Bill Skarsgård has said that he sometimes puts on the voice he used for Pennywise the clown when speaking to his kids.
The actor played the iconic clown in the 2017 film of It, taking on the role previously played by the late Tim Curry, who left Skarsgård big shoes to fill.
Pennywise is a strange demonic entity which emerges every 27 years to prey upon the children of Derry in Maine, and though Pennywise is not bound to one form, the demonic clown is a favoured appearance.
Skarsgård opened up about playing the terrifying character on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, even saying that his Pennywise voice sometimes even comes out at home.
“I would imagine you’re not doing your Pennywise voice in the company of your children,” said podcast host Josh Horowitz, “have they heard you do Pennywise?”
Skarsgård has two children with his partner Alida Morberg, and shared that the voice may sometimes come out ‘if they misbehave’.
“He can slip out there,” Skarsgård said. “Can slip in, can slip out.”
Skarsgård opened up about sometimes using his villain voices at home (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for BAFTA)
And that’s not the only scary character that sometimes comes out, he said, saying that sometimes ‘Nosferatu can pop in’, referencing a role he played in the 2024 remake of the classic 1922 film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror.
“There’s a whole colourful bunch of schizophrenic daddy,” said Skarsgård.
Skarsgård took on the role in two outings, including It Chapter One in 2017, and then again in It Chapter Two in 2029, as well as also playing the character again in the HBO series It: Welcome to Derry in 2025.
Between that and the horrifying Count Orlok in Nosferatu, who rather disturbingly dispenses with the tradition drinking blood from the throat to biting through the chest into the heart, and convulsing like a human-sized leech, he’s racked up an impressive array of villainous roles.
As for taking on another villain role, he said: “It would have to be something that felt original to me, that was something that I hadn’t done before. I feel, kind of, spent with those things.
“But there’s villains [that] could be really fun in different ways and if it’s the right kind.”
Skarsgård as Count Orlok in Nosferatu (Focus Features)
He went on to quip that he ‘wasn’t even thrown into the mix’ to be cast as the new James Bond, though perhaps he could be cast as a Bond villain in the future.
“I love to stroke cats,” he said, adding: “That sounded weird.”
Nonetheless, he added that villain roles are not necessarily exactly what he’s looking for at the moment, saying: “A lot of people ask me what goes into picking your roles or whatever and I don’t really know how to say it other than I feel drawn or compelled.
“It’s something that you can’t really put your words on it and describe why it’s happening.”
He added: “I’ve also noticed that I don’t want to become jaded … which means that I think I could probably go long stretches without working and just waiting for something to be compelling enough for me to work on.”
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