star Hader was also frightened. While he enjoyed terrifying his young co-stars, he was also concerned that he could be slightly scarring them. Andy Muschetti, the filmmaker, made sure to keep the children apart until the filming began to ensure that they responded to Pennywise in a genuine way. As a result, when they all acted together for the first time, everything seemed a touch too genuine.
Skarsgrd revealed to Dazed that he entered the scene while acting as himself and sat down among the child players.
Muschetti instructed him to take a child and leave the scene.
Skarsgrd grabbed a child and screamed horrible murder, so Muschetti urged him to go for another child in an effort to find one who wasn’t nearly as scarred.
“It was strange since several youngsters were visibly disturbed as soon as they called “cut.” They kind of looked at me very suspiciously when I tried to say, “Oh, I’m just an actress, this is just pretend.” It suddenly dawned on me that there will likely be many viewers who will respond to the performance and the movie in this way if I do my job well and am as terrifying as I intend the character to be. It’s strange having to cope with it.”
The actor concerned particularly about some of his more intense moments, such as one with Jack Dylan Grazer in which Skarsgrd shouts over him while drooling and shivering.
Skarsgrd was concerned for a brief period that he had seriously rattled his co-star Grazer after hearing him sob, cry, and scream.
Instead, Grazer expressed his enthusiasm for what Skarsgrd was doing.
“He made a sudden turn, and I asked, “What are you?” They resemble young professionals “Skarsgrd remarked .
Playing Pennywise was like “Being in a Destructive Relationship”
Skarsgrd remarked that being a character in a movie was similar to being in a relationship with them in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. In his own words, he defines himself as entering into a relationship with Pennywise, coming to terms with who he is, and putting time and effort into this other person—or in this case, this thing. It began to wear on him in ways he wasn’t particularly aware of:
“It’s like to being in an extremely harmful relationship. When someone is out of it, they finally realise it. Your buddies are telling you to get rid of this jerk since they are ruining your life. Once you’ve recovered, you’ll realise “I was so miserable.” However, I wouldn’t say that performing Pennywise was a bad experience for me because I also had a tonne of fun.”
He obviously enjoyed playing the part because he offered to return for a third edition in 2019. However, anyone who has had a bad ex will understand how challenging it can be to move on. Imagine having to fight the impulse to call a murderous dancing clown on the phone while intoxicated.
Pennywise Still Haunts Skarsgård’s Dreams
Although Warner Bros. Skarsgrd didn’t have to worry about calling the serial murderer who lived in the sewers, it was all too simple for him to adopt Pennywise’s mentality.
After finishing “Chapter One,” he visited his childhood home in Sweden and felt he was free of the character’s inner struggles, at least until he had to return for “Chapter Two.” He claimed that getting rid of the memory of Pennywise was like “an exorcism.”
Except Pennywise wouldn’t keep appearing in Skarsgrd’s dreams if it was a genuine exorcism. After the filming was over, he claimed to Entertainment Weekly that Pennywise kept coming to see him:
“After watching the movie and returning home, I suddenly began to get incredibly bizarre and intense Pennywise dreams. He came and visited each night. It took the form of either me interacting with him, Pennywise acting somewhat independently of me, or myself acting in ways that I didn’t enjoy as Pennywise. Pennywise, for example, is really unhappy that people are staring at her while she is out in public.”
Everyone has experienced dreams in which their teeth fall out or they are exposed in public, but becoming Pennywise in the midst of a Starbucks seems like a unique kind of nightmare.
