Bill Skarsgård will return as Pennywise in 'IT' TV show on Max
By Dan Selcke
In a recent profile in Esquire, actor Bill Skarsgård hinted that he might be returning to the role that made him famous: Pennywise, the dancing, child-eating clown from the IT movies, released in 2017 and 2019 and based on the Stephen King book of the same name. After that, Deadline made it official: Skarsgård will again put on the pancake makeup to play Pennywise in Welcome to Derry, a new IT prequel series coming to Max sometime in 2025.
Skarsgård has made a habit of transforming himself physically to play creepy roles, which may run in the family; his father Stellan Skarsgård played the malevolent Baron Harkonnen in the Dune movies. But Bill takes it to another level; you can't recognize him under all that Pennywise makeup, and he's set to do something similar in Nosferatu, an upcoming remake of the classic 1922 vampire movie directed by David Eggers. Skarsgård will play Count Orlok, who is basically Count Dracula with the serial numbers filed off, plus several layers of monster makeup.
Skarsgård fought for the role, going through several rounds of auditions before landing it. After that, he committed, isolating himself from the rest of the cast and crew to get into the headspace of an immortal vampire hungry for human blood. “It took its toll,” Skarsgård said. “It was like conjuring pure evil. It took a while for me to shake off the demon that had been conjured inside of me.”
That sounds rough for him but potentially good for us when Nosferatu comes out in theaters this Christmas. The look of his monster is being kept under wraps for now. “I do not think people are gonna recognize me in it,” he said. Skarsgård also had some interesting thoughts on how sexy Orlok is. “He’s gross. But it is very sexualized. It’s playing with a sexual fetish about the power of the monster and what that appeal has to you. Hopefully you’ll get a little bit attracted by it and disgusted by your attraction at the same time.”
Bill Skarsgård has some issues with the ending of his The Crow movie
Skarsgård's career is on a hot streak right now. He recently appeared as the villain in John Wick: Chapter 4, and will soon be starring as an undead rock musician taking revenge on the people who killed him in a reboot of the 1994 film The Crow, which is famous for its stylish action scenes and the fact that star Brandon Lee died during production in a stunt gone wrong. The new movie, Skarsgård says, is an adaptation of the original comic book by James O'Barr, rather than a remake of the '94 film.
Interestingly, Skarsgård sounds like he has some problems with the movie's ending, which seems like it was left open for a potential sequel. “I personally preferred something more definitive.”
Skarsgård won't be quite as unrecognizable in The Crow as he is in IT or Nosferatu, but he'll be wearing some seriously emo face paint. Transformation is the name of the game with Skarsgård, and it seems to be working for him. The Crow will come out on August 23. Then Nosferatu, and then Welcome to Derry. After that...Hunchback of Notre Dame reboot?
dark. Next. Hollywood rushes to find excuses not to make another Mad Max movie after Furiosa. Hollywood rushes to find excuses not to make another Mad Max movie after Furiosa
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