Bill Skarsgard admitted a "disturbing" origin story to Pennywise was cut from 'IT'.
Bill Skarsgard
The 27-year-old actor stars as the terrifying, child murdering clown in Andres Muschietti's reimagining of Stephen King's 1986 horror novel but Skarsgard revealed a scene was cut that was "very disturbing".
Speaking on Variety's Playback podcast, the actor said: "There was a scene we shot that was a flashback from the 1600s, before Pennywise was Pennywise. The scene turned out really, really disturbing. And I'm not the clown. I look more like myself. It's very disturbing, and sort of a backstory for the IT is, or where Pennywise came from. That might be something worth exploring in the second one. The idea is the IT entity was dormant for thousands and thousands of years. The flashback scene hints on that."
Skarsgard's portrayal of the evil clown has been hailed by fans and critics alike and the new movie has already become the highest grossing R-rated film of all time.
Muschietti recently said the actor's willingness to take risks helped to make his job much easier.
Recalling his on-set experiences with Skarsgard, the filmmaker shared: "Each scene where Pennywise intervenes Bill provided a new flavour to each take because he was part of the concept of making this monster unpredictable.
"So ... and Bill doesn't shy away from the exploration of that he is so brave in that sense. And it was fun for him to surprise me and surprise himself and surprise everyone with new stuff. And it was, we even discussed with him before shooting we said, 'Let's go crazy.'
"Because there is something in the core of this monster that we want to capture It's ability, so we do different things and different behaviours and different takes that might amount to something very unique when we put the scene together."
Tagged in Stephen King