Even if Bill Skarsgård ends up being the perfect Pennywise, no one will ever forget Tim Curry‘s performance as the demonic clown in the ‘It‘ TV miniseries. Now, after all these years, we’ve learned that Curry was as disappointed at the ending of the miniseries as anyone watching it today would have been. Curry caused a phobia of clowns to sweep across the nation so to learn that he didn’t love the way the movie closed somehow feels right.
When talking about the final scenes of the film where the miniseries tried to follow the novel and turn Pennywise into a shape-shifting spider creature, Curry says:
“I was very disappointed by the ending when I turned into a rather unconvincing spider. But some people are obsessed with Pennywise. I went out to dinner last night, and I’m currently in a wheelchair because I had a stroke five years ago. And a guy saw me and stood up and said, “I’ve seen the original Pennywise!” And I said, “Well, good for you.” I think whatever scares the pants off you when you’re a child is an image that always stays with you.”
I won’t lie, while I love many of Curry’s performances from ‘Clue’ to ‘The Hunt for Red October’ and hear his voice quite commonly from my kid’s watching ‘Transformers: Rescue Bots,’ it will be Pennywise that I think of first when it comes to the actor. Yes, folks, even more than Dr. Frank-N-Furter in ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show.’
After his stupendous performance in the series and the lack of special effects to put together the spider, this response isn’t too surprising. Curry’s performance was masterful but it ended up feeling cheesy. This isn’t even a product of the time, but the budget available. The actor makes it clear that it wasn’t the story that took away his enjoyment as he loved the novel!
“I’d read most of his books before doing It; he’s such a great storyteller. I love that he is more likely to quote Springsteen than Shakespeare. He’s got a great sense of how children think and speak. And a feeling for landscapes. I think he knows that everyone is vulnerable to something.”
In fact, he did such a good job that he even ended up scaring the kids on set which we’ve learned Skarsgard has also recently done and points to be a good sign for the future of Pennywise:
“I read It when I got the role, and I thought it was wonderfully scary because clowns are scary. It’s the exaggeration. Pennywise always understood what each character was scared of, and provided it. And I could see what fun it would be to be that scary. They came up with such a great makeup. There’s the classic scene where little Georgie floats his paper boat down the gutter and puts his hand down to try and get it back, and is grabbed by Pennywise, who says: “Down here we float …” The boy playing Georgie [Tony Dakota] yanked his hand away and said, “You’re scaring me!” I said, “I’m sorry, I’m supposed to.””
I think that budgetary shortcomings not being a problem, modern storytelling, and a solid performance are going to end up making the new take on Pennywise just as effective as the original. Not only that, but I believe the where much of the rest of the miniseries fell short won’t be an issue here.
What did you think of the spider at the end of the original ‘It’? Will we have better closure this time around? Share your thoughts below!
Source: The Guardian
