How Much Bill Skarsgard Made as Pennywise From Both IT Movies?
The Swedish actor Bill Skarsgard is well known for playing the role of the murderous clown Pennywise in the movie IT. The actor is closely related to horror dramas as he has been the face behind Barbarian and the Netflix series Hemlock Grove and Castle Rock. Bill Skarsgard comes from a family of talented and extremely good-looking actors. His father Stellan Skarsgard has been associated with reputed projects like Mamma Mia, Thor, Dune, Chernobyl, Goodwill Hunting, and many more critically acclaimed movies in Hollywood are a part of this list.
Bill Skarsgard immortalized Pennywise from the horror drama film series IT. He was born in the same year when Stephen King authored IT was adapted into a television series starring Tim Curry. The actor had never imagined in his wildest dreams that he would be playing the role of a shape-shifting clown. Apart from a few horror movies, Bill Skarsgard has also been a part of movies like- The Divergent Series: Allegiant and Atomic Blonde, the drama Nine Days, and the John Wick sequel John Wick: Chapter 4.
How Much Did Bill Skarsgard Make From Both The IT Movies?
Based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name, IT was a blockbuster hit. The movie went on to set the acting career trajectory of Bill Skarsgard in Hollywood. The movie was based on the story of seven children who are terrorized by a shape-shifting clown only to come across their own personal demons. IT was directed by Andy Muschietti . The movie went on to break multiple box office records too. It became one of the highest-grossing horror movies of all time. IT even received critical acclamation from reputed critics and is considered to be one of the best adaptations of Stephen King’s novel.
The portrayal of the eponymous dancing clown brought Bill Skarsgård into the limelight of the movie industry in 2017. His performance was also compared to the iconic Heath Ledger’s Joker. According to the documents obtained by the reputed media house The Hollywood Reporter, the salary of the stars in the movie ranged between $65K to $75K. IT Chapter 2 went on to gross 4473.1 million worldwide.
Why Playing Pennywise Gave Bill Skarsgard Sleepless Nights?
Some roles end up changing the actor. Acting to be like someone else or getting into the skin of some other character is not easy, but somehow great actors have always managed to do this efficiently. Portraying the dancing clown Pennywise from IT was one of the most challenging roles for Bill Skarsgård as of now. While talking about his role with the media house People, Swedish actor Bill Skarsgård spoke about clown phobia and how he always heard his cousins talk about it. He said-
“I never had a clown phobia or anything growing up, but the TV movie came out the same year I was born, and I remember later hearing my older brothers and cousins talking about the scariest movie ever and the clown called It.”
He further mentioned-
“I was really excited to do a full character transformation into something that’s so far away from who I am in every way. So I took a lot of time and worked on how Pennywise would sound and move and all that. Things changed along the way, but it was convincing enough that I got the job.”
While talking about his role, the actor mentioned how it took a toll on his mental health and used to suck his energy, and left him exhausted on the sets of the movie. The Deadpool 2 actor mentioned-
“Normally when you do a movie, you have those mundane days when it’s like. Today is the scene where I get coffee. With this character, there were none of those. Everything I did took 100 percent of my energy. It was by far the most exhausting character I’ve ever done, physically and mentally.”
Sometimes doing a certain role takes away a lot from the actor portraying it.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
