Stephen Rider Reflects on the Silver Lining of the Strike for His Onscreen Chemistry with Amanda Christine in IT: Welcome to Derry
The development of IT: Welcome to Derry faced numerous challenges following the recent Hollywood strikes. Despite these hurdles, actor Stephen Rider found a silver lining in the downtime.
Rider, who portrays wrongly convicted projectionist Hank Grogan in the HBO series, shared how the 2023 SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes allowed him and his on-screen daughter, Amanda Christine (Ronnie), to deepen their relationship during the filming hiatus.
“I talk to them all the time. I still talk to Amanda, we talk. Like that’s my family,” Rider said on The Official It: Welcome to Derry Podcast. He expressed that the strike provided a unique opportunity to foster intimacy, allowing them to communicate more openly. “She would tell me, her being a little young, like my niece … dealing with life. But it allowed us to build an intimate relationship.”
Rider continued, “And we had only filmed a little bit before we went on strike. I think the biggest blessing is that we came back and we had a genuine relationship that transcended just me and her. Our families know each other, and we still talk. And so, I love Amanda. And I didn’t have to pretend on loving her. Of course, I had to personalize that because she’s still not my daughter. But learning to love each other was key, especially for Black women; she had to learn how to trust me. It was important for me to show her that she could lean on me and depend on me. I was consistent, and I would show up.”
Co-creator Barbara Muschietti estimated that “90% of three episodes” had been filmed before production shut down due to the strikes, which created significant logistical challenges for the show’s storyline.
Stephen Rider and Amanda Christine in ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’
Muschietti elaborated on the production difficulties, noting, “We suddenly had to work in different seasons. This is a summer show, but suddenly it wasn’t a summer show any more. We had to create a different finale with a different climate.”
She further explained that the striking challenges were compounded by the growth of the child actors: “The kids were growing. Voices were changing. Schedules of actors suddenly became hellish. So it was a huge challenge for the studio as well.”
The strikes concluded when the WGA reached an agreement with the AMPTP in September 2023, followed by SAG-AFTRA’s resolution that November.
