Tim Curry’s depiction of Stephen King’s horrific creation – the malevolent clown Pennywise – is one of the great small-screen performances of all time. The legendary actor, whose performances in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Legend left indelible impressions on audiences, brought King’s terrifying literary monster to life with his trademark facial dexterity and an unsettling wit.
In the 1990 two-part film adaptation, Curry infused Pennywise with an unsettling blend of humour and horror, tapping into the character’s essence as a transdimensional predator targeting children. His interpretation, as he described in an interview with Steve Newton for Fangoria Magazine, noted Pennywise’s irredeemable nature and his ability to shape-shift into the deepest fears of his victims. For Curry, Pennywise was devoid of charm or redeeming qualities – a pure embodiment of evil.
“Basically he’s just pure evil, really, and he can also metamorphose into various other forms — mostly into the image feared most by whoever he’s appearing to,” said Curry. “Or he can also seductively become other people. At one point he turns into somebody’s dead father, at another point he turns into the girl that the hero’s in love with.”
Pennywise is all about “mental cruelty”
Contrary to the traditional notion of clowns as symbols of comfort, Pennywise embodied mental cruelty rather than physical violence. Curry found this contrast intriguing, portraying the character as a perversion of the cheerful clown archetype – a smile turned sinister.
Indeed, Curry refers to Pennywise as a “smile gone bad”. He says, “Pennywise turns out not to be that physical, actually — it’s mostly mental cruelty. What’s fun about him is that a clown is traditionally a very cosy, comforting kind of cheery image, and Pennywise is none of these things. I think of him all the time as a smile gone bad — that’s my image for him.”
In writer Vinnie Mancuso’s piece on Collider about the actor’s startling performance, he says: “Curry’s Pennywise is proof that performances last longer than your most cutting-edge effects. Scares that stick under your skin for months, much less years, can only come from a place that feels at least a little real.”
An evolving creation

Image: (c) Warner Bros.
Reflecting on the creation of Pennywise’s iconic look, Curry credits himself, makeup artist Bart Mixon, and director Tommy Lee Wallace for crafting the unsettling image. Throughout the initial days of shooting, subtle adjustments were made to the clown face, with details like the mouth’s shape constantly evolving. He recalls in his interview with Steve Newton, “The clown face was a little mixture of all three of us.”
Curry highlights the challenge of perfecting the eyebrows, considering them the most intricate aspect of the makeup. “The first five days of shooting there wasn’t a day when the face was quite the same,” he remembers, referring to small changes that were constantly being made.
Since Curry’s iconic portrayal, subsequent interpretations, such as Bill Skarsgård’s in the 2017 film adaptation, have offered distinct takes on the character. Skarsgård’s performance leaned more heavily into horror, utilising chilling mannerisms to evoke fear. Despite the differences, both Curry and Skarsgård have contributed to Pennywise’s status as one of the most terrifying antagonists in horror history.
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