i really thought the reason chapter one had so many reddie scenes was because of the great chemistry of jack and finn’s friendship. and i really thought chapter two would have some quality reddie scenes because pj and bill also have an amazing friendship. but… the casting may have been deliberate all along. they needed the actors who play eddie and richie to have great chemistry because they knew it was a love story from the start.
Screenwriter Gary
Dauberman on Richie and Eddie’s Relationship.
“When we were writing and working on the first one we were
just having these ongoing conversations about where we would go in it chapter
two. […] We always knew where we were going with these characters.”
“it’s a love story in its own right”
[On Reddie’s Relationship] “We knew that sort of early on
too – that wasn’t a, “hey! what if we did this-“ it was kind of just something
we organically had in conversation as we were talking about these characters.
“There’s no ah-ha moment there, it felt very natural.”
Or to summarize, Andy and the rest of the filmmakers knew
that Reddie has been canon since the first film. Everything we speculated has
been right, and they knew from the beginning where they were going with their
queer-coding and bond in the film.
Did knowing this detail about him affect how you played the character?
It
just gave me more to play. We did a lot of different versions of
Eddie’s death scene. We did one where he’s clearly dead, and I’m
refusing to recognize it. And some where I was very tender with him,
where I’m caressing his face — this is the person I love, and it wasn’t
just lust. It’s truly love.
[In other
scenes] I was playing off James, but knowing on some level that I loved
him. It’s something [Richie] can’t connect to, so he has to hate that
thing. It’s very adolescent. “I have a crush on you, but I don’t want to
tell you that, so I’m going to push you away. But man, if he made the
first move, that’d be the best thing ever.”
[…]
There was just no possibility that Richie could have been mature and told Eddie how he really felt about him?
I
think with Eddie, it’s frozen like that. It’s like when you’ve known
someone forever. |…] You revert back because your
relationship’s been established at a certain age.
There’s little moments where I tried to play that. [When the Losers’
Club has its first adult reunion]Richie might be in a place where, he’s
like, I don’t really care about him anymore.And then he immediately
gets smashed. He sees Eddie’s there. He’s like, oh yeah, feelings still
there — I’m going to get drunk.
so i watched a LOT of IT chapter 2 interviews, came to some Conclusions about the dynamics between the older and younger actors, and compiled it into a video. here it is.
A list of recs that could potentially help you tackle your post Chapter 2 blues.
Disclaimer: This is not a comprehensive list, there are plenty of amazing fics that we have missed. I also haven’t tagged any warnings so be careful and some of these fics contain spoilers.
