Tim Curry Receives Standing Ovation at 50th Anniversary Screening of ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’

Let’s do the Time Warp one more time — but this time in 4K.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show turned 50 this year, and the Academy Museum marked the milestone with a sold-out anniversary screening of the new remaster on Friday night. The celebration also featured a conversation with none other than Tim Curry, who was greeted with a standing ovation before joining co-stars Barry Bostwick (Brad), Patricia Quinn (Magenta), Nell Campbell (Columbia) and producer Lou Adler for photos.

“I’m so excited by this and very honored by the Academy to do this presentation of our movie, which has dragged on for 50 years,” Curry joked to the cheering, prop kit–wielding crowd.

The actor reflected on everything from finding Frank-N-Furter’s now-iconic accent (“They wanted to sound like the queen and that seemed appropriate for Frank, really, who clearly thought he was the queen”) to sparring with Pierre La Roche, the professional makeup artist brought in for the film after Curry had been smudging his own “back-street hooker” look on stage.

Looking back on five decades of midnight screenings and fan devotion, Curry said, “The movie being embraced particularly by the LGBTQ audience means a lot because I think the message of the film — don’t dream it, be it — is very important. One of the things that the movie does, I think, is give anyone permission to behave as badly as they really want, in whatever way and with whom. And I’m proud of that.”

Of course, Rocky Horror didn’t make Hollywood casting calls easier — Curry admitted he worried he’d be typecast forever — but it still opened unexpected doors. “Stephen Frears reached out to me about Three Men in a Boat, and I said, ‘What makes you think that I can play a Victorian bank clerk?’ and he said, ‘If you can play Frank-N-Furter, you can play anything.’”

Curry closed the night with a candid health update, reflecting on the stroke he suffered in 2012. “I still can’t walk, which is why I’m in this silly chair, and that’s very limiting. So I won’t be singing and I won’t be dancing very soon. I still have real problems with my left leg,” he said, before flashing his signature dry wit: “It’s awfully late, isn’t it? Why don’t we show the pic?”