‘It’: Bill Skarsgård Describes the ‘Really, Really Disturbing’ Scene That Got Cut

“It” is making a lot of money — as in, a lot of money — at the box office, and so there’s a good chance you’ve already seen it. What you haven’t seen, however, is a deleted scene that Pennywise the Dancing Clown himself describes as “really, really disturbing.” Bill Skarsgård discusses the sequence, which functions as backstory for his character, on Variety’s “Playback” podcast.

“There was a scene we shot that was a flashback from the 1600s, before Pennywise [was Pennywise],” says the actor. “The scene turned out really, really disturbing. And I’m not the clown. I look more like myself. It’s very disturbing, and sort of a backstory for what It is, or where Pennywise came from. That might be something worth exploring in the second one. The idea is the ‘It’ entity was dormant for thousands and thousands of years. The [flashback] scene hints on that.”

“It” has gone through more than one iteration before making it to the screen, as Cary Fukunaga (who remains a credited screenwriter) was initially set to direct and his script has been reworked.

“The book is very abstract and metaphysical about what it means to exist and the idea of fantasy and imagination and all of these things,” added the actor. “I think that could be cool to explore as well. It’s like, what is Pennywise? He only exists in the imagination of children. If you don’t believe him to be real then he might not be real. There’s an interesting aspect to explore there.”

Listen to the full podcast here.