10 Actors Who Were Scared Of Other Actors

4. Bill Skarsgard "Freaked Out" The Child Stars (It)

The Joker Rachel Dawes
Warner Bros

While 2017's It reboot was a heartwarming coming-of-age tale with an engaging supernatural edge, it wasn't particularly scary. Rather than making people look at the screen through the cracks in their fingers, Bill Skarsgard's performance as Pennywise was actually quite transfixing and fun to watch.

On the other hand though, the deranged clown did manage to instil a sense of terror in certain people: namely, the film's young cast.

While preparing for the film, Skarsgard was kept separate from the child actors, so that when they encountered him on camera, their reactions would be as genuine as possible. After all, the more scared they were, the more powerful a villain Pennywise would seem.

This was an interesting stunt to try, and based on some of director Andy Muschietti’s comments, it worked out perfectly. According to the filmmaker, the youngsters "f*cking freaked out" when they first saw Skarsgard in costume, with the actor's height and creepy demeanour making them all feel extremely uncomfortable.

The child actors were really great in the movie, and you can’t really blame them for being spooked by a tall, drooling lunatic with truly horrific fashion sense.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.