The teen cast of It enjoyed clown freak-out
A clown in any form can be unsettling but the teen cast of the supernatural thriller It agree the Pennywise joker in their movie elevates the jester persona into the super freak zone.
The young actors made the observation promoting the movie version of the 1986 Stephen King novel at Toronto’s recent Fan Expo. They returned to Hogtown where they filmed interiors last year and exteriors east of the city in Port Hope, Ont.
Besides their inclination toward Coulrophobia, they talked about other It things. Here are some highlights.
Filming tended to be intense but the young actors had lots of fun off- set. In fact, Vancouver’s Finn Wolfhard admits to becoming his American colleagues’ guide to things Canadian during their sessions around Toronto. “I taught them a little bit about things like loonies, toonies and all- dressed chips,” says Wolfhard.
His actor pals i nclude Chosen Jacobs, Wyatt Oleff, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, and Jaden Lieberher, who are bullied and make up the unofficial Loser’s Club in the film.
In It’s beginning, children are disappearing from the town of Derry, Me., during the summer of 1989 thanks to the evil, shape- shifting clown demon feeding off the fear of adolescents after he kidnaps them. When It targets the Losers, they are forced into clashing with the despicable spirit even as they cope with their separate family issues.
Lillis, whose character tries to cope with her dysfunctional relationship with her father, has the most telling of the problems. Luckily for her, her past includes lots of parts dealing with serious social issues. “The roles I’ve done previously were all about having a crappy childhood, so I’m used to playing that so my It role wasn’t too weird for me,” she says.
Like King’s book, the film has some funny sequences. For its time, though, King’s opus was an oddity, even as it exploited the serial- killer syndrome.
A 1990 miniseries version of the novel, driven by Tim Curry’s powerful presence as Pennywise, earned praise. In the film rendition, Bill Skarsgard’s crazed clown tends to be a support player. But that didn’t make his character any less unnerving on camera and off. “It was definitely odd to be standing next to him,” Wolfhard says. “You could see Bill’s eyes through his clown outfit but being near him was still kind of terrifying and I think he knew that.”
King’s novel is a timeshifting two- parter including the grown- up version of the kids. The movie focuses exclusively on the teens. If fans want another It, they can expect the adults to return for a final clown showdown.