Pennywise Actor Talks Returning for IT: Chapter 2

Pennywise the Dancing Clown is set to terrorize audiences later this week in IT: Chapter 2. To celebrate the release of the conclusion to the Pennywise saga, the killer clown himself, Bill Skarsgård, talked with Entertainment Weekly about what it was like returning to the role after two years. Skarsgård famously said that filming the first IT movie took a toll on him both physically and psychologically, so much so that when he first began shooting the second film, he wasn’t sure that he’d be able to bring the character back to his previous glory.

The actor said that originally, he thought that his first shoot for the new film was just a motion capture test and was surprised when director Andy Muschietti actually wanted him to perform as the character. Thankfully, Skarsgård was able to bring Pennywise back just fine. The actor later told reporters that the VFX team managing the scene were a little frightened of him, having never seen him portray the demonic clown live.

Skarsgård is scaring more than just the film’s VFX team. IT began making headlines last week when a group of parents in Brisbane, Australia complained to Ad Standards, a government agency, that billboards and promotional material from the film were scaring their children. One mother in particular said that a billboard with the demonic Pennywise grinning near her home has terrified her daughter, who wakes up each night with nightmares. Thus far, Ad Standards says that there is nothing they can do to remove the billboards as they comply with standards set by the organization.

Warner Bros. is predicted to make a large sum of money off the horror blockbuster. After a lackluster summer at the box office, current tracking estimates that IT: Chapter 2 will make between $85 million and $100 million in its opening weekend. The first part in the IT series finished its theatrical run with over $700 million, the largest box office haul for any film in the horror genre. Critical response to the film has also thus far been positive. Although talking negatively of the film’s near three-hour runtime, critics say that the new movie provides a satisfactory conclusion to the story started in the 2017 original.

IT: Chapter 2 hits theaters on September 6.