‘It: Welcome to Derry’ Star Rudy Mancuso Breaks Down That Grisly Death

[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for It: Welcome to Derry Episode 5.]

Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) finally returned on Sunday’s (November 23) new episode of It: Welcome to Derry, but he was not the one to cause the big death of the episode — not directly, anyway. Instead, it was Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) who, after seeing Pennywise shapeshifting into creepy versions of his loved ones in the sewers beneath the Neibolt House, trained his gun on his own son Will (Blake Cameron James) and took a shot. At the same time, his mission partner, Pauly Russo (Rudy Mancuso), figured out that his kid was real and not a horrific figment of his imagination and stepped in front of the gun just in time to save the child.

Throughout the season, Russo has been a loyal sidekick to Leroy, even stepping in to help save him during the midnight attack on his bunk and standing by his side throughout the racist aggressions from other airmen. His death also marks the start of something chill-inducing, as he’s later spotted in ghost form by Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk), whose box has been opened — something Doctor Sleep fans will know all too well about.

To break down Russo’s sacrifice and this season of Derry so far, TV Insider caught up with Rudy Mancuso!

Russo is one of the first people who sticks up for Leroy, other than General Shaw (James Remar). Can you talk about that instant bond that they develop and establishing that with Jovan?

Rudy Mancuso: Yeah. I mean, it was fairly easy to tap into a real chemistry because it was palpable off-screen, and we quickly became friends and had a lot to discuss. We’re fans of each other’s work, and by the time we were actually in character, it felt like simply an iteration of who we really were off set. A lot of the playful antagonizing and teasing, and you feel these people, these two guys, have been through, have been through quite a bit together, and it’s expanded past friends and Air Force and more into brotherhood.

He’s also the one who protects Leroy when the intruders come in the bunk. What do you think it is about this guy that makes him such as stand up and be willing to take these risks for someone he’s just met?

I think Leroy is one of the few people in Pauly’s life that actually has deep meaning and value. And although he’s quick to outwit everyone, and he’s highly reactive and defensive and has this sort of larger-than-life, Napoleon Complex personality, underneath that all is, “Leroy is all I have. This is my brother,” and I like to believe he doesn’t have much else, versus Leroy, who has a lot more to lose. He has an entire family — but they are each other’s safe space in my mind. So, even though he’s not one to admit it, Pauly will stop at nothing to protect Leroy. And the irony is, Leroy is more than capable of protecting himself until he’s not.

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I’ve seen where you’re a fan of It before. I was wondering what it was like for you going on to the Neibolt set, being that that’s such an icon of this series? 

Oh yeah. It was beyond expectation. It was surreal. I’m a big fan of the story, the universe, and the Muschietti iteration of this story resonated with me since it came out in the theaters. So to now be in it and revisit — they were revisiting sets, and I was visiting for the first time — was insane, like really hard to fathom. I’m still processing it. These builds and these sets are incredible, and they’re practical, and what you see really is what you’re getting. And even the exterior of Derry, Maine, they turned the city into Derry, Maine. And it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.

Can we talk about the sewer scene? The atmosphere of that is so creepy and foreboding, but also, there’s obviously the supernatural elements coming into play during all that.

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Yeah, Well, again, because so much of it is practical, we’re really living it, really experiencing it. It really is me and Javon, who plays Leroy, in this massive practical tunnel, which is really detailed and has real water, and no one’s around. The entire crew are outside of the tunnels. So yes, we’re on a stage, but boy, does it not feel like it. So a lot of what you see is real emotion. We feel very alone, we feel very scared, and also, it’s highly uncomfortable by design. So all those ingredients result in a product like what you saw, which is these two guys out of their depths, trying to figure something out that is unfigure-out-able.

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Yeah, so what you’re getting at is the supernatural element that’s coming into play. Russo has to kind of adjust on the fly. So what do you think he’s thinking when he sees Leroy just start to see ghosts?

Well, he’s struggling because he’s not seeing it himself. And although he knows is a very strange thing happening that is not only mysterious and unpredictable, but surreal. It goes beyond real life. And if he’s to trust anybody’s perspective, it’s Leroy’s. So now you have the only person in the world you trust telling you that he’s seeing things that aren’t there. It’s confusing, it’s tense, it’s stressful, it’s frightening. But then, in a moment of instinct, Pauly realizes, “Wait a minute, if my partner is seeing things that I can’t, and I am seeing this thing, it must be real.” And it’s almost like he taps into the analytical side that Leroy has sort of inspired him to have, and he’s solving a problem quicker than he realizes. And yes, it results in tragedy, but it’s necessary.

What do you think the legacy of Russo will be for Leroy and the rest of the group?

Well, I think a lot of what you’re seeing is setting up events to follow, and the show does a really good job of making every choice very intentional. So even though a character in Episode 1 that seems, seems fairly meaningless, you realize by Episode 4 that it isn’t. And yeah, I mean, Leroy’s character is directly connected to other versions of this universe, its predecessors. And if you pay close attention, you realize that all these things connect and also set up a lot more for the future of the series. And yeah, I think it’s all in honor of something bigger than the show itself, and it’ll continue to transcend time and place. We could be in the ’80s. We could be in the present day. We can apparently be in the ’60s and still pay homage and contribute to the long legacy that is these characters in this iconic story.

I wanted to ask about that last moment of the episode where we see Pauly in his full dead guy costume. How fun was that for you to do the makeup process?

Not fun at all. I’m not a full-time actor, and I’m fairly new to some of these things, so to sit in that makeup chair — it is incredible work — and then put these contacts in my eyes that completely blinded me, and I’m in this heavy costume that I’ve been in all day, and then they throw me into the woods, can’t see anything, don’t know what’s going on. I didn’t do much acting. The expression you see on Pauly’s face is confusion and despair, and I think it’s exactly what I was feeling in real life. But then to see what it means and how it’s played out in the actual episode, it’s so rewarding, and I would do it again a million times.

Yeah, you get to be an origin story for Dick Hallorann, pretty cool!

Exactly. And not a lot of people can say that.

It: Welcome to Derry, Sundays, HBO & HBO Max

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