Bill Skarsgard gives a terrifying new take on the shapeshifting Pennywise in the latest
adaptation of Stephen King's best-selling novel IT about a group of young misfits terrorised
by an evil presence in their town.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, it's Jan here, and today I'm going to take you behind the
scenes of the new big-screen version of IT and reveal some freaky facts and intriguing
secrets about the making of the movie.
I'm also kicking off a new Funko Pop giveaway on this video.
All you have to do is be a subscriber to my channel and comment on the movie below for
a chance to win.
Believe it or not, babies were the inspiration behind the movie's menacing clown.
Yes, right from the start, director Andy Muschietti knew he wanted his version of Pennywise to
have a baby-faced appearance with big eyes and apple cheeks as he felt the contrast of
the character's child-like features and his terrifying behaviour would make him all the
more disturbing.
Giving Skarsgard his full-on Pennywise face took around five hours in initial make-up
tests, but they managed to get that down to around two and a half hours during filming.
That included applying razor-sharp teeth, prosthetic pieces for his cheeks, and an enlarged
skull which the special effects make-up artists who crafted it described as a 'gigantic cracked
melon'.
Speaking of teeth, the prosthetics that Skarsgard wore led to a build-up of drool, so they decided
to embrace that as a feature of his character and threw in some extra special effects slime
too for good measure.
To really push the idea of Pennywise's child-like creepiness even further, the film uses a traditional
English nursery rhyme called Oranges And Lemons as his musical theme.
The song dates back to at least the 18th-century and, despite its playful sing-song surface,
its lyrics have dark connotations and may be linked to public executions or child sacrifice,
making it the perfect theme for Pennywise.
When it came to creating Pennywise's peepers, Skarsgard's blue eyes were turned yellow in
post-production.
But director Andy Muschietti didn't have to resort to visual effects to produce the wall-eyed
look he wanted for the dancing clown because Bill Skarsgard has 'a bit of a lazy [left]
eye'.
Which means that the Swedish actor was actually able to make Pennywise's eyes point in different
directions all by himself.
As Skarsgard told Dazed magazine, all he had to do was simply relax the muscle in his left
eye to make that eye go out and become wall-eyed.
As for Pennywise's clown suit, the director wanted to avoid what he thought of as the
cheap look of 20th-century clown costumes.
Instead, his instinctive choice was for a costume that reflected more of a bygone era,
so to highlight the fact that Pennywise has been terrorising the inhabitants of Derry,
Maine for an incredibly long time, his suit combines features from the Middles Ages and
the Renaissance, as well as Elizabethan and Victorian periods.
And that child-like freakiness of the character is highlighted once again by what the movie's
costume designer has called the 'doll-like quality of his costume'; while the washed-out
colouring of his clothes 'makes him almost like a shadow'.
While Bill Skarsgard hopes his take on Pennywise will 'scare a whole generation' just as Tim
Curry did in the 1990 TV mini-series, the Swedish actor has already experienced the
clown stalking his own sleep.
At home in Stockholm after filming had finished, Skarsgard had recurring visions of Pennywise
in his dreams for two weeks.
Speaking to Empire magazine, Skarsgard said that in the dreams, 'I was [Pennywise], but
I was in the wrong setting, somehow.
I was upset that people could see my face.
It was surreal.'
The first time the movie's young stars actually saw Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise was about
a month into the shoot during a scene they filmed together where he creeps out of a fridge.
The filmmakers decided to keep Pennywise hidden away from the young actors until the last
possible moment as they wanted to create a real feeling of tension so their initial reactions
were as fresh and authentic as possible.
For some of the actors who play the pre-teen members of the Losers' Club, bringing to life
their characters required some extra training, not in acting, but in how to ride a bike.
According to one of the movie's producers, some of the young leads weren't so hot when
it came to pedal power, so to make sure they looked like naturals when it came to cycling
on screen, they were given lessons.
In fact, that was just one part of the three weeks the young cast spent together getting
to know each other before filming began.
The idea was for them to establish the kind of bond they needed to portray on camera so
they spent lots of time outdoors, swimming, riding bikes, and playing practical jokes
on each other, as well as having movie nights and karaoke sessions.
On top of that, because the film is set in the 1980s, one of the producers also made
the young actors an "Intro to the 80s" booklet, with facts about movies, music, and video
games, as well as how people talked and the clothes they wore.
Though I'm guessing that Finn Wolfhard already knew his 80s stuff thanks to his starring
role in Stranger Things.
Fans of Stephen King's novel will likely be pleased to see the dilapidated house at 29
Neibolt Street make an appearance in the new movie.
To create the infamous locale, the filmmakers used two different settings.
First, they built the exterior of the house from scratch on a vacant lot in Oshawa, Canada.
And to get the right aged and run-down appearance, the design team burned and pressure-washed
new timber, then painted it silver-grey.
As for that gnarled and twisted tree you can see in front of the house, that actually started
out life in a neighbour's garden.
On their way to work one day, a member of the movie's crew spotted the tree and thought
it looked perfect for filming, so they negotiated with the tree's owner and nabbed it for the
shoot!
As for the interior of the house, that was shot in an existing home whose owner gave
the crew carte blanche to make changes to creep the place up for filming.
Those changes included exposing the home's original Victorian details, coating the walls
with crumbling plaster, poking vines and dead leaves through broken windows, covering other
windows with specially-made Victorian-era newspapers, and generally filling the place
with dirt.
Now, if you've seen the movie, what do you think of it?
And what were your best and worst moments from the film?
Let me know in the comments below and also don't forget to subscribe for your chance
to win an awesome Pennywise Funko Pop.
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you don't miss it!
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Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!