Bill Skarsgard Reveals ‘IT’ Caused Him Nightmares for Weeks… Us Too…. Us Too…

After seeing IT at an early screening in Atlanta, we can definitely relate to the comments that Bill Skarsgard has recently made about the film giving him nightmares for weeks after he finished filming.

The 27-year-old actor stars as the iconic horror villain Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the new Andres Muschietti-directed movie, and he’s revealed the film continued to haunt him even after the shoot wrapped.

He shared: “It was weird. I really enjoyed myself doing it, but the day after we wrapped, I went back home to Stockholm, Sweden, and it’s always a weird experience when you work really hard on something and then you go back to regular life at your childhood home. And that’s when I finally realized what an impact the character had had on me. For the following two weeks I would have these really disturbing dreams about Pennywise. It was very strange, it was almost like a really slow exorcism to completely let go of him.”

Bill likened his post-filming experience to ending a “very destructive relationship”. Explaining the scenario to non-actors, he told PEOPLE: “The closest thing I can liken it to is being in a very destructive relationship, because you never really realize you’re in one until you’re out. And then as soon as you’re out of it, you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I can see it all so clearly now.’ Doing characters is almost like being in a relationship with a made-up person, and you don’t really see the journey clearly until it’s over.”

Despite the subsequent nightmares, Bill insisted he relished his time on set.

He said: “I did have so much fun with the character, and I’m really looking forward to getting back under that clown make-up for the sequel.”

We couldn’t have picked a better actor to fill the shoes of Pennywise this time around! The film had a distinct Stranger Things vibe to it which makes since considering Stephen King was a big influence on the Duffer brothers (creators of Netflix’s cult hit) – it even shares cast member Finn Wolfhard! Although, we have to say that IT is about 50,000 times more terrifying than Stranger Things – so the fact that Bill had nightmares…. doesn’t surprise us at all!

Let us know your thoughts on the remake of IT below!