Stephen King Shares Inspiration Behind The Creation of Pennywise The Clown

It is one of my favorite Stephen King horror stories and Pennywise The Clown might be one of the most terrifying monsters ever created. Clowns in general are scary as hell, but with Pennywise, he took the nightmare of clowns to a whole new level!

For those of you who have ever wondered where the direct inspiration for Pennywise The Clown came from, King shared a story of going to the circus as a kid, and explained how he saw clowns, and also what he saw when he observed the reactions that other kids had to clowns.

While a guest on Late Night with Conan O'Brien back in 2005, King shared:

"As a kid, going to the circus, there would be 12 full-grown people that would all pile out of a little, tiny car, their faces were dead white, their mouths were red, as though they were full of blood, they're all screaming, their eyes are huge. What's not to like? I started to actually look at kids. Kids are all terrified of them, and the parents are all like, 'Aren't the clowns funny, Johnny?!' and Johnny's like, 'No, get me the hell out of here! These people are all crazy!' Because they are monstrous-looking and children are really afraid of them."

That is where Pennywise was born in the mind of Stephen King, and he unleashed the holy terror in his novel It. There have been two iterations of that clown brought to life, once by Tim Curry and once by Bill Skarsgard, and both versions were absolutely insane! Curry is still my favorite, though.

King also shared a mind-melting experience he on a flight where Ronald McDonald came onto the plane, sat right down next to King, started smoking, and ordered a gin and tonic. One thought that crossed King’s mind was that if the plane crashed, he would die sitting next to a clown.

Via: /Film