Bill Skarsgård has revealed that his famous horror personas sometimes surface at home when his daughters misbehave.
The 36-year-old Swedish actor, who shares two children with partner Alida Morberg, made the admission during a conversation with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. Horowitz asked whether the star’s chilling Pennywise voice ever made an appearance around the house.
“Yeah, if they misbehave, you know,” Skarsgård laughed, confirming that the terrifying vocal register doubles as an unconventional discipline tool.
The actor then expanded on how deep his horror repertoire runs in domestic settings. “Yeah, he can slip out there. Yeah, he can slip in, slip out, and Nosferatu can pop in. You know, there’s a whole colorful bunch of schizophrenic daddy.”
Skarsgård has built his career on transforming into nightmare figures, most notably Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the blockbuster IT franchise and Count Orlok in Robert Eggers’ recent Nosferatu. Both roles required elaborate prosthetics, makeup applications stretching up to eight hours, and physically demanding performances that have cemented his status as a generational horror icon.
Despite his willingness to channel villainous voices for parental effect, Skarsgård drew a firm line at costumed Halloween appearances. His oldest daughter, who he revealed is obsessed with the spooky season, once requested that he join her trick-or-treating in full Nosferatu regalia.
“She said like, ‘You could go as Nosferatu,'” Skarsgård recalled. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, just tell your makeup people to put on the makeup. Eight hours later.’ I was like, that’s not exactly how it works.”
The Stockholm-based family still embraces Halloween enthusiastically, with the daughter opting for a classic vampire costume on her own.
Away from horror and parenting, Skarsgård has shifted into historical drama for his latest project. The Mosquito Bowl, directed by Peter Berg and adapted from Buzz Bissinger’s bestselling nonfiction book, recounts the real-life Christmas Eve 1944 football game played by collegiate stars and military heroes on Guadalcanal before they shipped into Pacific combat.
The production employed an immersive approach: chronological filming, five handheld cameras, practical explosions, and intensive Australian boot camps where cast members endured hours of daily football drills and military training. Skarsgård described the grueling shoot as fulfilling a lifelong ambition.
“I was trying to, because the shoot was really tough, but I’m like, ‘Just do it for nine-year-old Bill, he wouldn’t believe where you ended up,” he explained.
The actor added that the role satisfied a specific childhood goal. “There was a part of me that was like, ‘Okay, what’s on my bucket list of things to do?’ And it’s like to play a character that served in the Marines in the Pacific… World War II was always something that was like, I’m doing it for the little guy inside of me.”
The Mosquito Bowl opens in theaters this month before arriving on Netflix on November 25.