Tim Curry Says He Scared A Child Actor While Filming The It Miniseries

Tim Curry gave nightmares to an entire generation of kids with his portrayal of Pennywise in the 1990 TV miniseries It, but imagine how traumatic it must've been to have seen him in person.

Curry opened up about his iconic performance at Fan Expo Canada, and Bloodbath and Beyond has video (above). He tells one story about the frightening effect he had on some of the young actors who worked with him, especially Tony Dakota, who played Georgie.

"There was a point in It, at the beginning of the movie, a little kid called Georgie is sailing his paper boat down the gutter, and it goes down the drain, and Pennywise grabs it and Georgie puts his hand down the drain and I grab it and I suggest that he joins me and say, 'Down here. We'll float.' And he stopped and said, 'Tim, you're scaring me.' And I said, 'Gee, I'm so sorry, but that's what I'm supposed to be doing.'"

When asked if Dakota has been in therapy since, Curry replied, "I hope so. I think he needed quite a lot."

Curry also had a few thoughts about Bill Skarsgard, who plays Pennywise in Andy Muschietti's big screen adaptation. "I like Skarsgard very much," he said. "I think he's very clever."

But Curry did have one suggestion. "I hope they make the end better," he said. "On TV, I turned into a sort of giant spider, and it was not very scary or convincing."

The new version of It is in theaters now and seemingly breaking box office records by the day. It had the biggest domestic opening ever in September and the biggest opening ever for a horror movie. The flick also had the second-biggest R-rated opening of all time, behind only Deadpool. It's on pace to top $200 million by the end of this weekend, which would already put it among the most successful horror movies ever alongside The Exorcist ($232 million) and The Sixth Sense ($293 million).

Meanwhile, take a look at what the cast of the It miniseries looks like today.