Bill Skarsgård says an eerie sign came before landing Pennywise in 'It'

During a long stretch of Los Angeles auditions a decade ago, Bill Skarsgård says he was sprawled in a friend’s garden, waiting for word on a role that could go either way. Then a single red balloon drifted overhead — exactly the calling card of the clown he was chasing — and he took it as a nudge from the universe. He told the story on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast.

“There's this like one red balloon just crosses the sky,”

“we’re like it’s a sign.”

Eight auditions later

Skarsgård says the process to land It was anything but quick. Director Andy Muschietti wanted him early, but the studio needed convincing, and the tryouts stretched to eight auditions. At the time, Muschietti had only made Mama, so his sway with executives was limited.

Skarsgård even flew to Toronto for a camera test before he had the job, showing up in a cheap clown face and meeting costume designers as if it were already his. When the offer finally came through, he remembers feeling mostly relief, not shock.

Pennywise at home

Recorded the day before Halloween, the conversation also veered into parenting. Skarsgård said he keeps the Pennywise voice in his back pocket for when his kids act up, and joked that Nosferatu might make the occasional cameo too — a “rotating cast” sharing one dad.

Halloween is a family affair: his oldest daughter planned four different vampire looks this year and suggested he go as Nosferatu, but he noted that makeup takes eight hours. Horowitz also flashed a photo of his dog in a Pennywise costume; Skarsgård laughed it off as lazy without the face paint.