Bill Skarsgård is an incredibly talented actor. All the standard reasons are there. He’s present, expressive, reserved when necessary and always listening. Those are traits any good actor will need to succeed. The thing Skarsgård has that many other actors don’t is that he can get really creepy. He can morph and change his face and contort his body in ways that lend themselves perfectly to, say, an ageless clown monster who is tormenting children so IT can feast on their fear!
I loved Skarsgård’s take on Pennywise the Dancing Clown. I have yet to see Nosferatu (my family’s been sick this last week, cut me some slack) but I have a feeling I’ll love that interpretation as well. Skarsgård knows how to bring an otherworldly quality to his monsters. They feel like they come from somewhere deep in the darkness of space which is also tapped into our imaginations. It’s insane stuff, and soon, we’re going to get more of it!
Skarsgård will be reprising the role of Pennywise in the MAX show IT: Welcome To Derry. I withheld my excitement when the show was first announced, as it felt like it would be another in a long line of “shows and movies about the character you love but without the character you love” that have been produced ad nauseam in recent years. Instead, Bill (we’re close) will don the makeup and tattered suit again and do that eyeball trick, drool, and all that great stuff. It’s even more exciting knowing that Skarsgård thought he had put the clown behind him.
The actor recently sat down with the Happy Sad Confused podcast and Pennywise came up because, as Skarsgård mentions, IT is “always there.” Regardless, he thought he had moved on. “I felt like I was done with it in a way. It was also because I was shooting this, I was doing Orlok, and to me it just felt like, ‘OK, this is the nail in the coffin on my monster roles.’ Pun intended,” he explained about working on Nosferatu. “So I did feel like I was kind of over it and wanted to do different things.”
It didn’t help that Pennywise is so linked to the actor now. “And of course, the Pennywise thing as well, I’ve been quite defined by it,” he noted. But, Skarsgård met creators Andy and Barbara Muschietti and they managed to reel him back in. “And I love them, they’re very close friends, family even. I’m the godfather of his son. So I love them,” he said on the pod. “So I was like, ‘All right, let’s bring him back.’”
Skarsgård’s presence on the show does not guarantee success, but it should make it fun to watch, at least. Hopefully, the story or interpretation is strong. But, as someone who loved IT: Chapter 2 even more than the first (never backing down from that), I have a feeling that this team will once again bring the juice.