IT GOT INTENSE
Cast agrees Pennywise unnerving on and off screen
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 1980s Stephen King novel at Toronto’s recent Fan Expo. They returned to Hogtown, where they filmed interiors last year and exteriors 100 kilometres east of the city in Port Hope, Ont.
Besides their inclination toward coulrophobia, they talked about other It things. Some highlights:
A GUIDE TO CANADIAN CONTENT
Filming tended to be intense but the young actors had lots of fun off set.
In fact, Vancouver’s Finn Wolfhard, who plays the mama’s boy in the film, admits to becoming his U.S. colleagues’ guide to all things Canadian during their bonding sessions around Toronto.
“I taught them a little bit about things like loonies, toonies and all-dressed chips,” says Wolfhard.
His actor pals include Chosen Jacobs, Wyatt Oleff, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, and Jaeden Lieberher, who make up the unofficial Losers Club in the film.
TERROR TRIPS DEVASTATINGLY REAL AND IMAGINED
In It’s beginning, children are disappearing from the town of Derry, Maine, during the summer of 1989 thanks to the evil, shape-shifting clown feeding off the fear of adolescents after he kidnaps them. When It targets the Losers Club, they are forced into clashing with the despicable spirit even as they deal 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. “And Stephen (Bogaert), the actor who plays my dad, is really nice so it wasn’t strange to do those scary scenes.”
A VARIATION ON THE IT THEME
Like King’s 1986 book, the film has some funny sequences. For its time, though, King’s thousand-plus page 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 Skarsgård’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.”
GETTING INTO THE EXTREMES
Some in the cast had to tough it out more than others. That was true for Jacobs, who portrays a home-schooled loner. For one sequence, he gets brutally attacked by three toughs.
“That required a lot of planning and lot of physicality,” says Jacobs. “At one point we decided to go for it.”
Lieberher had more of a method-actor’s challenge facing him as the stuttering introvert of the Losers Club. He eventually transforms into their unofficial leader.
“I am definitely quieter than my character turns out to be,” he says. “But at certain times I can take charge so I used that as best I could.”
THE SUPERHERO CONNECTION
Oleff plays the shy bar mitzvah boy in the film but was previously better known as the young Peter Quill in the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel. Taylor, the nerdy poet of the Loser group, had a cameo as a bully in Ant-Man.
“It sounds horrible to say, but playing a bully is kind of fun,” Taylor says.
DOING IT AGAIN
King’s novel is a time-shifting two-parter including the grownup 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.