She's played the White Witch, the Angel Gabriel and the Ancient One, but can you picture Tilda Swinton as Pennywise the Clown?

Producer Barbara Muschietti told Nerdist that she and brother Andrés Muschietti, director of the upcoming remake of Stephen King's "It," wanted the androgynous Brit for the part of the murderous clown.

"We auditioned literally hundreds of potential Bob Grays or Pennywises," she said during a set visit, "and it was an amazing process. We got to audition people that don't audition anymore and a huge gamut of talent; women, younger age, older age, we really went through the spectrum of actors."

When a reporter jokingly inquired whether they'd asked Tilda Swinton (then in the news for being cast as "Doctor Strange"'s Ancient One who was written as Asian and male), Muschietti replied. "She wasn't available."

When the reporters laughed, Muschietti added, "No, no I swear to God. We had a slot to shoot the movie and she wasn't available, so she didn't even audition. But of course, we all thought about her."

The role went to Bill Skarsgard, of whom Muschietti says, "Bill came in and blew our socks off. Because he was doing his very own interpretation of Pennywise, very erudite... very very familiar with the novel and with Pennywise in the novel, which for us was a huge help, because we went in the casting process with the book in mind."

1990 version.

"It" opens September 8.