Barry Bostwick knows that 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' will kick off his obituary

Barry Bostwick has enjoyed a rich career on stage and screen over the past half-century, originating characters from Danny Zuko in Broadway’s Grease to Mayor Winston on Spin City. But despite that wide range, he’s well aware that the role he’ll forever be best remembered for is Brad Majors, the uptight "hero" of the cult classic Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Bostwick is appearing in Orlando this weekend at Villicon (lunattix.com) to host a screening of Rocky Horror on Friday night (Jan. 21) with the local Rich Weirdoes shadowcast. The film will be preceded by a costume contest, and the evening will kick off with a showing of Bostwick’s 1982 sci-fi bomb MegaForce (subject of the upcoming Documentary That Nobody Asked For), complete with live Rifftrax-style commentary.

As a longtime RHPS fan [and former founding producer of the Rich Weirdoes], it was a thrill to be able to interview Bostwick this week ahead of his Orlando appearance, and get his perspective on a wide range of topics, starting with …

... the lasting inter-generational appeal of Rocky Horror:
Am I surprised? Oh yeah, totally surprised. Am I grateful? More than grateful, in that it's something that is iconic and will be the lead line in my obituary …

What fascinates me is that we're on our third generation now. I'm talking to grandchildren who talk about their grandmother taking them to Rocky Horror. Not only is it a theatrical event that's passed down, it's a familial passage, where one generation introduces another generation to it. And if the younger generation doesn't get it, they basically disown them. They kick them out of the family.

My son goes to Cambridge, in England, and on Halloween, they were showing Rocky Horror there at Darwin College. And he made sure to Facetime me with a bunch of his friends in front of the big TV where they were playing it, so I knew that was something that he was very proud of.

… maintaining his positive attitude toward RHPS over the decades:
Because of the shadowcasts that have kept this thing alive for all these years and keep discovering new things about it, it's not static as an entertainment. It is constantly morphing into something else. And I'm very proud of the sociopolitical aspects of it, and that it has had a little influence in terms of helping to change the world, and making the world a bit more inclusive.

There's a reason why it's iconic, and there's a reason why [we’re] still talking about it. It talks about the "other," whoever the other is, and in some ways I’ve always felt like the other too. I think a lot of actors feel like the other, that's why they're always searching to be somebody else other than themselves.

... Brad’s songs & scenes that were edited out of the initial release of RHPS:
Brad is just one of 10, and I’ve always learned to be part of an ensemble, and I appreciate and know my place. I think that anything that was cut in the movie of my stuff was wisely done. The song "Once in a While" was in the absolute wrong place in the film. The film was just starting to take off, there was some energy, and then all of a sudden you've got me sitting there singing after getting boned by Frank N. Furter, and it stopped the momentum of the movie. I totally get that; you know, it's not my favorite song in the film anyway.

I regretted when they cut [the finale song] "Superheroes," [which was later restored]. ... They thought it was too much of a downer, and I thought it was the whole message of the movie. It was the last scene we shot, and it was an emotional scene for me, because when when they cut at the end of that I was in tears. Because I had had such an amazing time. For the first time, to be out of the States and to be in Europe ...

Even though I was doing a lot of off-off-Broadway and stuff like that in New York, these people were on top of their game, all of them: whether the editing, or the designers, or the costumes and all of the actors. I knew it was a special event in my life because I didn't look around and go, “Oh, I wish they weren't here. Oh, I wish that wasn't like that.” The whole thing was so fulfilling to me that I was emotionally filled at the end.


... the 1981 follow-up film Shock Treatment, which recast Brad:
I was never asked because they asked Susan [Sarandon, his RHPS co-star] first and she apparently wanted too much money. So they they passed on her, and I think they felt that if they're going to get a new Janet they have to get a new Brad. It would just look like a marriage gone bad, which I'm sure it was.

I find the movie a bit confusing. It's brilliant and baffling. All the cast members who reprise their roles, or other roles in it, I thought were excellent. Everybody was good in it; it’s just it was a statement about the future that we weren't quite ready to explore. We didn't really even have the mental emotional vocabulary to understand what Richard [O’Brien, the creator] was trying to say.

... the 2016 Fox TV remake of RHPS:
I was just so happy for the reboot when Tim [Curry, who originated Frank N. Furter] said he would do it, because it just got him out and about again. I think it really raised his spirits, and I think the fans, as much as they feel for him now in his current state [following a stroke], I think they just really wanted to see him, because he's so wonderful. I thought just simply from the standpoint that he was involved, was well worth the effort.

... the mainstream domestication of Rocky Horror on prime time television:
I think that whatever audience is seeing it, new or old, they're always going to find the subversive element, and think that they're being naughty. It was in Glee, for god’s sake; you couldn’t clean it up any cleaner. But here they are, wonderful actors and singers doing it, and it opened up a whole new generation to the movie and to its themes and social comments. I do not regret any of the incarnations of it, even the Fox reboot, because it brought in a whole other audience that will hopefully go see a shadowcast at their local theater, and want to participate in the movie.

... making Viral Vignettes during the pandemic to raise money for the Actors Fund:
They're now trying to raise money to turn the vignettes into a feature film or a TV series or something. We did eight or 10 of these little five-to-10 minute plays on Zoom. We all played characters that were stuck in pandemic world, stuck inside, and the themes reflected what was going on in people's lives. …
If you give a certain amount of money, they will write with one of their professional writers, a three-to-five minute Zoom show, a little playlet, and I will act with them in it. ... You can have them write a play, I’ll act with you on Zoom, and then you can put it on your IMDB page.

... streaming services versus traditional networks and cinema:
If you look at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Emmys recently, I have a hard time remembering any network having anything up for any award. It's all streaming, and that's the death of Channel 7. The more bright people write things like [HBO’s] Succession, you can't go back to Full House. It just doesn't work, the people aren't going to watch it. I won't go to the theater, and not just because of the COVID issue. Nothing interests me. You know, if it's a small movie, I'll wait and I'll see it streaming. I don't need to be entertained that much; I’ve got a lot in my life that entertains me, that I'm not looking for escape. Certainly a lot of people are, but I'm not trying to escape from anything right now.

... the evolution of Rocky Horror’s audience participation culture:
There's a certain level of obscenity that has to be there, because that's what's naughty about it. But I think Richard O’Brien once said, "We need more wit and less shit" when it comes to the callbacks, and he’s right. If you don't have anything to say that is smart or clever, just keep your mouth shut. There's some people there who are seeing the movie for the first time and maybe would would like to hear it and see it.

Different casts in different cities, I think that they should find things to say and call back that is more local to them. I always appreciate when I hear that; it shows that they've spent some time with it.

It's funny, sometimes I'll go to a screening and the only people who are talking to the screen are the cast members. The audience's aren't that hip to it [and] they're there just to watch other people show off. ... They've become more observers as opposed to participants.


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