IT Behind the Scenes The Losers Club Warner Bros Entertainment

Working on anything, for anyone, it brings people together. Especially when you're working on something so high-strung and so, like, down and dirty. You're definitely gonna bond along the way. Like, we're losers, right? But at the end of it all, we fight a killer clown. And we're no longer losers. I guess we're winners. So that's pretty cool. This movie, in my opinion, is more a movie about friendship and how these friends pull together to get through tasks with each other. Because if we didn't have each other, then we would never be able to get through these things. At first you think it's a horror movie with a clown that's trying to maul children. Which it is. But it shows how to gather up the courage to defeat your fear. You need people with you. And you need friends. And you don't need to do it alone. And it's very touching. We all have the strength to do it because we're together. And we all notice that if we're not afraid of Pennywise, then we can beat it. It's definitely overcoming that fear. And we do it because we're with each other. The way we're all bonded together, hence the name, we all have certain things about ourselves that ostracize ourselves from the rest of the city. And I think that really bonds us together because we really have nowhere else to turn. There's no one else who really cares for us in the town of Derry. There's a lot of character development in that book. And we try to fit as much character development as possible into the first movie. But if we fit any more character development in this, it would be a four hour long movie. Which would not be practical. I mean, we wouldn't have a problem with it, but... Everybody seems to easily relate to their characters. And they don't just portray their characters perfectly. They bring a new light to their characters. And it makes acting and my job so much easier. The reason you're attached is because everybody has been there. Which gives credit to Stephen King for writing characters that are so relatable. Either it was your shy girl like Beverly. Or you were out of shape in middle school, which I think everybody was in middle school. Or you're me, who was ostracized for race. It's relatable. It's just a relatable story. Relatable characters facing semi-relatable situations. How do you get into being scared of these guys? They're actually really nice guys. They're nice guys, but when we're in the scene it's quite scary. We forget all about our friendship and just get the movie done. We have a good environment. And it gets a lot easier when you have good actors with you. To act actually scared because you are. No, it was really easy. We all know it's different when we're in the scene and when we're out of the scene. Because it's funny, they'll beat you up or something like that. And then after the scene they'll be like, are you okay, are you okay? So you know, we had no problem becoming friends. The whole Losers Club, working with them, has just absolutely been a blast. And we're especially excited that it's summer. We all just got back in school, sadly. But when it wasn't, it was really good. It's so hot. It is so hot. It's so hot, Michael. It's because of me. What are you going to do? The first day we met, we could have been friends for ten years, it looked like. The chemistry with everyone on and off set is absolutely amazing. The moment of realization was in the rehearsal. Because I saw it coming to life. The first scene that the seven losers were together, I understood that we had achieved the bond. The kids understood their characters perfectly. And I got excited because half of the movie was already guaranteed. Cut! It's so hard not to laugh. Me and all of the losers and the boys get along so well. We're like a huge family. We hang out every day. After set we go to dinner together. We have sleepovers and we see movies together. It's very, very cool. Today, guess what we did? We stood on a cliff. It was insane. It was amazing. It was awesome. And thankfully, Andy let us improvise. So that was really, really great. This is definitely, I think, the best chemistry I've ever had. We're going to splash in water and then we're going to land. No, we're not going in water. Well, no, we are. But not on film. We're going to lay down on some rocks and talk about dead children. In the Torah or something. I don't want to spend my free time. Well, he talks about that. Missing children. Missing. They are very easy to talk to. I didn't really think about it until I came on set. I was like, oh, my God, all these kids are like 12-year-old boys. It's like I'm going to have to work with them for like three months. First look, they seem very hyper and very interesting. But they surprised me. They were very nice to me. And they're very interesting to talk to. I have a really good time when I go to the market. Once you get to know them, they're very nice. Hello, I'm Charlie. Stay in the world of you. Good job. Let's do another one. Whenever people ask me, how is it like working with all the boys? And he's like, shh, I don't think they noticed. Do you want her to see him? Yeah, a little bit. What does he look like? Can I see it on the monitor? I think it would be a very different movie if we didn't get along. One, because you have to see that trust in the movie. And it just wouldn't be the same thing. I don't really connect with people often. I mean, I connect with the directors and producers. But this is like the first time that I've really been able to express myself in front of these people. And I think these are the people I just trust the most in the world. They're really ambitious to choose kids to really play kids in this movie. It makes it so much easier on me because it's not that I'm just inside my head trying to push myself to get there. The environment is great. The set builders are fantastic. And I have great actors saying lines like it's really coming from the heart. Holy ****. I'm Ben Hanscom. And I'm a loser. There's no way of portraying certain characters if you don't find an actor that shares the DNA of those characters. In this case, some of the characters are very colorful. And to portray a vivid characterization, you need people that have that DNA in them. Andy always lets us kind of pitch in our ideas before he tells us our notes. Because working with the seven kids that make Losers Club to life, everybody has such good ideas. He really sat down and gave us the time to really develop our characters. When we're on a scene and he'll come up to us and say, is there anything that you think Mike would do? Is there anything that you think Georgie would do? He doesn't just see a movie as a director's standpoint. He sees it as an actor's standpoint. He even hired us Mr. Ben, who is an acting coach and a mentor. I love Mr. Ben. Part of my process is getting to know the actors as well as I can. Find their strengths, their weakness, what upsets them, what makes them excited. And also to bond them all as a group. They all have aspects that link into their characters very well. Just in their own personalities. The first two days of rehearsals, I felt very assured that we cast exactly the right kids. The first two weeks working with Benjamin Perkins before shooting was great. We were getting to know him and we were getting to know each other. He was letting us do these exercises where we would learn about each other and we would just become more comfortable. It's been the primary week and a half. Just getting to know each other. Getting to know each other's names, hanging out, going out to eat, partying. Just so that the relationship as friends wasn't just acting. We knew each other's fears, pet peeves, stuff like that. We were just doing these exercises to get comfortable with each other. Like looking into each other's eyes for three minutes. Which was awkward at first, but it was like a really quick way to get to know each other. And it was so weird because the second day of knowing each other, we were so close. We knew so much about each other and we were best friends already. We did some training. We did bike training. We had choreography for fight scenes, which had been phenomenal. We were prepared. It was fun. I think we do it too much, but we like to joke around on set. Things are getting really emotional now. We're about to leave and also the scenes are just so tough. We're fighting Pennywise, so we're having fun off set as much as we can. Don't worry about it. I think being so close has helped our acting out a lot. For example, with the Wyatt scene, when we're saving Stanley. Everybody felt like that was Wyatt. And I felt like I really hurt Wyatt and I hurt everyone, all my friends. And it just helped us a lot getting that emotion out. For emotional acting, this has been the most intense thing I've ever done. Stanley! You're gonna say, shut up, alright? You're gonna shut them up because these guys are hysterical. Shut up! We need to listen. That day, we kind of like talked before the scene that we need a few minutes to really get into character because it was definitely an emotional scene and it's hard to just, when they say action, get into character. In that scene where we find Wyatt, he jolts up and starts screaming at us and blaming us. We're comforting him and we're all bawling our eyes out. And actually, that was the first time I've ever cried on command. I can cry when I'm mad in real life, but first time I've ever cried acting. And it was pretty amazing. I could not stop crying. I did the scene three days in a row, so that means I cried my eyes out three days in a row. At first, I didn't want to do it again, but then I was like, you know what, it's gonna look good. And I think it's gonna pay off. It was a pretty emotional moment. You know, the curious thing is that it coincided with one of the last days of shoot. The feelings you see on the screen are very much what the kids felt that day because it was one of the last days that they will all be together. You can feel the sadness and the need to be together for the last time and thank each other. And they just let it go and they're all crying and they were crying for real. I talked to Ben, the acting coach, and Andy, the director. I was like, okay, what if it's a role reversal where Eddie is talking to Wyatt, calming him down, and I'm at the foot of him crying. And it sort of just turned into everyone started crying. Finn and Jack could not hold back their tears. I thought they were just trying to stay in the moment whenever Andy was giving directions, but they were just crying. And not until after, we just hugged it out. Once I finished that scene, I was still crying. Me and Jack were still crying. And then the producer, Seth, came up to us and just gave us a big hug. And he was like, man, you made me cry and I have no heart. And so I was like, okay, that means a lot. Feeling them all there with me, it was just like, it gave me a feeling. Because we're all best friends off camera. We're best friends, life-long friends. And just being there in that moment where everyone's crying. Also Wyatt. Wyatt is a great actor to work with. He takes you there. I've been in that place before. I've shut myself off from the world and just cried. But I think that was the first time they opened that door. And it's definitely hard. But I think a good hug will resolve everything. There was not a dry tear in the room, besides Jaden, which was weird. It was definitely a very weird and out-of-body experience. It won't be the Losers Club. But yes, it will. I mean, it won't. No, it won't. But we'll still be there in our hearts. They had spent basically all the summer together. And they felt that this was going away. That this was the end of this magical summer. Also because they're all 13, I think, at that time. So it wasn't only saying goodbye to each other. But I think very much like in the book. After that summer, they were saying goodbye to their childhoods. Now it's just coming to an end. But I think I've been really anticipating this for a while. It's sad, definitely. But I think we're all ready to go back to our normal lives. It was really like a family. We had a lot of fun doing it. And there were highs and lows and everything. But we had an incredible time doing it. It's coming to an end and we're all really sad. But we might do some reshoots. And we'll see each other at the premiere and everything like that. I think that we've managed to achieve a great thing. We didn't create an artificial friendship. The friendship's so genuine. And it just became this thing that ran on its own. We're all like brothers now and sister. But now after four months, I've never been so close to anybody else. I can't even say it was a job. This has really been like the best summer ever. Oh my gosh, this summer has been the summer of my life. I'm never ever going to forget this. This club for life. That was stupid. What am I saying? Okay.