Yahoo News How IT's Bill Skarsgård created Pennywise's voice
IT's Bill Skarsgård has revealed how he came up with Pennywise's creepy voice.
Talking on Variety's Playback podcast, he explained how he looked at animals like hyenas and bears to create Pennywise's physical behaviour, before talking about the voice, which differs from Tim Curry's take.
"The voice for me sort of started out with a laugh. I was playing around with a laugh. I wanted the laugh to not be a laugh, a laugh to be something that's on the verge of a panic attack and crying at the same time," Skarsgård recalled.
"When I started doing it just by myself, I started to creep myself out. It doesn't sound like a real laugh which goes into the aspect of the character not being human or a perfect clown."
Oh, and it also involved a fair bit of belching and stomach ache. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.
Earlier this month, IT director Andy Muschietti revealed to Digital Spy that he wanted his Pennywise to have "something 'off' about the look of his eyes" and, fortunately, Skarsgård could already make his eyes look in different directions.
"It's entirely practical. Besides from the morphing moments, it's him – even the moment where his eye is looking away," he noted.
"I told Bill, 'I want it in both directions, I want you to send your eyes looking away and give a really unsettling look'. He said, 'I can do it', so he did it. What are the chances? It's one in a million and he was cast already."
As well as the eyes, Skarsgård could even do Pennywise's eerie smile – which is somehow even creepier without make-up – and it's something he's done since his childhood.
