{"id":109868,"date":"2019-09-02T12:41:53","date_gmt":"2019-09-02T11:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=109868"},"modified":"2022-05-31T07:44:37","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T06:44:37","slug":"it-chapter-2-andy-muschietti-the-losers-talk-blood-growing-up-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/interviews\/it-chapter-2-andy-muschietti-the-losers-talk-blood-growing-up-more\/","title":{"rendered":"It Chapter 2: Andy Muschietti & the Losers talk blood, growing up & more"},"content":{"rendered":"

IT Chapter Two<\/em> brings the adult Losers\u2019 Club home to face with everything they were ever afraid of. We talk to the cast and director about how Pennywise is taking things up a notch…\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018And one more. This one, like the last, is a definition of haunt as a noun, and it\u2019s the one that really scares me. \u2018A feeding place for animals.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s feeding in Derry? What\u2019s feeding on<\/em> Derry?\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

27 years ago, the Losers made a pact. That if the creature that was lurking under Derry ever did come back, that they would all return to stop it once and for all. <\/span><\/p>\n

It may be just two years since we last saw Pennywise the Dancing Clown feed on the poor souls of Stephen King\u2019s nightmare town, but for Bill Denbrough, Beverly Marsh, Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak, Mike Hanlon, Ben Hanscom and Stan Uris, aka the Losers\u2019 Club, it\u2019s felt like forever. Time has passed, memories have faded, and life has moved on\u2026But the cycle has come around once again. In those 27 years that ancient evil has grown stronger and hungrier, and it\u2019s reached back out from the sewers to snatch the its innocent victims and feed on their fear. Can the Losers succeed where they failed? Do they have the strength to put an end to It once and for all? They may have allowed themselves to forget It, but Pennywise certainly hasn\u2019t forgotten about them\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[Pennywise] comes back a little smarter, a little more ahead of the Losers in the game with a sense of revenge that he didn\u2019t have in the first one,\u201d grins director Andy Muschietti. \u201cWhen the Losers are together they are his worst enemy so you have to be prepared for that. And he expresses that in a more twisted way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPennywise has a component of \u2018Fuck these little bastards, they almost got me and they\u2019re not going to get me this time!\u2019 in a very animalistic way,\u201d adds producer Barbara Muschietti with glee. \u201cThere\u2019s a very strange page two thirds into the book in which you hear Pennywise\u2019s voice and it\u2019s so peculiar because you think you know that this is just the personification of evil, but then you\u2019re reading this page and he\u2019s like a kid that wants to sleep and eat. So he\u2019s pissed off because these kids almost destroyed him the last time. We allowed him to be smarter, this time you see him taunting more, he\u2019s more of an evil little shit because he is going for these assholes that gave him a rough time 27 years ago.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Before the first film was released, so much of the discussion around the film was focused on Pennywise. Surely, we all thought, there was no way that Bill Skarsg\u00e5rd could hope to create something as nightmarish, as memorable as Tim Curry. But this was no imitation. Instead, we all watched as Skarsg\u00e5rd gave us a Pennywise that was very different but unmistakably Stephen King\u2019s nightmare clown. A whole new generation of moviegoers was scared witless by his blend of uncanny physicality, unpredictable threat and that voice\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
James McAvoy as Bill Denborough<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe first time I saw him, I was like, \u2018Oh that\u2019s cool. That\u2019s Pennywise. It looks impressive,\u2019\u201d remembers James McAvoy. \u201cBut the first time he did a little bit of acting on camera where he fully let go and committed physically, emotionally and psychologically, he was really freaky. I was like, \u2018Oh I don\u2019t like this. I don\u2019t like being around you when you\u2019re like this.\u2019 It was very easy to give a scared reaction to him. The voice that he has\u2026 Everybody goes like, \u2018Oh it\u2019s so cool and interesting and scary as fuck.\u2019 But he\u2019s ripping his throat apart to give you that voice. So that amount of attack, the tension in his body. I mean he is fucking racking himself. And it\u2019s just a bit freaky!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

McAvoy leads the cast of adult Losers as Bill Denbrough, the grieving, stuttering young boy who led the charge against Pennywise and who has since grown into a successful writer. It won\u2019t be long before he starts seeing the spectre of his poor brother Georgie lurking in dark corners and he\u2019s far from the only one with buried trauma just waiting to burst free. <\/span><\/p>\n

Much of this movie\u2019s hype has used buzzwords like \u201cdarker\u201d, \u201cscarier\u201d and \u201cthe most blood used in a scene ever\u201d (we\u2019ll get to that last one in a little bit). But this isn\u2019t a case of simply upping the ante. Forget the cash-in sequels and shared universes, this is the second part of the story. As fans of the novel will tell you, King\u2019s book weaves pretty freely between childhood and adulthood, and the heartbreak and horror facing the Losers this time around is, as Muschietti puts it, \u201ca conclusion\u201d rather than a sequel. \u201cIt\u2019s all about the characters and the love you have for these characters,\u201d he explains.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re the same characters that we met in the first one but they come back 27 years later, 40 years old, with baggage. They all have some level of brokenness that they carry from that summer of \u201889,\u201d he continues. \u201cThey all have their own trauma and that\u2019s what makes the movie maybe relatable to grown up audiences because there\u2019s a deepness to the fear as adults.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cExcept for Mike, who stayed there, they\u2019ve all been affected by the creepy magic of Derry which makes you forget, and that\u2019s why the cycle has gone on and on, and that\u2019s human nature really,\u201d adds Barbara Muschietti. \u201cHow we allow things to happen again and again even when they\u2019re terrible. So they come back after Mike\u2019s call and first you see that in five minutes it\u2019s like they\u2019ve gone back to being kids, and they start remembering things that they had pushed down so deep that they are shocked. When you see the movie you\u2019ll see that this a theme, that they keep remembering and remembering and peeling this demonic onion that has been their lives in a way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Losers on set with Andy Muschietti<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cYeah, this one hit on the trauma of it,\u201d enthuses Bill Hader. \u201cThey have lived with the trauma of what happened in that first movie, I liked that aspect of it. It\u2019s a very emotional story of this group trauma. I think it\u2019s darker, it definitely is also just bigger.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hader stars as Richie Tozier, the fast-talking goofball who, in the book at least, has achieved his dream of making a name for himself as an entertainer. The brilliant comedian and impressionist who broke out on Saturday Night Live before co-creating and starring in HBO\u2019s awards-machine Barry was astutely picked by Finn Wolfhard as the ideal actor to play the adult version of Trashmouth.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI had a friend send me a video of Finn saying he wanted me to play him in the movie, and I thought \u2018Oh, that\u2019s sweet,\u2019 and then \u2018My agent called me and said \u2018No, he\u2019s the most powerful guy in Hollywood right now! So whatever he says, people are going to make it happen!\u2019\u201d he laughs. \u201cI\u2019m joking, but it was very sweet, so I went to have lunch with Andy and we talked about it, and Andy and I bonded over our mutual love of John Carpenter\u2019s The Thing<\/strong><\/em>, and stuff like that. We just talked about movies and he said \u2018You wanna do this, and I was like are you kidding? Yeah?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hader may have found it hard to watch the film when it first came out (\u201cI actually had a bit of a panic attack, I had a hard time, I got to the point where I had to look at my shoes for a while,\u201d he remembers) but he, and all the cast, knew they had to go back and study it to make sure that they nailed the characterisation. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe horror, the scares and all that are great but people want to see the Losers back together and those kids did such an incredible job,\u201d enthuses James Ransone (The Wire<\/strong><\/em>, Sinister<\/strong><\/em>), who is picking up the baton of Eddie Kaspbrak, played by Jack Dylan Grazer. \u201cYou just have to remember that the first movie is not the book or the miniseries and people love those kids in those roles so much, so for me I was like \u2018How can I serve what Jack did in the first one.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe really fortunate thing for me where it just feels like hand of God, winning the Powerball is I look very similar to Jack Dylan Grazer,\u201d he continues. \u201cWe have a very similar cadence and when I watched [the first film] I thought \u2018Oh man, this is going to be easy and pretty awesome because he is so good and so fast,\u2019 and faster than I am to a certain extent where I was worried! \u2018I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m going to be able to go as fast as this kid did!\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Jessica Chastain as Sophia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAndy is incredibly visual,\u201d adds Jessica Chastain. \u201cSo none of us would have been cast unless we matched in his head.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Chastain, of course, plays Beverly, picking up from Sophia Lillis. She was the first actor confirmed after being rumoured for the role from the outset (after all, she worked with the Muschiettis on their first feature Mama<\/strong><\/em>), and she tells us that observing Lillis\u2019 performance was crucial. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a huge inspiration for me,\u201d she enthuses. \u201cI think Sophia did such an incredible job with Beverly and she had this fearless quality to her. Because in reality Beverly\u2019s worst nightmare is at home. And so because of that, she has this drive. This fearlessness that she can go into the unknown and I wanted to capture that. I also wanted to capture these little things she does. Like maybe the way she smiles, sometimes how she\u2019d hold her hand, or how she would handle the postcard, winking. I\u2019m not really much of a winker but I may wink in this movie! Because Andy is so visual, sometimes I\u2019d do something with my hand and he\u2019d catch it and go, \u2018You did the hand thing! Sophia does the hand thing!\u2019 Which would make me feel good.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI studied Jeremy Ray Taylor\u2019s performance before I did the casting, over and over again,\u201d adds Jay Ryan (Beauty And The Beast<\/strong><\/em>), who plays the adult Ben Hanscom. Of all the Losers, Ben is the one who\u2019s changed the most physically, and he\u2019s also the one who comes the closest to a sweet dramatic storyline as an adult. But although he may look very different, Ryan tells us that he was determined to preserve that core of the character which Taylor brought to life. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI took on little pieces that he did so well in the film,\u201d Ryan explains. \u201cIt was a beautiful vulnerability and sensitivity that he had. The script I had [for the audition] was very far away from the movie we made, Ben was very macho and masculine with the dialogue. So I kind of infused this more sensitive kind of\u2026I think I even cried in the audition a little bit, and I think it probably was very different to what a lot of actors would have done. So, yeah, hats off to Jeremy for giving a beautiful performance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Muschietti on directing duties<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As you\u2019ve gathered, the entire cast is very clear on is the fact that the first film was more of a touchstone than the book, but unlike their younger counterparts, IT<\/strong><\/em> was something that they were already very much aware of. \u201cI watched the miniseries when I was a kid, and Tim Curry was so scary,\u201d marvels Ransone. \u201cI had gotten a copy of the book with a picture of Tim Curry on, and I photocopied that book and I blew it up bigger and bigger and then I coloured it in and then I taped it next to my brother\u2019s bed, and he said for years he wanted to kill me because of it. He\u2019s got a 30-year-old resentment about me doing that to him. He said he saw the first movie and he was like \u2018Oh my god, my brother looks so much like Jack,\u2019 and his position was me doing the movie was his revenge on me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI read IT<\/strong><\/em> in high school and it was one of those things that it was so long that you could like brag about,\u201d adds Hader. \u201cI told my buddy I was auditioning for it, and he was like \u2018Yeah, man, you were afraid of that in high school!\u2019\u201d laughs Isiah Mustafa, who takes on the role of Mike, the one who stayed behind to remember and chronicle, and the one who has to make the call to bring everyone back together again. \u201cI was like \u2018No, I wasn\u2019t!\u2019 But yeah, stay away from the drain\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI read it when I was about 15,\u201d McAvoy tells us. \u201cAnd I loved it. I didn\u2019t find it scary. I found it fascinating. I loved the multidimensional, multi-verse aspect to it and all that. [\u201cThe turtle couldn\u2019t help us.\u201d] One of the things that sometimes is a criticism of Stephen\u2019s writing, and I think it\u2019s a virtue, is that he\u2019s an expert storyteller and he\u2019s going hard after the narrative\u2026 And then he goes and he talks about how little David down the road likes to eat a burger with knife and fork instead of with his hands. You can be with that for 25 pages sometimes, and in the book he really does that a lot. Because he\u2019s exploring the town of Derry as a character, as a person, as an entity in itself. Because fucking up inside Derry is It, with its hands all fucking inside Derry. The whole character of Derry is twisted and perverted by this puppet master, holding it in its grip. You don\u2019t know that when you\u2019re reading it and I do remember at times going, \u2018Where the fuck are we going here?\u2019 But I loved it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Given the sheer size of the book, it\u2019s not a surprise that some material from IT Chapter Two<\/strong><\/em> will end up on the cutting room floor. \u201cIt\u2019s a big epic, the first edit was four hours,\u201d Muschietti tells us before gauging the final cut at \u201ca little less than three hours long.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe did discuss the idea of making two more films,\u201d reveals Barbara Muschietti. \u201cBecause it\u2019s such a big story. But we ended up making it into one. And I think it was the right decision\u2026I think what was essential for Andy and me as well was to keep very emotional aspect of the ending. And I think that that is reflected perfectly. A few elements change. But you know you will have every single emotion in the last half hour of the film.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While Muschietti tells us that he doesn\u2019t feel the pressure of trying to one up himself following the first film\u2019s success (\u201cNo, I\u2019m quite irresponsible with that!\u201d he laughs), one word that keeps coming up during our interviews is \u201cbigger.\u201d This isn\u2019t James Ransone\u2019s first horror film, but there\u2019s an undisguised awe in his voice when he describes stepping onto the set. \u201cDo you ever have this experience where you look at a picture from Return Of The Jedi<\/strong> <\/em>or something like that, behind the scenes, and thinking \u2018Oh my god, everything that went into this, how big that is?\u2019\u201d he marvels. \u201cAnd to be able to work on something at these levels of set pieces with its cultural icons I thought man, I\u2019m going to look back at this moment and be like \u2018That was crazy that we did that!\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Bill Skarsg\u00e5rd’s Pennywise is back<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI thought like \u2018Wow this is an epic horror movie,\u2019\u201d agrees Hader. \u201cIn the way that you would consider an epic film, the scope of it, the amount of characters in it and the amount of time given to those characters and their backstories and their histories and all that, it just felt epic.\u201d As you may have noticed, that \u201cbigger\u201d-ness is absolutely reflected in the incredible cast. \u201cI remember seeing Jessica\u2019s first close-up and I was like \u2018Oh man, that\u2019s Jessica Chastain!\u2019\u201d grins Mustafa. \u201cOh man she nailed it; she didn\u2019t even say anything\u2026\u201d \u201cShe didn\u2019t say shit but that was great<\/em>,\u201d laughs Hader. \u201cIsn\u2019t it weird that you can do a whole movie and it isn\u2019t until week three that you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s James McAvoy.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Naturally, a horror movie of this size and intensity isn\u2019t without its challenges. Although Hader is quick to downplay the suffering (\u201cWe\u2019re fucking Hollywood actors, we weren\u2019t mining coal or delivering the mail, it\u2019s a pretty great job!\u201d), there were long days and nights spent exploring the sewers under Derry and, as Mustafa puts it, \u201cJust being wet and soggy and dirty.\u201d \u201cWe spent a good couple of weeks in the sewers,\u201d Ryan explains. \u201cyou would be in water for 15, 16 hours a day. And when you got out\u2026 You know what happens when your body is in water for too long. It\u2019s not pretty. So that was kind of hard, to just stay in the right frame of mind as well as being in this world of Pennywise.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, all of the cast cedes \u201ctoughest day\u2019s shoot\u201d to Chastain, as Beverly gets a horrifying reminder of her blood-drenched bathroom encounter with Pennywise turned up to 11. \u201cIt looks amazing,\u201d she tells us. \u201cI didn\u2019t track in my head that that would mean it tracks through the whole movie. So every time, right before action, I\u2019m with all the guys and everyone\u2019s fine. And then I would have two women come up to me. And just like shhhhh\u2026 Like spray me with water. And then like putting blood\u2026 I remember Bill [Hader] would do impressions of us. And my impression was [shivering]!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Blood, emotional trauma and confronting childhood fears brought back on an epic scale\u2026Pennywise is back, and he\u2019s taking no prisoners. \u201cHe will definitely surprise you, that\u2019s for sure, you\u2019re not relaxing through this film,\u201d grins Barbara Muschietti. \u201cIt\u2019s constant and also if you\u2019ve seen the trailer, he shows up in ways that are just very unexpected. So again, you\u2019re not going to relax through the film. You\u2019re going to laugh, you\u2019re going to cry, you\u2019re going to scream and finally you\u2019re going to leave the theatre in great spirits.\u201d
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

IT Chapter Two<\/em> is released on 6 September 2019. Get all the latest horror news with every issue of SciFiNow.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Go behind the screams of It Chapter 2 with director Andy Muschietti and the cast <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":109874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[2615,1718,7],"tags":[6116],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Screen-Shot-2019-09-02-at-12.39.53.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109868"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109868"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124220,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109868\/revisions\/124220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}