Tim Curry's "Rocky Horror Picture Show "success did not impress his mother: 'She was scared of it' Shania RussellOctober 20, 2025 at 1:39 AM 0 20th Century Fox/Getty (LR): Nell Campbell, Patricia Quinn, Tim Curry, and Richard O'Brien in 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' The Rocky Horror Picture Show m...
- - Tim Curry's "Rocky Horror Picture Show "success did not impress his mother: 'She was scared of it'
Shania RussellOctober 20, 2025 at 1:39 AM
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20th Century Fox/Getty
(L-R): Nell Campbell, Patricia Quinn, Tim Curry, and Richard O'Brien in 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show'
The Rocky Horror Picture Show may have launched Tim Curry's career, but his sudden stardom had little effect on his mother.
The actor, who made waves in 1975 for his portrayal of trans alien scientist Frank-N-Furter, has opened up about his mom Patricia Curry's reactions to his fame.
In a new sit-down interview with CBS Sunday Morning, Curry reflected on her living to see him break out in the cult classic — and continue his ascent with favorites like Clue, Annie, It, and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York — but not exactly being thrilled about his fame.
"She didn't make much of it," Curry told CBS correspondent Ben Mankiewicz. "She was scared of it. She thought it would change me."
Movie Poster Image Art/Getty
Tim Curry in 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show'
He continued, "She said to me later that, 'I thought your head was gonna grow too big.' There was certainly a whole thing about not putting your head above the parapet. It wasn't good to be noticed. She would have preferred me to operate under the radar."
When Mankiewicz joked that Curry was "unsuccessful" in that regard, the actor agreed.
"I never did," he said. "I didn't give a s--- about the radar."
When asked later if his feelings about his mother informed his performance in the movie, Curry quipped, "I'm in touch with anger, that's for sure. I know how it feels and how to project it."
Mankiewicz then pointed to a pivotal point in the cult classic, asking, "When Frank is committing his particularly most heinous act in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, [killing the character Eddie with an ax], was some of that directed at your mom maybe?"
Curry replied, "It's not directed at her, it's just channeling."
He added, "I do remember actually coming out of the fridge where I just offed Meat Loaf with an ax, and I staggered out holding this ax with blood on it. I found that quite easy. I kind of knew how to do that."
Curry also touched on his complex relationship with his mother earlier in the conversation, recounting how things changed drastically for him when he was 12 following the death of his father.
"Having my life run by my mother was a very different experience," Curry said. "Her expectations were different. She could be really chilly. I actually think now that she was probably bipolar, because she could turn on a dime."
Entertainment Weekly/YouTube
Nell Campbell, Barry Bostwick, Patricia Quinn, and Tim Curry reunite for EW's 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' 50th anniversary video
He added that having that kind of parent means "you tread very carefully… or don't."
Curry was primarily a theater actor back in the 1970s and had starred in the original stage production of Rocky Horror when he was tapped for the film adaptation.
"They asked me to audition for it, and I sang 'Tutti Frutti,' which was appropriate, really," Curry recalled in 2015 for Entertainment Weekly's Rocky Horror reunion. "I started playing [Frank-N-Furter] as a German, then I saw the costume. It was quite diva. I heard a woman on the bus one day saying, in this posh voice, 'Are you looking at a new house when retiring or your place in the country?' and I thought, 'That's it! Almost like the Queen.'"
After his performance on stage he brought the "sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania" to the big screen, where the movie was initially a box office flop before becoming a cult success.
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Celebrating the film's legacy at a recent 50th anniversary Academy Museum screening, Curry said the LGBTQ+ community's embrace of the film continues to mean a lot to him.
"I think the message of the film — 'Don't dream it, be it' — is very important," he said at the Sept. 26 event, adding that Rocky Horror has "given anyone permission to behave as badly as they really want to, in whatever way, and with whom."
on Entertainment Weekly
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