Pennywise Could Have Been Played by a Female Actor Instead of Bill Skarsgard
Just when you thought that no one could nail the role of the eerie clown quite like the Swedish actor...
Upon their release in 2017 and 2019, both parts of Stephen King 's movie adaptation It have become ones of the highest-grossing horror movies to ever exist.
The first installment of It grossed over $700 million worldwide in 2017, making it the highest-grossing horror film of all time — excluding inflation.
Even after accounting for inflation, it's ranked 5th, only surpassed by the classics Jaws, The Exorcist, The Sixth Sense, and Gremlins. Both It movies accumulated more than $1 billion dollars in the worldwide box-office.
As it is well established now, HBO Max is even planning an It prequel series about the horror clown Pennywise, titled Welcome To Derry (after the town of Derry where the events of It take place).
As basically all moviegoers interested in horror genre know, Pennywise in both movies was played by Bill Skarsgard. But what if we told you Pennywise and It could've looked a whole lot different?
As it turns out, an entirely different person has been asked to audition for the role of the deadly clown. It was Jenny Slate.
During her appearance at The Late Late Show With James Corden, the renowned comedian and stand-up artist reveals how she was approached to audition for Pennywise back in the day. She calls it "the weirdest thing that has ever happened" to her in her life.
In both hilarious and refined manner that only Slate can pull off, she talks how "befuddling" it was to think that someone looked at her and just decided she has to play Pennywise.
Being surprised as she was to have been asked to read for the role of the murderous clown, she is not sure whether it was "the coolest thing or the saddest thing."
We would never discover whether Slate would've been good for the role or not, as she hasn't even gone to the audition. And the reason for not doing it? She does "like being in rom-coms."