Welcome to Derry Star Explains Character Death & Pennywise

Warning: The following contains spoilers for It: Welcome to Derry season 1, episode 5.It: Welcome to Derry has been a bloodbath so far, with many gruesome deaths. However, the most recent one wasn’t at the hands of Pennywise.

In this week’s It: Welcome to Derry episode, Pauly (Rudy Mancuso) sacrifices himself to save his friend Leroy’s (Jovan Adepo) son. After Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise revealed himself, he put Leroy under a trance. He was about to shoot his own child until Pauly intervened, getting himself killed in the process.

In an interview with Us Weekly, Mancuso explained why he was grateful that he did not get murdered by the bloodthirsty clown and got a more “grounded” death instead. The actor revealed that he didn’t want a horror movie-like death because he didn’t want his mother to watch him die in such a gruesome way, even though it would only be fictional. So, he was relieved that his character died a hero instead of getting brutally murdered by an evil clown.

I didn’t have a dream Pennywise murder scenario because my mom would really suffer a lot when seeing that on screen. So a grounded death is better than a fantastical death. I’m thinking about my mom here, and I don’t wish that upon any of my characters for the sake of my mom’s viewing.

The actor further elaborated that, beyond not wanting his mom to see her child get murdered in a horrifying way, he felt honored that Pauly died in a way that most people in It: Welcome to Derry don’t. He stated that he was grateful for how his character went out in a more “nuanced” way than the rest.

We see a lot of Pennywise deaths, which are a lot of gruesome and monster-esque supernatural character deaths and attacks. What we don’t get to see very often is a very grounded sacrifice made from a character. It’s happening in real life — within the context of the show. So it was nice to get a more humanized sacrificial death vs. a big supernatural one. I’m overall thankful that I got to participate in a more nuanced version of a death.

Mancuso also said that he was so happy that he was able to be there for the debut of Skarsgård’s Pennywise. He added that he actually got to spend time with the actor outside the show. He explained that he thought it was “really cool” to hang out with someone and then have them haunt him on set afterwards.

I got to spend time with Bill outside of the shoot various times. He’s incredibly sweet, funny and generous. Then to see him in that full costume that haunted me for two films was really cool.

It: Welcome to Derry releases new episodes every Sunday at 9:00 PM ET and 6:00 PM PT on HBO.