The son of Rocky Horror creator Richard O’Brien has made a film about the immortal monster his father created.
Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror, the inevitable but remarkable 50th anniversary documentary about the gender-bending glam-rock musical that became a record-breaking cult movie, starts not in London’s West End where it all began, or at a midnight screening in New York, or Los Angeles where it still continues.
It starts on a leafy street on a nice day in Hamilton, New Zealand. There, Richard O’Brien and son Linus are visiting the Rocky creator’s childhood home.
A kindly neighbour pops out to say they’ve always called the place “the Rocky Horror house”. “Do you really?” laughs O’Brien, “stop it.”
Then it’s off into the city to visit the site where O’Brien once worked as a barber before getting on a boat to England, and the bronze statue of him as Rocky character Riff Raff now standing guard outside the Waikato Museum.
But Linus isn’t there as his 83-year-old father’s driver. He’s the director of the film. It’s a role he was born for – he was a baby when his father wrote the show, while mum, Kimi Wong, was out appearing in the London production of Hair. She would also appear in the Rocky Horror musical and movie before she and O’Brien divorced in 1979, by which time Linus had started at a series of boarding schools, his fees paid for by Rocky Horror. Being the son of Riff Raff had its perks.
He, too, ended up in music, as an international techno DJ, and producer with his own London studio and record shop. But with the 50th anniversary looming, three years ago he took his idea for a film that covered not just Rocky Horror’s origins but its enduring appeal and the community of fans it has sustained, to his eventual producers. They said yes, if you direct. After all, he first saw the original London show as a 4-year-old, where he got to sit in the balcony among the technicians and operate the lights above the proscenium arch. Who better to shine a new spotlight on Rocky?
A week before he’s back in New Zealand for the documentary’s local premiere, a Zoom call finds O’Brien in Bristol on another stop on the festival circuit.
Was growing up with Rocky Horror as the family business a bit like being in the Addams family?
No. I mean, it can definitely seem like that at times. But the thing was, he was just our dad. Rocky was a very small part of it. He was taking me to school, he was picking me up, we were going for dinner. It’s just like a regular family, except that his job was a little bit different than most.
Your father features a lot but your mother isn’t interviewed in the film.
She lives in North London but she’s had a troubled life, a difficult life. She’s still around, though. She’s one of the main Transylvanians in the movie. In the iconic scenes of the Transylvanians doing the Time Warp, she’s front and centre. When my dad was given the idea that the servants needed to have a dance, my dad and her came up with it. So, she was very, very instrumental in a lot of it.
With both your parents in musical theatre, how did their creative careers influence yours?
It affected me deeply; my whole career has been in music, really. But not only was I influenced by music, my dad is very, very opinionated, and so when we were watching TV shows or films together, he would give reasons why he thought this was good or this wasn’t good; why he liked this, why he didn’t like this. So having someone who had definite opinions about why something was good or not, or why he enjoyed it or not, influences every part of your life.
With the film, did being your father’s son mean the doors automatically opened for you when it came to getting interviews with the likes of Tim Curry (who played the alien transvestite Dr Frank-N-Furter on stage and screen) and Susan Sarandon (who played Janet in the film)?
No. It took a little while, especially with those two in particular. With Tim Curry, it took about six months of talking to his manager and getting him in the right place and getting the timing right. Susan Sarandon took a little bit of finessing as well. But I’m sure that me being a part of it, and the fact that the story hadn’t been told on this scale before, was a good opportunity for everyone. Susan says in other interviews that Rocky Horror is probably going to be the movie she’s remembered for, and that’s with Dead Man Walking and Thelma and Louise and all of her other films.
Your film is a reminder of just how good Tim Curry was.
Amazing. I mean, that performance is just so iconic. The entrance is iconic. When he comes on screen, it’s electric. It’s lightning in a bottle. You could easily make the argument that if Tim Curry hadn’t been in the original stage production and defined that role, that Rocky would not be what it is today.
And what it is today, judging by your film, is a movie with a very devoted following that seems more of a community than a cult.
There’s no other album or musical film or work of art that has tangibly saved lives like Rocky has. Personally, I think it’s in the hundreds of thousands, which seems maybe a bit grandiose. But I had someone after the South by Southwest festival screening, he came up to me, he was shaking, and said, “My wife and I met at Rocky Horror 32 years ago, and my wife wanted to let you and your dad know that if it wasn’t for Rocky Horror, she wouldn’t be alive today.”
A few years ago, I saw the YouTube clip for [the Rocky ballad] I’m Going Home, and underneath it was just comment after comment of “This song changed my life.” “I was stationed in Iraq, and I played this all the time because I wanted to go home.” “I played this at my father’s funeral.”
That’s when it clicked for me. When you think of Rocky in those terms, it goes from being this kind of fun, liberating movie that people have some fun with to something much more serious and much more enduring.
Which is ironic, given that the film initially flopped before it found its audience, which in turn has also kept the musical on stage forever, too. In an old interview you’ve used, your father almost apologises for Rocky’s staying power but quips that it’s a good pension scheme. Do you ever sense he regrets that it’s the thing for which he’ll always be remembered?
Not, not at all. He himself would say that he’s led a blessed life and is very grateful that Rocky has enabled the way that he’s been able to live.
The funny thing is, though, if Rocky hadn’t been the success that it was, I think he would have ended up being a much more famous actor. He would have got roles that he probably deserved but didn’t go after. He could have been a Bond villain, he could have played someone in Star Wars, he could have done Harry Potter. He could have done all those things, and he probably would have, if it wasn’t for the success of Rocky. It’s just the way things pan out.
Having grown up with and now made a move about it, what’s your theory on the longevity of the Rocky Horror Picture Show?
It’s because of many different factors: Tim Curry’s performance, my dad’s music, the transgressive themes, the sexual liberation, the gender liberation and the devotion to science fiction movies. It really works on so many different levels.
It’s really hard to point to one thing, but the thing that sustains it is the music. If the music was only half as good, we’d probably not be talking about it now. It’s the longest-running theatrical release in the history of cinema and second place is probably like a year and a half. So the longevity of Rocky is unparalleled, it will outlive us all.
Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror is at the Doc Edge Festival in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch during July.