Jessica Chastain feels "zero pressure" to make ‘It Chapter Two’ a box office hit.
The highly anticipated horror sequel gets released next week and while the first movie pulled in more than $700 million worldwide, the 42-year-old actress – who plays an adult Beverly Marsh – insisted she isn’t worried about whether the new film matches that success.
She told Variety: "I feel zero pressure. This ain’t my machine… I’m a peg. We’re all pat of the machine, I’m like a screw in the machine."
While Bill Hader – taking on the role of an adult Richie Tozier – agreed the pressure is "all on other people", youngster Jeremy Ray Taylor (Ben Hanscom) admitted appearing in the first movie was daunting enough.
He explained: "It was a lot of pressure on the first one. To make a feature adaptation from Stephen King — such a legendary writer — people were really upset about it.
"To turn that in and do him justice is really hard to do and Andy [Muschietti, who directed both films] nailed it."
Filmmaker Muschietti played down the important of box office success and insisted he’ll be "proud" of the finished film, however much money it makes.
He added: "We literally got it ourselves to make the best film possible, a film we’re incredibly proud of.
"If it makes $699 [million] or if it makes $702 or God knows what, we’re still proud."
The horror sequel opens with a scene from King’s original 1986 novel which sees a gay couple attacked by a group of teenagers, which was inspired by the death of Charlie Howard in the writer’s hometown two years before he released the book.
Chastain recently heaped praise on the author, saying: "The reason why I think Stephen King is the king of this genre is because he writes psychological horror. The monster usually is spawned from a human. It’s inside of us. Look at ‘Pet Sematary.’ Look at ‘Misery.’ We can become our worst enemies sometimes."
Jessica Chastain: ‘No pressure’ for It Chapter Two
