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Let’s do the time warp again.
In 1975, Tim Curry captivated moviegoers as the cross-dressing Dr. Frank-N-Furter in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” which soon became a cult classic.
And while the beloved British actor died Tuesday at the age of 80, his most iconic on-screen costume will live on at midnight singalong screenings for many years to come.
As Curry told NPR’s “Fresh Air” in 2005, “Rocky Horror” wasn’t his first time lacing up in Frank-N-Furter’s corset; he wore the exact same undergarment during a production of Jean Genet’s “The Maids” at Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre in Scotland, where he was introduced to the film’s “brilliant” costume designer, Sue Blane.
“We bought the corset for three pounds off a barrow in the market in Glasgow,” Curry recalled, adding that he “wore it back to front” so that it laced up his torso instead of down his back — a styling move he and Blane would repeat for “Rocky Horror.”
When “Fresh Air” host Terry Gross pointed out that that “there’s probably nothing that can get you into character quickly like black bikini briefs, fishnet stockings, the garter belt, the corset, the whole thing,” Curry told her he “had no idea” his character would be dressed that way, and that it the costume “was a fairly late development.”
“I thought I’d be in a white lab coat,” he quipped, before pointing out that when you consider Frank-N-Furter’s origins, the outfit’s not actually that shocking.
“I’ve always said this to anybody who’s ever asked me about playing Frank-N-Furter … to just never think about it as drag, ’cause it’s not. It’s just what people wear in Transylvania,” he said.
Another Transylvanian fashion essential? The highest of heels, and Curry’s were made custom for the movie.
“I was in a shoe store, and I tried on some heels, but they were too short,” the actor explained during an interview with The Academy earlier this year. “They were sort of like trainer heels … so they had them made for the movie. And they did insist on platforms.”
While plenty popular, it’s not the most comfortable costume — as Luke Evans learned firsthand while playing Frank-N-Furter in the Broadway revival of “The Rocky Horror Show” earlier this year.
“The corset constricts you,” he told Seth Meyers on “Late Night” last month. “And of course, I’m singing these big rock songs and having to sing big, big notes.”
It’s “quite a feat,” but Evans said he had some assistance.
“In the wings, I have oxygen tanks,” he continued. ““I run off and they’re dabbing me down and I’m taking a big gulp of oxygen.”
To quote Curry’s outrageous mad scientist: It’s not easy having a good time!
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