You’d cry too if a clown chased you. Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff and Chosen Jacobs star in a fresh, funny and deeply wicked update of Stephen King’s ‘IT’ out this Friday, September 8.
The movie follows these kids as each is stalked by the world’s most bloodthirsty clown. The young actors shed (fake) blood, sweat, and tears, and were beyond excited to join the cast of this soon-to-be-legendary ultra-frightening film. We talked about working hard, kicking butt and pushing their emotions to the brink.
So you’re part of an iconic franchise now, how does that feel?
Finn: Crazy, mind-blowingness.
Wyatt: It’s a little overwhelming.
What was it like when you first got the news?
Chosen: Speechless. It was crazy. A lot of my older friends were even more excited. Like, ‘do you know what this means?’ I was like ‘yeah I know!’ So I was very speechless
And had any of you seen the movie IT prior to this?
All: Yeah.
Finn: Yeah we’d all seen the miniseries.
Was Andy super demanding to work with.
Finn: Oh he was the worst! No. *Laughs* He was the most easygoing director ever. He made sure that we all felt in control of our characters. He let you make your own mistakes. That was kind of freeing.
Wyatt: He made us feel like more than just kids or actors. He treated us as adults and as his friend and…
Finn: Equal
Wyatt: Equal, yeah.
Chosen: It was a great experience. Andy is one of the best directors I’ve ever worked with.
Wyatt: And he’s so talented, too.
Chosen: And he’s a karaoke king! If you ever run into him at a karaoke spot, you have your work cut out for you.
Finn: Ask him about karaoke.
Obviously, there’s a lot of iconic scenes in this. What was the most challenging for you?
Wyatt: There was one that we all had to get emotional in. I had to be on a nice cold, wet floor with a ton of dirt and everything. And I had to be crying, so…we had to do that for like three days straight. We all had to cry.
Finn: I did it for two, he did it for three.
Wyatt: It was difficult, but it was definitely worth it. It kind of pulled us together even more than we already were.
Finn: I would agree. That was definitely the most difficult for me for personal reasons. I never cried on screen before…And once I started crying it was like ‘I can’t stop noowww.’ I just couldn’t stop.
Chosen: The most challenging scenes for me were my fight scenes with the Bauer’s and Pennywise because it was physically taxing, but it was so fun. I felt like Tom Cruise.
Wyatt: We didn’t get to see you film it, but I heard it was really intense.
How long do those scenes take?
Chosen: The final battle scene took almost a week. But most of the fight scenes they told us ‘just fight like you’re fighting. But don’t hurt anybody.’
Do you get in fights a lot?
Chosen: No. *Looking off camera Mom, no!
Finn: We’re very confrontational, obviously. That’s why we’re actors. *Laughs
