In scary times, Skarsgard looks to frighten anew in ‘It’
As Pennywise, actor brings on the horror
TORONTO - Maybe it’s the recent announcement of a new Joker origin story, or perhaps just 2017’s general specter of clownish grotesquerie, but something feels perfectly timely about Pennywise.
The villain from Stephen King’s “It” terrified when he was left to childhood imaginations in the author’s 1986 doorstopper. And he is likely to send similar shudders after appearing, in the form of young Swedish actor Bill Skarsgard, in the new Warner Bros. which opened Friday.
One of the great fixtures of modern literary evil, Pennywise, with the help of the 27year-old Skarsgard, is attempting to jump mediums and give a new generation an injection of fear.
At barely 8 a.m. one day last year, Skarsgard was in a trailer on a soundstage in an industrial section of this Canadian metropolis.
Foundation was dabbed on him with a tofu-like applicator. Pens etched dark lines on his cheekbones. Powder rose off his face like steam. His nose looked like it had been in an accident at a sunscreen lab.
“It’s a lot easier to have this done early in the morning,” Skarsgard said drolly. “Then you’re too tired to know it’s going on.”
Audiences watching him won’t feel sleepy. Though he appears only intermittently before the film’s climax, Skarsgard’s Pennywise makes a deep impression.
As the embodiment of evil — or is it a manifestation of our fears? — Pennywise terrorizes a small Maine town every 27 years. He’s at it again in the 1989 edition of the film, in events that particularly affect a group of nerdish pre-adolescents known as the Losers’ Club.
Lurking in the town’s sewer system, Pennywise’s face often clenches into a malevolent smile, and his eyes pop with evil curiosity. His voice can be jolly, almost inquisitive, until it gives way to a crushing wickedness.
A lack of definition gives him a certain elasticity. Pennywise might be a fear of mortality, or a representation of childhood anxieties, or — yes — a concern about certain political figures.
“There’s a quote in the book that goes something like, ‘although a great mocker of emotions, he never felt one of his own,’ ” Skarsgard said.
The actor paused. He now looked fully like the man he was describing.
“It’s a little like a destructive relationship, the force of the character. You don’t even know you’re in it. But when it’s off you, you feel it.”
“There is something inexplicable about Pennywise, and it should be that way,” Skarsgard said from the makeup chair. “Heath Ledger’s Joker is rooted in the real; you can break down the psychology. But Pennywise is not” — he laughs — “a real person.”