Interview with actor Bill Skarsgård: about squint, housing and roles

A creepy clown and a smiling handsome man, actor Bill Skarsgård has given the world more than one colorful role and has no plans to stop working on dark characters. We talk about a wonderful guy who continues the traditions of the clan and his creative interests.

Bill Skarsgård on family and home:

I'm homeless

– says Bill Skarsgård in an interview with Mr Porter.

The famous actor does not have a permanent home, car or even furniture. He lives with a suitcase in his hand and travels his entire adult life.

Even scarier: Bill Skarsgård wants to make an It prequel

The premiere of the second part of “It” took place a few days ago, and the film has already earned about $100 million at the domestic box office. And although this amount is less than the creators expected, the horror film could count on a third part. In a recent interview, Bill Skarsgård explained why a prequel has a right to exist and assured that he is ready to return to the role of Pennywise.

The dancing clown Pennywise, performed by the 29-year-old actor, fell in love with millions of viewers who would like to see him again on the big screens. Skarsgård himself is not against returning, but the problem is that in the second film, members of the Losers' Club defeated It.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Bill Skarsgård admitted that he would probably agree to play Pennywise the clown in a hypothetical horror film It 3. But only if the story turns out to be interesting, and the actor himself has something to offer the audience and fans of Stephen King.

The actor noted that the book ends where the second film ends, so this is the final chapter of the story. The continuation must be approached with all responsibility. In his opinion, the creators can show in the prequel what happened before the main events. There might be a time travel story worth telling. Maybe it will be a plot that is not in the book, but it will take place in the same universe. Skarsgård suggested that something interesting could come of this.

The director of the film, Andres Muschietti, also agreed with Bill Skarsgård, who meanwhile, in an interview with i09, noted that the “It” universe is actually rich in events. Its mythology goes back millions of years.

Let's remember that It is the name of a multi-dimensional evil that simply takes the form of Pennywise the clown in King's films and books. It communicated with people for many centuries, every 27 years. Therefore, Muschietti emphasized the amount of potential material.

People who are at least somewhat familiar with the work of the king of horror are aware that “It” is a large-scale novel that does not imply a sequel. And the only thing Warner Bros. could do. - this is to divide the book into two parts so that the film adaptation turns out to be as close as possible to the original.

However, Stephen King can easily present a surprise even at the age of 71: he once greatly surprised fans by writing the sequel to The Shining - Doctor Sleep. We'll find out how this approach works at the end of October, when Mike Flanagan's adaptation hits the big screen in 2021.

With "It 3" everything is much more complicated. If you write or film the backstory of Pennywise’s antics, it will be a repetition of what has been covered and an excursion “to the places of military glory.” Still, the villainous image itself is not the most profound, and his methods of intimidation are mostly monotonous. And will the third part work? The studio's previous experience in building a scary cinematic universe - "The Conjuring" - proves that the effect can be positive, but only temporarily. Then viewers simply get tired of the same type and very average horror films.

Theoretically, a sequel to It could appear on screens, but so far the creators have no plans for a third film.

For now, viewers can appreciate “It 2,” which, according to critics, could not surpass the first part. The second part started at the box office a little worse than the first, however, if you take the original out of the equation, it still showed the best start in the genre. The film earned $131 million in its opening weekend, compared to the original's $179 million.

Recall that the first It film grossed $700 million worldwide.

About the beginning of an acting career:

Despite the fact that Bill Skarsgård's first appearance on the screens took place when he was 10 years old, he did not try very hard to get into this business:

I came to acting really late because I didn’t want people to say, “Yeah, another one, he was fed with a silver spoon – of course he’s an actor.” I still struggle with this. Every time I go to a casting, I get asked, “So, Bill, do you really want to be an actor?”

The first role for which Bill Skarsgård received a serious award was the film Simple Simon, in which he played a guy with Asperger's syndrome.

While his older brother, True Blood and Big Little Lies star Alexander Skarsgård, was gaining international recognition, Bill was until recently known only for his role in Hemlock Grove, where he played the frightening heir to a wealthy family. The thriller It, released last year, completely turned his acting career around.

Bill Skarsgård: “Pennywise seems to be afraid of children”

It has awakened again, and the grown-up members of the Losers' Club (Beverly is now played by Jessica Chastain, Bill by James McAvoy, Mike by Isaiah Mustafa, Ben by Jay Ryan, Eddie by James Ransone, Stanley by Andy Bean, and Richie by Bill Hader) return to his hometown of Derry for the final showdown with Pennywise the Clown (Bill Skarsgård). The second part of the film adaptation of Stephen King's novel is already in cinemas, and we continue to prepare you for the most unexpected (judging by the words of director Muschietti, there will be many surprises in the sequel). By the way, you can read a report from the film’s set here.

- Bill, let's start with you. Was it difficult to return to the role of the dancing clown? Or did filming Castle Rock keep you on the King wave?

Bill Skarsgård : Pennywise is no longer the dancing clown, he quit dancing! But I always forget about the character immediately after filming. I lived with Pennywise for four or five months, but the morning after the final shoot I packed my things, flew home, and the next morning I didn’t have to think about him anymore.

- But he was thinking about you!

Bill Skarsgård : Yes! And it's so strange! I was at home in Europe, suffering from jet lag, and having some very strange dreams that are hard to describe. Sometimes it seemed to me that I was Pennywise and in his guise I was walking around Stockholm. I clearly remember that I was upset by this and thought: “I can’t be seen like this! They can't see me in makeup! This will ruin the whole mess of the film!” In other dreams, I saw Pennywise separately from me, as an independent creature. But he didn’t scare me, I even liked him.

— Andy, what instructions did you give Bill about the role? After all, Pennywise is not human.

Andres Muschietti: The main thing we wanted to achieve was absolute unpredictability. And Bill surprised even me!

— “The Losers’ Club” has changed over 27 years, the children have grown up. Is Pennywise still the same?

Bill Skarsgård: When we started filming the sequel, we talked a lot about it. After all, Pennywise was almost defeated in the first film and is now returning to take revenge. He is angry, but perhaps subconsciously wants to be completely destroyed. So, it seemed to me that it would be even more interesting!

- Barbara, do you also think that Pennywise is striving for self-destruction?

Barbara Muschietti : When I first read It at age 15, I didn't notice one page—just one in a 1,392-page book—that tells the story from Pennywise's point of view. And there he very clearly says that all he wants is to eat and sleep. And these bastards come and disturb his peace!

Bill Skarsgard: If you watch It carefully, you will notice that Pennywise himself seems to be afraid of children. He wants to eat and sleep, wants to be left alone, he is a hostage to his habits. But we thought: can Pennywise be such a weakling? What kind of villain is he then?! And then we decided to replay everything. Our Pennywise is waiting for the children to return; he likes to play a sophisticated game with them. Yes, maybe there is something suicidal in this, but he is glad that the Losers Club is back, he needs them.

— Bill, how much has your game changed in the second part? How different are the fears of adults from the fears of children?

Bill Skarsgård: My job is not to scare the actors, but to scare the characters. Yes, they got older, but they never got rid of their childhood fears, and in adult life they are not, thank God, full of complexes. Pennywise looks at them and thinks: "I know you, deep down you're a scared little kid!" He doesn't see them as adults.

Barbara Muschietti : Scars always become a part of you. For me, this is the main message of the film: you cannot end your life with dignity without getting rid of emotional trauma. Our heroes meet theirs 27 years later, having plucked up their courage. Well, Pennywise is a master of his craft, he knows how to use their weak points.

— Andy, how did you manage to get Peter Bogdanovich and Xavier Dolan, who appear in the film in a cameo?

Andres Muschietti: You forgot about King. Stephen also appears in the frame . I'm very ambitious when it comes to cameos. As a director, this is what I excel at the most! Stephen King is my hero, I grew up reading his books, and when I got to know him in person, I realized that he was a very funny and nice guy, and I offered him a cameo. He immediately warned me that he was bringing bad luck. Every film he appeared in failed at the box office. To which I replied: we’ll try anyway, most likely everything will be fine! I like to make movies that aren't supposed to be funny, even funny. That's why It 2 is practically a comedy with dismemberment.

Peter Bogdanovich is another hero of my childhood. I was lucky to get him! Just like Xavier Dolan, however, he is from a completely different generation. I also really wanted to include Guillermo del Toro in the film, and we were so close to it! He was supposed to play the janitor at the school that Bill encounters. And if Guillermo had been able to, this scene would have lasted five minutes longer.

Bonus: The kids from It write to the adults from It 2

To make the work of the actors playing the grown-up members of the Losers' Club in the sequel easier, the teenagers who played in the first It part wrote letters to them. A summary of these messages was retold to KinoPoisk by Finn Wolfhard, Jaeden Martell, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis and Jack Dylan Grazer.

Finn Wolfhard (Richie): “Bill Hader is so cool that it would be strange for me to give him advice. Well, only if he asked himself. Although he, however, discussed the role with me when our schedules on the set intersected (actors from the first film appear in the sequel in flashback scenes. - Ed.). Bill has such an amazing talent as a mime, he imitates other people so well, that I can’t wait to see what he noticed in my acting and how he reproduced it in the film .”

Jaeden Martell (Bill): “Bill is haunted by guilt over his brother's death, so I wanted him to stop living with that feeling, to accept the loss and become confident in himself.”

Jeremy Ray Taylor (Ben): “Ben’s relationship with Beverly is very important, so when I wrote a letter to Jay (Ryan - Ed.), I told him how much Ben loves Beverly and that he was even very upset by the fact that these feelings are unrequited. He will do anything for her!”

Sophia Lillis (Beverly): “I don’t even remember what I wrote. But I think I was trying to convey to Jessica Chastain how important her friendship with the “Losers Club” is for my heroine. After meeting them, Beverly realized that there was something more to life than her abusive father, that there were people who truly loved her.”

Jack Dylan Grazer (Eddie): “I wrote something like, ‘I hope that when you grow up, you become famous!’” (Laughs.)

Bill Skarsgård on working in It:

It is almost impossible to recognize him behind his clown makeup, and Bill is very happy about this. He always loved to dress up: as a child, he spent a lot of time with his father on film sets and watched adults dress up as different characters and pretend to be other people, and then get paid for it. His father himself calls him cute, which he sees as the key to Bill’s success:

You know, you have to be a very nice person to play a real monster!

In pre-production, Skarsgård sought to explore the fractured nature behind the clown himself.

Pennywise, the form the entity uses, is a manifestation of childhood fears. This made him much more strange and unpredictable.

The filming cast deliberately did not show Bill's children in full image so that their first meeting in the film would look natural. Although they saw Skarsgard at the script reading, their horror was very real - these takes were included in the film.

I have a slight squint, and if I relax the muscles in my eye, my left eye seems to glaze over. We thought it would be cool to use this in the film, so throughout the film Pennywise's eyes point in two different directions.

This is Bill Skarsgård's biggest role to date, but we bet he'll become even more famous. He has long outgrown the Swedish film industry and also has several excellent TV series under his belt. This year, Bill will appear in another Stephen King film, Castle Rock, and Murder of a Nation with his participation will also be released soon. Skarsgard calls the script for this work amazing, because it talks about our time and what it means to be a young girl in the modern world.

What do we know about Bill Skarsgård: 12 facts about the scariest clown of our time

Bill Skarsgard
09/16/2017Olga Belik Actually, Bill Skarsgard is very nice.

The new film adaptation of Stephen King's is breaking box office records around the world. Last but not least, thanks to the truly creepy clown Pennywise, played by Bill Skarsgar . When the actor came to the premiere, many were amazed at how cute he was in real life. We tell you all the most important things about this sweet man - meet him!

1. Skarsgard clan

Bill is another son of the famous Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard , and the brother of actors Alexander Skarsgard (“True Blood”) and Gustaf Skarsgard (“Vikings”). The Skarsgård acting clan also includes Sam and Walter, but they are not yet widely known to the world.

gustaf, bill and troll Alexander at the premiere of “It”

2. He's not Skarsgård

In fact, Bill's last name (and Stellan's, and Alexander's, and Gustaf's) is pronounced "Skashgod". But we pronounce it in the English manner, along with the whole world. The clan reconciled.

3. Short Bill

Bill's height is 192 cm. He is the shortest in his family. See for yourself.

4. First time

Bill's first film came out in 2000, when he was only 10 years old, Järngänget (White Water Fury in English). The main role in the film was played by his brother Alexander Skarsgard.

5. First success

Bill was nominated for the Swedish equivalent of the Oscar, the Golden Bug Award, for his role in the film There Are No Feelings in Space: he played 18-year-old Simon with Asperger's syndrome.

6. Godfrey

Bill received his first sprouts of fame by playing in the mystical series Hemlock Grove from Netflix. His Roman Godfrey is the spoiled heir of a wealthy family who, along with newly arrived gypsy Peter, investigates the mysterious murder of a high school girl. This role also turned out to be... hmm... colorful. The series lasted season 3 with good ratings.

7. Not Godfrey alone

Movies that you definitely watched with Bill Skarsgård (or at least heard of) are Joe Wright , Divergent Chapter 3: Beyond the Wall and Atomic Blonde.

Bill in Atomic Blonde

8. Pennywise not right away

Bill was not immediately approved for the role of Pennywise. Will Poulter was originally supposed to play the evil clown , but he had a scheduling conflict. The role, according to rumors, was even offered to Tilda Swinton - but it didn’t work out.

9. Scary and terrible

On the set of It, the children were really afraid of Bill. And he was worried that he had to scare the unfortunate people and not show any friendliness towards them according to the director’s plan. Therefore, Andres Muschietti tried to keep Bill as far away from children as possible and released him only in the necessary scenes. The effect is obvious: more than $300 million in worldwide box office receipts and the highest-grossing horror film to date.

10. Smile!

Bill really knows how to smile like Pennywise. These are not special effects - and what a horror!

11. Bonded with King

“It” is Bill’s first work based on Stephen King, but ahead of him is the series “Castle Rock” based on the writer’s stories.

12. Well done dad

Stellan Skarsgard calls his children cute. “There are few people in the world as nice as them!” – he told KinoPoisk in Toronto. It is in this capacity that Dad Skarsgård sees the key to Bill’s horror success: “You know, you have to be a very nice person to play a real monster!”

Stellan and Bill

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Themes:

Stellan Skarsgård
It
Anna Karenina
Alexander Skarsgård
Billy August
Divergent Chapter 3: Beyond the Wall
Bill Skarsgard
Atomic Blonde
Gustaf Skarsgård
Hemlock Grove

On loving dark characters:

I've never been a big fan of horror films, I've never been thrilled by fear [which is surprising, given his love for dark roles]. But then I had to watch a lot of films, given that I began to act in them.

Bill Skarsgård's favorite film is the South Korean detective story "Oldboy" precisely because of the ambiguity of the main character.

The "good" guys in movies tend to be pretty one-dimensional, while the classic "bad" guys always have more motive, drive, and methods.

It’s difficult for him to say what exactly inspires or delights him about the characters.

Can you understand why you like a song? I just like to explore people who are different from me. I want to play as many different types of people as possible.

Bill Skarsgård on the new Pennywise: “Children cried at the sight of me”

There are only a few months left until the most anticipated horror event of this year, the new film adaptation of one of the best novels by the King of Horror Stephen King, “It”. There is almost no doubt that after the premiere, the actor who plays the terrible clown Pennywise, actor Bill Skarsgård , will be talked about three times more - with such expectations from his character, it’s no wonder he will become a real superstar! In the meantime, you can admire the new incarnation of evil from Derry in the first frames and the coolest trailers of the film.

Bill’s younger colleagues, who played the main characters of the future film, as well as director Andres Muschietti himself, periodically share fresh footage from the filming on social networks. The pages of the new Pennywise maintain a very modest silence on the topic of the future incarnation of their owner on the screen - this is for the best, as the viewer will only be even more intrigued. But Skarsgård is happy to answer questions from journalists personally. The other day he expressed his attitude towards the first film adaptation of the novel, a television mini-series in 1990:

As a child, “It” seemed to me to be the scariest movie in the world. There were, of course, other horror films, such as "Friday the 13th" or "Halloween", but this one seemed to me the creepiest - due to the fact that there were children in it and there was a clown. So many people said, “That movie ruined my childhood,” or “I hated clowns after that.” I hope that after my performance, many modern 10-year-olds will also be traumatized for life.

When asked about the role of Pennywise in the new film, Bill answered no less interestingly:

Of course, it is unusual to say that “if I succeed in my role, then I will traumatize the child’s psyche.” I wasn't a friendly, funny guy on set. I tried to make my character as “abnormal” as possible, at least when I was already fully made up. One day we were filming a scene, and children came onto the set, none of whom had yet seen me in character. Their parents brought them. And then I came in, already as Pennywise, and saw the reaction of the kids. Some looked at me with interest, some couldn’t even look in my direction, and some were shuddering. One of them even started crying. And at that moment the director shouted: “Motor”! After such a command, I immerse myself in the role. And when in the middle of the stage the children started to get scared and cry, I thought: “Damn it, what am I doing? That's just terrible".

Well, Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise really looks very cool and even scary! With each new appearance of him on camera or in videos, expectations from “It” automatically increase several times. Well, there’s not much time left to wait - already on September 7th we will all be flying in the sewers of Derry along with the living nightmare that lives in them.

Wow!

Average rating: 9 out of 10. Total votes: 11.