The power of friendship is a foundational aspect of many coming-of-age stories across all genres. This is especially true in horror situations where people’s lives are literally on the line. Coming together as a force against a seemingly unstoppable evil and pushing forward with love and hugs is both entertaining and heartwarming.

IT: Welcome to Derry certainly uses friendship to drive its narrative with a group of 1960s era social outcasts who want to discover what evil is harming kids in their town. Arian S. Cartaya portrays Rich, a band kid with a VERY interesting family who latches onto new kid Will Hanlon. Little does he know that his new homeboy will get him into a dangerous mystery that threatens their safety. Cartaya spoke with Nerdist about Rich’s desire for friendship and his filming experience.

Interestingly, Cartaya knew very little about Pennywise and the IT universe before he nabbed the part as Rich, a kid whom he says is very similar to himself. Rich’s friendship with Will Hanlon, played by Blake Cameron James, feels like a full circle moment considering the actors worked together prior to this series.

“It’s funny because before anything about Welcome to Derry happened, we actually did an AT&T commercial in Georgia and we definitely had a good connection there,” Cartaya told us. “And when we saw each other in Canada, we were like, ‘Oh my God, it’s you! Long time no see.’ So we already had some kind of connection there, and we just like to go have lunch, have dinner. I’m very much a hugger. So my goal at the start to the end of filming was to make Blake a hugger, and I think I accomplished that goal.”

How adorable. Cartaya may have turned Blake into someone who loves a warm embrace, but one person he didn’t want to hug on set was Bill Skarsgård. The actor, who portrays Pennywise the Clown, was terrifying to meet in person. “It’s surreal,” Cartaya said. “He’s super intimidating. First, there’s his height. He’s super tall. He’s six foot five! So just based on that, he’s terrifying. But also before the scenes he would twitch and giggle and do all that stuff. And also his lazy eye is terrifying.”

Between the scenes scares aside, filming Welcome to Derry was quite the challenging experience for the rising actor. Outside of juggling his normal life as a student, Cartaya noted that the show’s co-creator Andy Muschietti’s very specific vision of how the show should look and progress meant that he expected perfection. This especially threw him off during his first day of filming.

“He’s such a great guy, but he’s such a perfectionist,” the actor noted. “He wants everything how he imagines it, so with me not being used to that, that day was a little rough emotionally. And Barbara [Muschietti], Andy’s sister, came up to my mom and told her that everything is fine. Andy just wants everything perfect.”

Cartaya’s mom stuck close by during his filming experience, which he said helped him find grounding. Now, Welcome to Derry is out in the world and he is excited about fans’ reactions to a season that he describes in the following three words: emotional, terrifying, and (of course) friendship.