James Ransone Is It Chapter Two 's Secret Weapon
The actor James Ransone stars in this week’s ghoulish horror-adventure It Chapter Two, but he says he probably wouldn’t have finished reading Stephen King’s original, massive, 1,000-plus page horror opus as a kid. Not because he was too scared, mind you, but because Ransone—who plays the adult version of Eddie Kaspbrak (taking over from Jack Dylan Grazer, who reprises his role as the younger ‘80s version)—was, simply, “a lazy child.”
“I was probably more informed by movies,” he says a week before the release of It Chapter Two. “You know, you would see the movie and then you’d go read the book—but you maybe wouldn’t read all of the book. I feel like that’s happening with It, with the next generation right now. They’re like, ‘Man, that movie was awesome! [But] I cannot get through these eleven-hundred pages!’”
As a movie, though, It Chapter Two isn’t exactly breezy. Clocking in at nearly three hours long (joining the ranks of similarly long cinematic opuses like Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, and Spartacus), Chapter Two is full of Pennywise the Dancing Clown’s special breed of horror, as Eddie and the rest of the now-adult Losers Club must return to their mostly forgotten hometown of Derry, Maine, in order to stop Pennywise once and for all—and, it turns out, to have some good laughs along the way, too.
Ransone carved out the time in his clown-killing schedule to talk with GQ about Chapter Two’s comic relief, some adult worries that are way more depressing and scary than anything Pennywise could dream up, and nearly drowning on director Andy Muschietti’s vomit concoction.
GQ: Did you film the movie as though it were a horror or a comedy? I ask because while there are some fun scares, it’s surprisingly funny—even more than the first one—and a lot of that is due to you and Bill Hader.
James Ransone: The kids were really funny in the first one, though. There’s some really good one-liners that Finn Wolfhard and Jack Dylan Grazer have. I think the problem with the second half—of the book, anyway—is that it’s more morose. To bookend the success of the first movie, there needed to be levity, or it’s just not as fun.
Because, even with the scary alien space clown and all that stuff, [the first It] is an adventurous movie. It’s talking about a period of time when you’re really young, and youth means that there’s hope and potential for the future. But then, when you’re old, you run out of potential because you run out of future. It was really important to keep the levity in there, because otherwise, you’re not recognizing why the first one was so beloved.
You saying “you run out of potential because you run out of future,” was scarier to me than anything in the movie, so thanks for that.
You’re welcome! That’s the story of Peter Pan though, by the way. Peter Pan is exactly that, that’s why Captain Hook has that alligator with the clock chasing him around.
Was striking the balance between comedy and horror tricky at all? Eddie probably has the most noticeable emotional arc in the whole movie, and you really get to showcase both your fear and your confidence.
Oh, yeah, somebody else said that to me too. I think, honestly, some of it is sheer dumb luck. Jack Dylan Grazer played to my three tricks that I can do as an actor. So, I didn’t spend a lot of time making some big sort of diagram of what Eddie’s journey would be. I just knew that they were going to rely on me and Bill like Click and Clack for a lot of the laughter.
Then, the trick is: how can I be as vulnerable as I can when you film some of those other scenes? That’s harder, just because I don’t like appearing weak—but who does? Vulnerability isn’t weakness. Everyone should go towards vulnerability, because the projection of strength is not true strength. It’s just someone covering up for an insecurity. Once you fundamentally see that as a truth in the world, then you’re kind of obligated to go, “Oh, then I need to open up myself to be vulnerable. I’m not going to get very far pretending to be strong, then I’ll just turn into an asshole or a bully.”
If It appeared to you, as your greatest fear, what form would it take?
Right now, like, an IRS guy, probably. Or some wedding I don’t want to go to. It would be like Pennywise moving into my house. “Can I come spend, like, a weekend there?” And, I’d be like “Oh yeah, sure.” And he’d go, “I just got a divorce.” And then he... doesn’t move out. That’s my fear, now.
You get pretty beat up in this movie. You’re stabbed a couple of times and barfed on real bad. What was any of that like?
It was terrible. Every part of that was terrible. The barf was worse than getting stabbed in the face, because they CGI’d the knife in later. But, Andy put so much tempera paint—you know that paint? It’s really chalky and it had peas and carrots in it. It was literally like 15 or 20 gallons that they just pressure-sprayed out this hose, into my mouth. I almost passed out because I couldn’t breathe.
That sounds awful.
Yeah, it was terrible. And they have video of that! They took a video of that from behind the monitor, so I could hear them all laughing. Such assholes. [Laughs.]
Did you meet or work with Jack Dylan Grazer much before shooting to figure out what his character would be like all-grown up?
No, not really. I watched the movie before I met with Andy, and then we met a little bit. The kids weren’t on set at the same time as the adults, so we met in Toronto. Literally all I did was try to copy what he did as a child in that first one the best as I could.
Is that at all strange, to come in as an experienced actor and to have to live up to a character first played by someone who hasn’t been alive for as long as you’ve been acting?
No, it’s actually awesome. It is a totally reverse thing. As a younger actor who felt they had something to prove, I would have been like, “Well, I’m going to develop this whole narrative around Eddie.” And now I’m just like, “That’s what he did? I just have to stay in that lane? Perfect.”
And then the other side of that, too, is that if it’s a failure, I can blame a child.
Are you aware that you’re the second person to play an adult version of Jack Dylan Grazer this summer?
It was Adam Brody, right, who is the other one?
Yeah, in Shazam!
Yeah I heard that. He’s good, though. He’s always been really charming. I think maybe when I was younger I was really jealous of him.
Before I let you go, I have to ask. There was a whole thing when the first It came out where people were saying that Pennywise was hot. Do you agree?
In or out of the makeup?
Both.
[Long pause] Yes, to both.
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Originally Appeared on GQ
