Bill Skarsgard teases his mysterious Castle Rock character
Castle Rock’s Bill Skarsgard teased his mysterious, nameless character on the new Hulu series, and explained how the show’s horror elements will have a stark contrast to Pennywise’s jump-scares.
The new Stephen King multi-verse series on Hulu, Castle Rock, will combine characters, storylines, and horror sub-genres into one television series set in the town of Castle Rock, Maine. Not too much is known about the series, which premieres July 25, but we caught up with Bill Skarsgard this past weekend at Comic-Con to learn as much as we could about his role on the anticipated show.
Best known for his recent portrayal of Pennywise in It, Bill Skarsgard confirmed that his character in Castle Rock is on the completely opposite end of the horror spectrum, a reason he fell in love with the project. “As soon as I read the pilot, I was like ‘Oh, this is a completely different world, an original world, and this character is so different than the character I just played.’ Incredibly different,” Skarsgard explained. “This character couldn’t be further away from Pennywise, who’s all like ‘Ahhh!’, and this guy is so reserved. So, as soon as I read the pilot and sat with Sam and Dusty, I was like this is something really cool and something I really want to be a part of.”
Skarsgard’s character will slowly regain his memory
Skarsgard talked about how his portrayal of his Castle Rock character, a nameless person who is simply referred to as “Shawshank Prisoner” was a parallel for how he learned about the story itself. He teased that his character suffers from some kind of memory loss at the beginning of the series, and will face different “shifts” where he starts remembering more about who he is and what’s happening. Similarly, Skarsgard was clued in more about where the story was going as his character also continued to gain the same knowledge.
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“I did not know how the show ended or where my character was going into it,” he said. “There’s an evolution in the character, in that he starts out maybe not remembering exactly everything or who he is, and then there’s a shift. So, up until that shift, or when that shift happens, I need to know what my character remembers at this point… I didn’t know how it all would end, but I knew where my character’s motivation went whenever they shifted.”
Castle Rock compared to the horror on It
If you’re not into jump-scares, Skarsgard says that you should be a bit safer with Castle Rock. “It’s very, very different. It is kind of an intense ride… and this is more creepy than horror, or maybe even more mystery than horror, but it’s supposed to feel sort of malevolent,” he said. “It’s more of a slow build of kind of a weird mystery as opposed to your traditional horror… this is more of a slow fog build.”
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Castle Rock season 1 premieres July 25 on Hulu. Do you have any guesses who Bill Skarsgard’s character might turn out to be within the Stephen King multi-verse? Let us know on Twitter @HiddenRemote!