Pennywise IT

If you’ve been unsure about the choice of Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise in the upcoming adaptation of ‘It‘ then you might want to hear the reasons straight from director Andy Muschietti. The director has made it clear that when it comes to the miniseries that he feels it was “a very watered-down version” and “didn’t contain the darkness that the book had.” If they “couldn’t make something for TV about a clown who eats children” how does that play into the Pennywise that we’ll be seeing?

Well, Skarsgard was a conscious choice in that Muschietti didn’t want to try and mimic Tim Curry whose performance he did enjoy:

“I wanted to stay true to the essence of the character. I knew that I didn’t want to go the road of Tim Curry [who played Pennywise in the TV miniseries]. Bill Skarsgard caught my attention. The character has a childish and sweet demeanor, but there’s something very off about him. Bill has that balance in him. He can be sweet and cute, but he can be pretty disturbing.”

When it came to Skarsgard interacting with the children, Muschietti actually tried to keep him in character around them at all times and when he wasn’t, he was kept away from the child actors:

“He didn’t stay in character when the camera stopped, but we did try to maintain distance between him and the kids. We wanted to carry the impact of the encounters to when the cameras were rolling. The first scene where Bill interacted with the children, it was fun to see how the plan worked. The kids were really, really creeped out by Bill. He’s pretty intimidating because he’s six-four and has all this makeup.”

We already know that while in character Bill had tormented the kids and that “some of these kids got terrified and started to cry in the middle of the take.” Talk about a rough start to filming in some of these cases.

Do you feel that Skarsgard is a good choice for Pennywise with what Andy Muschietti has shared? Is an R-Rated ‘It’ potentially something that could give you enjoyment even with how much you may have loved Curry’s take on the iconic clown? Share your thoughts below!

Source: Variety