While you might think after playing Pennywise so brilliantly in director Andy Muschietti’s two It movies that Bill Skarsgård wouldn’t get nervous when taking on a new role, but you’d be mistaken. In fact, Skarsgård told me he wasn’t sure he could pull off his character in director Antonio Campos’ adaptation of Donald Ray Pollack’s award-winning novel, The Devil All the Time. He went on to reveal that he actually auditioned for the role and even after he booked the film, he was unsure he could pull it off. It was interesting to hear someone most view as a very talented actor expressing doubt and nervousness about the material.
If you’re not familiar with The Devil All the Time (which is now streaming on Netflix) the star-studded drama takes place in rural, post-World War II Ohio through the Vietnam war and features a number of sinister characters you’d never want to meet. The film features a crooked sheriff (Sebastian Stan), an unholy preacher (Robert Pattinson), the twisted couple (Jason Clarke and Riley Keough), a young man (Tom Holland) who loses both his parents (Skarsgård and Haley Bennett), and a number of other characters played by Mia Wasikowska, Eliza Scanlen, Pokey LaFarge, and Harry Melling.
In addition to talking about making The Devil All the Time, Skarsgård also discussed growing up the son of Stellan Skarsgård and how all of his kids went on to become actors, and why he wasn’t able to be part of The Lighthouse director Robert Eggers' next film, The Northmen.
Check out what he had to say in the player below and further down is exactly what we talked about. For more on The Devil All the Time, you can watch the trailer here.
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Bill Skarsgård:
- What did his dad (Stellan Skarsgård) put in the water that made all his kids talented actors?
- Why did he want to be involved with The Devil All the Time?
- How he was intimidated by the material and not sure he could pull it off.
- How he wasn’t able to be part of Robert Eggers The Northmen due to scheduling with COVID.
