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Bill Skarsgård’s performance as Pennywise in IT is better than Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker in the Dark Knight
Just a heads up: there are spoilers for IT: Welcome to Derry in this post, so just letting you know in case you haven’t seen it (would recommend btw).
To start, I don’t want to discredit Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker. He perfectly captured the deranged, unpredictable, and chaotic spirit of the Joker better than anyone else could have, and he is likely the most memorable thing about the film, even taking the limelight from actors like Christian Bale, but I still think that when it comes to fictional clowns, Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise has him beat.
While Heath Ledger nails the chaotic aspect of the Joker, Bill Skarsgård makes Pennywise feel completely inhuman, and not because of the CGI transformations, but simply from Bill’s voice and mannerisms. From the very first scene in IT 2017 where Pennywise is speaking to Georgie in the storm drain, just from the way he speaks and smiles, you can tell that it’s not actually a clown talking to Georgie, but rather an entity wearing a disguise. He is able to portray something so specific and powerful with so little in a way that I think blows Heath out of the water. They also both similarly portray the qualities of their characters through subtle gestures and mannerisms, although I think Bill tells a bigger story with this than Heath does; Heath is using his mannerisms to portray a sociopathic, unpredictable maniac, Bill is using them to portray something completely otherworldly.
Some people may also think that the makeup is half of the reason why Pennywise seems as demonic as he does, but my counter to that is with Bill’s portrayal as Bob Gray in Welcome to Derry. For context: Bob Gray in the IT universe is the original human version of Pennywise who would use the clown persona in a circus act. He was ultimately killed by IT, and IT took Bob’s Pennywise persona to establish itself into Derry as a recognizable figure to more easily lure away children. This disguise is the Pennywise we know from the films. Bob Gray himself is a kind and loving father who simply wanted to make kids laugh and have an act in the circus with his daughter, but every scene we see him in, he’s in the same clown costume and makeup as the fake Pennywise, but he still makes them feel like two completely different characters. I think this proves that Bill’s performance alone is what makes Pennywise so effective and not the makeup.
Another thing is that Skarsgård just has a more fitting face to his character than Ledger does. He has a very flexible face, and can do things with it that tells a story all on its own. While this has hardly anything to do with actual skill, it does add an extra layer of immersion to Skarsgård’s performance that Ledger just doesn’t have.
#conversation
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Just a heads up: there are spoilers for IT: Welcome to Derry in this post, so just letting you know in case you haven’t seen it (would recommend btw).
To start, I don’t want to discredit Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker. He perfectly captured the deranged, unpredictable, and chaotic spirit of the Joker better than anyone else could have, and he is likely the most memorable thing about the film, even taking the limelight from actors like Christian Bale, but I still think that when it comes to fictional clowns, Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise has him beat.
While Heath Ledger nails the chaotic aspect of the Joker, Bill Skarsgård makes Pennywise feel completely inhuman, and not because of the CGI transformations, but simply from Bill’s voice and mannerisms. From the very first scene in IT 2017 where Pennywise is speaking to Georgie in the storm drain, just from the way he speaks and smiles, you can tell that it’s not actually a clown talking to Georgie, but rather an entity wearing a disguise. He is able to portray something so specific and powerful with so little in a way that I think blows Heath out of the water. They also both similarly portray the qualities of their characters through subtle gestures and mannerisms, although I think Bill tells a bigger story with this than Heath does; Heath is using his mannerisms to portray a sociopathic, unpredictable maniac, Bill is using them to portray something completely otherworldly.
Some people may also think that the makeup is half of the reason why Pennywise seems as demonic as he does, but my counter to that is with Bill’s portrayal as Bob Gray in Welcome to Derry. For context: Bob Gray in the IT universe is the original human version of Pennywise who would use the clown persona in a circus act. He was ultimately killed by IT, and IT took Bob’s Pennywise persona to establish itself into Derry as a recognizable figure to more easily lure away children. This disguise is the Pennywise we know from the films. Bob Gray himself is a kind and loving father who simply wanted to make kids laugh and have an act in the circus with his daughter, but every scene we see him in, he’s in the same clown costume and makeup as the fake Pennywise, but he still makes them feel like two completely different characters. I think this proves that Bill’s performance alone is what makes Pennywise so effective and not the makeup.
Another thing is that Skarsgård just has a more fitting face to his character than Ledger does. He has a very flexible face, and can do things with it that tells a story all on its own. While this has hardly anything to do with actual skill, it does add an extra layer of immersion to Skarsgård’s performance that Ledger just doesn’t have.
#conversation
source
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