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One 'IT' Star Couldn't Stop Laughing The First Time They Met Pennywise The Clown

'I'm not a horrible person,' says the kid who laughs through horror movies

IT has been hailed as one of the most terrifying horror classics in cinematic history, and the upcoming reboot of the story looks to be upholding the legacy. Based on Stephen King's novel of the same name, the story follows a murderous clown, Pennywise, that lurks in gutters and shadows and similarly spooky locales with an eye toward murdering young children. In short, no laughing matter.

Unless you're IT star Sophia Lillis, who laughed her face off the first time she encountered Bill Skarsgard in costume as the murder clown.

The posse of kids had been kept purposely separate from Skarsgard until the middle of the summer, firmly enough that, star Wyatt Oleff told MTV News at San Diego Comic-Con, "the pictures we saw of him were the ones that were released to the public."

When they finally met him on-set, during one of Jack Dylan Grazer's scenes, Oleff said, "It was really scary to see a six-foot-five man looming over you" before he introduced himself and said hello.

Scary for all, it would seem, but Lillis: "Her reaction was to burst out laughing," co-star Finn Wolfhard said.

"That's all of her reactions," Oleff confirmed. When the cast watches scary movies together, he said, "It's like someone dies, she laughs."

One thing Lillis would like to clarify, despite literally laughing in the face of evil: "I'm not a horrible person."

For more from the IT cast, including their reactions to the movie's record-breaking teaser trailer, the experience of shooting a movie set in the pre-iPhone '80s and what Chosen Jacobs called "my favorite summer of my 16 long years on earth," check out our full San Diego Comic-Con interview above.

IT hits theaters September 8, 2017.

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