Bill Skarsgard has stepped into some pretty big clown shoes.

Don’t worry, he’s aware of that.

Best known for his work in the Netflix series Hemlock Grove and a part in this summer’s Atomic Blonde, Skarsgard is the new Pennywise in director Andy Muschietti’s adaptation of Stephen King’s It.

In the classic 1986 novel, King followed seven children, who dubbed themselves the Losers Club, as they went up against a shapeshifting clown, whose history of murder and violence dates back for centuries.

“Hopefully I will traumatize a whole new generation of kids,” Skarsgard jokes in an interview with the Sun.

The Loser outcasts are played by Jaeden Lieberher (Midnight Special), who stars as Bill Denbrough, the stutterer who is searching for his little brother, Georgie, who vanished after coming into contact with Pennywise; Finn Wolfhard’s wisecracking Richie Tozier; Chosen Jacobs’ Mike Hanlon; Sophia Lillis, whose Beverly Marsh is the object of all the boys’ affection; Wyatt Oleff’s Stan Uris; Jeremy Ray Taylor’s pudgy Ben Hanscom; and Jack Dylan Grazer’s hypochondriac Eddie Kaspbrak.

Rocky Horror Picture show star Tim Curry famously played Pennywise in a 1990 TV miniseries.

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“Tim Curry has his take on the character and no one can do that better than him,” Skarsgard continues. “I needed to make my performance something that is mine and unique for me.”

New Line, the studio behind the upcoming big screen It, plans two films, one focused on the children, and a sequel following them into adulthood when they return to their hometown to face the monster again.

“This is a novel that’s 1,500 pages, and if there ever was a perfect book to split up into two movies, it’s It,” Andy’s sister and creative partner Barbara Muschietti says in a separate interview.

Muschietti, who is producing It along with Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg, says that Skarsgard’s interpretation of Pennywise will come as a surprise to fans of the book.

“I think our interpretation presents a vaster creature,” she says. “It’s not, ‘Okay, here’s this scary clown.’ The way we’re doing it is much more dangerous. Also, we get a hint of what his Achilles’ heel is. I don’t like supervillains, or superheroes, that are completely infallible because that’s very boring. You want to feel that there’s something to crack. Also, it’s good to understand how Pennywise happens. There will be more of that in the sequel.”

“It’s more than just a scary movie,” Skarsgard adds. “People are going to be surprised by how emotionally invested they will get in the characters.”

With It tracking to be one of the biggest box office hits of the fall ahead of its release this Friday, Skarsgard rang up from Los Angeles to tell us how his Pennywise will be a different breed and give us his thoughts on why moviegoers love to be scared.

Tim Curry’s Pennywise was the thing of my nightmares from being a kid. What’s it like playing this iconic horror character?

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It’s crazy. I had a similar relationship to It myself. Growing up people would talk about how It was one of the scariest films ever made. When I was young, other kids would always talk about the story of It and Pennywise the clown, so I was very much affected by it when I saw It. Playing the new version of Pennywise, I still can’t wrap my head around that. It still doesn’t make sense to me. Hopefully, there will be a lot of kids traumatized forever based on my performance [laughs].

What’s going to set your interpretation of Pennywise apart?

We purposefully set out to do something that was very different from the original miniseries. I think you have this wonderful book as the source material that I thoroughly read going into production. I really tried to hone in on pretty much on every page Pennywise was present. But I created my own version of who this thing is. I think it’s a new take on the character and I hope people who were big fans of Tim Curry’s performance will appreciate this as something different and new.

The book from Stephen King is legendary, but what can people who haven’t read It expect?

People will find that it’s not just a scary movie. It’s a film about growing up and being outsiders and finding that friendship and loyalty between kids; a bond that you only had when you were that age. There’s something about being 12 years old and finding your best friends for the first time. That’s one of the themes of the novel. The relationships you have at that age is something you’ll never, ever have again. I think that people will fall in love with these characters and feel for them and sympathize with them and that will also add to the thrill and the excitement of the horror as well. But I do think this is a film that people who are not really into horror will be able to appreciate.

We were on set in Toronto the first day when the kids were going to see you in full makeup as Pennywise. How did they react?

They were super excited [laughs]. They were excited to see the look. They understood the difference between me and the character. I was impressed by how mature and devoted they were to acting.

I know that while shooting the film, you had your own driver. How did the filmmakers keep the paparazzi at bay?

The van that they used to transport me around was taped black and we really only had one scene outdoors, but we were able to film in such a way that onlookers couldn’t really see me.

If it all goes according to plan, this is only part one. Are you looking forward to taking on the older Losers in the sequel to It?

I’m excited for that. We’ll see where it goes. I think there are some great challenges that present themselves in the second half of the story. We need to be creative to come up with something that doesn’t feel like a repeat of the movie we just told. But I’m really excited about finishing the tale. This is just half the story of the book.

Why do you think people like having the bejesus scared out of them?

It’s the adrenaline. It’s the same reason we like roller-coasters or jumping out of airplanes. It’s the sensation of being terrified. People don’t like being scared in real life, but when you’re watching a film or you’re on a roller-coaster, you get scared but it’s under control. You’re actually safe. You can watch a film and get that rush without being in actual danger. And you know, it’s definitely addictive.

Twitter: @markhdaniell

MDaniell@postmedia.com