Bill Skarsgård Says ‘It’ Studio Was ‘Kind of Mean’ to Release First Pennywise Photo Before Filming as It Ignited Fan Backlash and ‘So Many Hateful Opinions’
variety.comZack Sharf Digital News Director Bill Skarsgård said in an interview with Esquire magazine that the studio behind “It” perhaps didn’t make the best choice in deciding to release the first image of him as the villainous clown Pennywise before filming even got underway on the Stephen King film adaptation.
Warner Bros. released the two-part film, which together earned more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office. “When you are 26, you don’t feel young at all, but now, looking back at it, I was a kid,” Skarsgård said about taking on the role of Pennywise. “It was fairly early on in my career to take on something that had so many eyeballs and expectations on it.” Skarsgård said the studio “did a thing that I felt was kind of mean” in releasing a first-look photo so early during the production process.
The first-look image of Skarsgård as Pennywise debuted online in July 2016, more than a year before the first “It” movie opened in theaters in September 2017. “I was so incredibly nervous to start this job, and then the Internet is having so many hateful opinions on the weird, strange look of the thing,” Skarsgård said.
Some horror fans went on the attack against the “It” movie because Pennywise did not look like they expected. Skarsgård said he lost sleep over the backlash as fans made him know that “this looks stupid” and “lame.” The outrage fundamentally changed his perspective as an actor. “You can only make this performance to please yourself,” Skarsgård said. “It unlocked something in me.
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