When one door closes, another opens. Actor Stephen Rider knows this lesson well.
The It: Welcome to Derry star says he originally auditioned for the role of adult Mike Hanlon in 2019’s It Chapter Two before being cast as Hank Grogan on the HBO prequel series. Rider got so far into the process that he tested for the character before director Andy Muschietti eventually cast Isaiah Mustafa.
“I flew out to Toronto, met [executive producer] Barbara [Muschietti], met the whole staff,” Rider tells Entertainment Weekly. “They showed me what they were creating and everything. We had an incredible connection. Isaiah Mustafa ended up getting the part, and a big part of it was that [Andy] wanted the character to look and resemble all of the kids when they were younger.”
Brooke Palmer/Warner Bros.
Mike Hanlon (Isaiah Mustafa) in ‘It Chapter Two’
Muschietti’s previous movie It (2017) adapted the first part of Stephen King‘s novel, about the kids of the Losers Club when they faced Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) in the 1980s. Chosen Jacobs portrayed young Mike Hanlon alongside Finn Wolfhard as Richie Tozier, Jaeden Martell as Bill Denbrough, Jack Dylan Grazer as Eddie Kaspbrak, Sophia Lillis as Beverly Marsh, Jeremy Ray Taylor as Ben Hanscom, and Wyatt Olef as Stanley Uris.
The filmmaker’s sequel then caught up with the characters again as adults 27 years later, when the It entity returned.
“Mike needed to be weathered because he was the only character that stayed actually in the town, whereas everybody else got a chance to forget about everything that was going on,” Rider continues. “So it came down to that. I’m not getting the part and was devastated. [Andy] sent me an email just saying, ‘It was the hardest decision I had to make thus far as a director, but I genuinely want to work with you in future films.’ And six years later, this came to be somehow.”
Brooke Palmer/HBO
Hank (Stephen Rider) and Ronnie (Amanda Christine) on ‘It: Welcome to Derry’
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Muschietti and his sister Barbara, his longtime producing partner, successfully pitched It: Welcome to Derry as a prequel series where each season would go back another 27 years to the last time the child-hunting creature terrorized the town of Derry. Season 1 takes place in the 1960s when a young Will Hanlon (Blake Cameron James) moves to the Maine suburb with his father, Leroy (Jovan Adepo), and mother, Charlotte (Taylour Paige).
Rider portrays Hank, the operator of the local movie theater and the father of Ronnie (Amanda Christine). He remembers sending a self tape on a Friday to the same casting director as the movies.
“By the time they called on a Tuesday, it was already at the studio,” he says. “It’s one of those things in Hollywood where people say a lot of things. It just so happens that someone like Andy and Barbara actually mean it.”
It: Welcome to Derry premieres Oct. 26 on HBO.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
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