Patricia Quinn has had a long and varied career, playing a wide variety of roles in films, on stage, and on television. But it is one role that she is best known for and will be remembered for, Magenta in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," the gender-bending cult film that has been screening at midnight for nearly 50 years.
"Rocky Horror" is a midnight movie like no other. Always playing to packed houses, the film has become legendary due to audience participation. The audience shouts back at the screen, with their lines becoming part of the show. Many people attend dressed as their favorite characters from the film, with many theaters employing "shadow casts," fans who enact the entire film in front of the screen as the film unspools.
"The Rocky Horror Picture Show" has become a true cultural phenomenon. A half-century since its release, it continues to fill cinemas to capacity, playing to fans who remain part of the show. Some of these fans boast proudly about having seen the film 100 times or more.
On October 9, Quinn will appear for a special 49th anniversary screening of the film at the Curran Theater. She'll do an onstage Q & A, and for those who purchase VIP tickets, Quinn will participate in a meet-and-greet which will include photo opportunities (bring your own camera) and autographs. The screening will include a shadow cast and the audience is welcome to shout their participation lines back at the screen.
In a telephone interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Quinn spoke about the "Rocky Horror" phenomenon.
David-Elijah Nahmod: What is it about "Rocky Horror" that makes people want to see it again and again?
Patricia Quinn: It's entertaining. I'm not one of those people. I don't know how the audience feels about that. I went to see it on stage in London for the 50th anniversary (of the stage show). Now it's very choreographed, when we did it, it was simplistic.
I just did an interview with a company from Germany. They interviewed me at the upstairs theater of the Royal Court where we began. When we began it was just a 60-seat room, it was just a room, no stage, with wooden seats. There was a play downstairs at the time, so we couldn't start "Rocky Horror" until ten o'clock at night because of the music which disturbed the play downstairs.
So that's when it began. Our show was beyond simplistic. There was no set, there was nothing. All they did was build a bit of scaffolding like a ramp from the side so we can sit on different levels. That's all we had. And one chair for Rocky to stand on to do a pose.
The show features several songs that have become iconic.
Jim Sharman (the director) said "I want a song for you three, you (composer Richard O'Brien), Little Nell and Pat, like a dance thing for you three."
Richard went home that night and came back with "The Time Warp." He wrote it overnight. And then Jim came in and said, "Janet needs a song," and Richard came up with "Toucha Toucha Touch Me, I Wanna Be Dirty," and the girl playing Janet said, "I'm not singing that, that's disgusting." And I said "I totally agree." So that's how it came together. We were there while it was being written. It was extraordinary to be involved in that.
When did you realize that "Rocky Horror" was becoming something special?
Two years later, Jim Sharman came up with the idea of making a film, so you think, what? The thing was, when we did the show on stage it was an extraordinary thing, in the first week the whole of London was talking about it.
In the first week I'm coming up the stairs to go to the theater to go to work, and Mick Jagger and Bianca were standing there waiting for their tickets. And I walked by as though I didn't know who they were, with my nose in the air. I went upstairs and said to everyone "Jagger's in!" We were the toast of London the first week.
Of all the appearances you've made at screenings and conventions, is there one that stands out?
There were so many, it was beyond belief for me. I've done comic conventions a lot and met the fans and everything. But the most extraordinary one thing that happened; we were in London, and it got back to us that they were talking back to our film in New York.
We said "What?" "And they're dressing up as all of you." And I said, "What are you talking about? That's nuts!"
They invited us to the Waverly Theater and to a small convention and we'd never seen what they were talking about. And we arrive in New York and think, what could they possibly mean that they're dressing up as us? And then we went to see it and thought, "Good Lord, this is crazy!"
When you were making the film did you ever think it would become the phenomenon it has?
I didn't think anything, the film was a dud. Jim Sharman insisted on using the stage cast. Mick Jagger and Bowie turned it down. So, Tim Curry did it, thank God, and all of us, we weren't names at the time.
We made the film in six weeks, which was unheard of to make a musical at that time. Then it was done and I forgot about it because it went nowhere.
Two years, nothing. So Alan Ladd Jr. at 20th Century Fox didn't know what to do with it; he couldn't give it away. Nobody knew what it was. Nobody was interested in it. Two years later, it was a great good fortune, a young guy working at Fox said, "The way to market this film is that it should be on every campus in America and in cinemas at midnight." And boy, was he a clever fellow. Other than that, you'd never have heard of it, he did it.
Is it true that it's your disembodied lips that are seen on screen?
On the last day of filming, I remember all I could think of is how exhausted I was. I just wanted to go home. And Jim Sharman said to me, "Pat, have you ever seen the painting of Man Ray's Lips?" I said no.
He said that it's a disembodied mouth of his mistress in the sky over Paris. He thought that they could have my mouth singing, "Science Fiction Double Feature" and I said "Oh?" The only reason I did "Rocky Horror" in the first place was not to play Magenta. She just had four lines in the show. It was to be the usherette, to sing "Science Fiction," because I thought the song was amazing.
Then Jim asked me to do the lips, but Richard O'Brien had recorded the song and I said, "My lips and his voice, how much?" So I did the lips. I went down to Elstree Studios and it was a terrible time, a writer's strike or something. It was completely dark except for one person, me, and a tiny camera crew doing the lips.
And how they did it, there were no special effects, they blacked out my face, painted my lips red, and told me to mime the song. They asked me if I needed the words to the song, and I said, "No, I know it." So I rhymed to Richard's singing. And it didn't work because the mouth kept going out of frame. The guy said to take an arc lamp out of the clamp, and they brought the clamp down and clamped my head in it.
What will you be doing when you come to San Francisco?
Signing, meet and greet, and a Q & A. Little Nell and I were on a TV show once in America and the woman broadcaster said, "Do you ever get tired of doing these comic-cons?" and Nell said, "It's very nice to be worshiped." And the woman said "I could do with a bit of that." And Nell said, "Get a dog!" And when I was on the road I thought, it's nice to be worshiped. I've never experienced anything like these Q & A tours. Fantastic!
What, in your opinion, is the legacy of "Rocky Horror?"
We were just doing something about sex, drugs and rock and roll. So there you are. We weren't there to change the world and give out messages, or influence behavior. Richard O'Brien says it's a fairy tale.
'The Rocky Horror Picture Show: 49th Anniversary Tour with Patricia Quinn,' October 9, 8pm, Curran Theater, 445 Geary Street, $57-$328, $100 VIP Meet and Greet, children under 17 must be accompanied by an adult; no one under 5 admitted. www.sfcurran.com
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