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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nHow much did watching the kids in the first film inform your performances in this one?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n JAY RYAN: I watched Jeremy Ray Taylor\u2019s performance even before I auditioned and tried to capture his sweetness and his humility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JAMES RANSONE: All I did was I thought, \u201cThat kid talked really fast. If I can keep up with him, everything\u2019s gonna be fine.\u201d (LAUGHS)<\/p>\n\n\n\n ANDY BEAN: Absolutely, with the mannerisms, the posture and the sensitivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ISAIAH MUSTAFA: In fact, my audition piece was a speech done by Chosen Jacobs in the first film, so I watched to see what he was up to with the character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JESSICA CHASTAIN: I definitely watched the first film and specifically Sophia Lillis\u2019 beautiful performance, and I tried to mirror the things that she was doing. When I rediscover the post card after all those years, I tried to mimic what she had done when she first received it, how she held it. I hadn\u2019t told Andy [Muschietti] I was doing this, but I was holding my hands the way she did. When he saw me, he said, \u201cYou\u2019re walking with her hands.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n JAMES MCAVOY: Yeah, I suppose I stole Jaeden Martell\u2019s emotional vulnerability and his openness. As a kid, I think Bill is a strange mix of suppression and complete vulnerability, and Jaeden nailed that. So, I stole that from him, HARD. (LAUGHS)<\/p>\n\n\n\n BILL HADER: Yeah, Finn Wolfhard, it\u2019s pretty easy. He\u2019s not a very good actor (LAUGHS), you just have to kind of sleepwalk through the part. No, I absolutely worked within the character lines he had drawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Andy Muschietti\u2014how important was it for you that they nailed the performances of the kids, or were you open to them bringing their own take on it?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n ANDY MUSCHIETTI: It was both, actually. I didn\u2019t ask them for a percentage, to capture an amount of what the younger actors had done. I just encouraged them to watch the performances in the first film\u2014there are some important things, like the physicality. Mostly, it was just to help them get closer to these characters that audiences have seen and loved. But, I gave the actors the freedom to explore and let them decide what was good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Did any of you have nightmares while filming?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n JAMES MCAVOY: I did, in a strange way. I had read IT when I was a kid and really liked it, but it didn\u2019t really scare me. Then, I re-read it again as an adult and I started to have nightmares about Pennywise. I can\u2019t remember a hell of a lot of them, but I do remember one of them being him in bed beside me and stroking my back, while I pretended to be asleep. And that was pretty f***in\u2019 terrifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BILL HADER: Yeah, that\u2019s scary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JAY RYAN: I had a weird dream about PJ [James Ransone], like just the other night. (LAUGHS)<\/p>\n\n\n\n JAMES RANSONE: That was so not the question!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n JAY RYAN: No, actually after the ADR session, when I got to see some more of the film, I did have the weirdest dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ANDY MUSCHIETTI: It\u2019s amazing how all of the cast trusts you while you\u2019re shooting. But, it\u2019s not until you show them the movie edited, with the music and the visual effects, it\u2019s like, \u201cOh, now I get it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Would any of you have been a member of something like a Loser\u2019s Club?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n GROUP: Nope!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n (LAUGHTER)<\/p>\n\n\n\n BILL HADER: No, okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JESSICA CHASTAIN: A bunch of losers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BILL HADER: A bunch of losers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JAMES MCAVOY: Basically, during summer holidays, all the kids would sort of team up. But it would be intermittent\u2014the next summer it would be different, and the summer after that. When I grew up, there were all these houses on a big huge row and they all shared gardens. I remember moments where we were going on adventures with our pals, and the adventure was to make it to the 20th garden along. But, there was a dog halfway there, and it felt like the whole world would collapse if we didn\u2019t get past that dog. Nothing like this film\u2014this stuff was truly adventurous and exciting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ISAIAH MUSTAFA: We just didn\u2019t row that deep. We didn\u2019t have seven people. We had maybe three, and then somebody\u2019s relative would show up and you\u2019d hang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JESSICA CHASTAIN: You could play a fourth. That\u2019s a squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ISAIAH MUSTAFA: When we had seven, we were playing the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BILL HADER: Basketball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ISAIAH MUSTAFA: When there were seven, there was a ball involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JESSICA CHASTAIN: I didn\u2019t have friends that were boys, which would have been nice when I was growing up. For some reason growing up, it was very segregated, where the boys hung out and the girls hung out separately. So, that would have been nice, especially to my development as a human being. (LAUGHS)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tell us more about how you imagined your character was doing between the two films, in that 27-year span, and how that influenced your performance in this movie.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n ISAIAH MUSTAFA: It was pretty easy. Andy told me what my character was doing. (LAUGHS) He said, \u201cYou are the only one who stayed in Derry.\u201d Mike was trying to figure out if this thing that happened so many years ago was going to happen again. I believe he felt a responsibility to stay in Derry, to be the custodian of this energy that they cultivated as a group. So, once that evil returned, he could call his friends and say, \u201cLet\u2019s do this thing again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fact that your character never forgot, how did that shape your performance with everyone else? The other Losers don\u2019t really remember until they come back to Derry.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n ISAIAH MUSTAFA: I think just having listened to the audio book so many times, it was almost like I had lived in Derry for 27 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Andy Bean, what happened to your character during that time, in those years in between?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n ANDY BEAN: I think the first seven years he joined the circus, to get over it. (LAUGHS) No, I think he developed the most normal life he could possibly create for himself, with the most routine, the most consistency. Finding his wife was his entire life. I think having a predictable life and enjoying the consistency and the contentment of his marriage\u2014they were each other\u2019s worlds. That became enough. It is quite a beautiful, content, comfortable life. I think Stanley was very happy with that, and he pushed down all of his memories of what happened for years and years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And when the news comes back, with Mike\u2019s phone call, would you say that idyllic life is thrown off-balance?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n ANDY BEAN: Sure, yeah. I think he had buried his memories so deep that he didn\u2019t really remember anything until he heard Mike\u2019s voice\u2014it\u2019s his voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JAMES MCAVOY: In the book and in the film, the Losers that leave all become arguable winners, but they all have this tainted side to their success\u2014none of them seem to be able to have children, for one. And there are these emotional issues that darken all of their, what seem like, perfect lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jay, your character has a huge transformation.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n JAY RYAN: Yeah, he has a polarizing physical change, becomes a Kiwi and moves to New Zealand. (LAUGHS) Ben, once he leaves town, he starts running, physically and emotionally, for 27 years. He learns how to say no, to stand up to bullies, and he becomes a leader in his profession. I don\u2019t think he remembers the horrific things of Derry, but he remembers the good things and holds onto those, like Beverly, the friendship. It seems to the outside world that here\u2019s a man who has everything, but he doesn\u2019t really have any real human connections. I think he\u2019s been waiting for this phone call from Mike for a while, and he\u2019s ready to go back to Derry and really reveal his true self.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JAMES RANSONE: I think, for Eddie, there\u2019s a lot of couple\u2019s therapy and prescription pill management. (LAUGHS) Actually, I really think that he\u2019s probably spent a lot of his time pretending to not think about his childhood by focusing on his wife\u2014they don\u2019t really love each other. I think that\u2019s what it is. You get in those type of relationships, where it\u2019s a constant project that needs fixing. You focus on that so that you don\u2019t have to think about yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you think it had a lot to do with his mother?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n JAMES RANSONE: I agree with everyone in saying that the book\u2019s about childhood trauma. And afterwards, a lot of people grow up and do really great things\u2026but then, at a certain point, you have to deal with it. I think you get into adulthood and you aren\u2019t focusing on those childhood events and, as some point, they come up again. I think that\u2019s really what it\u2019s about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bill, what about your character, Richie?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n BILL HADER: I think he\u2019s pretty good at repression \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n (LAUGHTER)<\/p>\n\n\n\n JAMES MCAVOY: Repression?<\/p>\n\n\n\n BILL HADER: Yeah, like a lot of comedy people, you deal with stuff by joking about it. You say you\u2019re being honest, but it\u2019s really\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n JAY RYAN: Depression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BILL HADER: It\u2019s depression. Yeah, exactly. I think that\u2019s what he\u2019s been not thinking about. He\u2019s definitely someone who just doesn\u2019t even want to. He\u2019s the first guy, when they realize what\u2019s happening, to say, \u201cOh, I\u2019m outta here. F*** this.\u201d He has deep, deep repression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JESSICA CHASTAIN: For Beverly, she\u2019s still living with her ideas of what love is. The first person she really loved is her father, so this idea\u2014that love means someone you love can hurt you at the same time\u2014has lasting impact on her. Also, choosing people who aren\u2019t necessarily free. She falls for people who are, in some sense, tortured themselves. It\u2019s all complicated for her. Love for her has always been something that hasn\u2019t been easy. And when it\u2019s not easy, she\u2019s feels, \u201cThat\u2019s what love is.\u201d That\u2019s where we meet her, 27 years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JAMES MCAVOY: Bill\u2019s been off writing. He has all of this subconscious stuff\u2014that he can\u2019t remember\u2014coming out in his work. He can\u2019t finish his story because the story isn\u2019t finished, in his head. Meanwhile, he\u2019s trying to do a good impression of being in love. I think when he gets that call and he realizes that he\u2019s been playing a role his entire life, he\u2019s got to go home and get real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ANDY MUSCHIETTI: In \u201cIT Chapter Two\u201d we\u2019re telling the story of a bunch of adults who will face that one fear that is the most deeply buried. And in some cases, these are some things that we as an audience will not expect. These broken characters have been mostly successful in their professional lives, but they\u2019ve been pushing down their original trauma. Obviously, it has to do with that summer, but it\u2019s something that you don\u2019t necessarily see coming, having watched the first film. It has to do with an event in that summer that they don\u2019t remember\u2014we didn\u2019t see it, because they\u2019ve repressed it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a journey that the Losers need to take back to their childhood, to access the power of belief. But, they also need to look that one event from their past in the face, to be able to confront it, understand it and ultimately, overcome it. The conversations we all had were about character in general, but also about what these journeys meant for each of them. You can\u2019t move past something you can\u2019t recall, so this has basically cemented their paths as adults\u2014they have just been running in circles. Beverly still has relationships with men that abuse her. She loves people that hurt her. Eddie has married his mum\u2026basically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (LAUGHTER)<\/p>\n\n\n\n ANDY MUSCHIETTI: These are the things you can basically surmise from watching the first film. But, there is other stuff that will be a surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Are any of you actually afraid of clowns in your life, prior to joining this cast?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n JAMES MCAVOY: I\u2019m wary of them. I\u2019d rather not be around them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ANDY BEAN: They give me a really bad feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JESSICA CHASTAIN: It depends on the clown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ANDY BEAN: You know what scared me when I was a kid? Easter bunnies, when you go into a store. That actually scared me more. A six-foot Easter bunny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BILL HADER: The \u201cMagical Mystery Tour\u201d album cover, like that animal mask. That dog mask thing bummed me out. Clowns, I was fine with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JAMES MCAVOY: I often feel that clowns are like slightly freaky uncles, who are trying so hard. And you see a little kid react to that, like \u201cThat\u2019s f***in\u2019 weird.\u201d Even to an adult, I think clowns are like that. Why are you trying so hard? There are easier ways to make me laugh. Just talk to me a minute, make me laugh. There\u2019s something creepy about the effort that goes in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BILL HADER: Why did you look right at me after you said that\u2026?<\/p>\n\n\n\n (LAUGHTER)<\/p>\n\n\n\n All right. That\u2019s it. Thank you.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n