by bill biss
OCTOBER 2010 | RAGE monthly 33
“Don’t Dream It…Be It” BARRY BOSTWICK
Reflects on THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW 35TH Anniversary And Looks to the Future with a Guest-Star Role on GLEE!
Barry Bostwick is a skilled actor who simply loves his job. A job that began in the theatre back in the early 1970s landed
him a Tony Award for his role in The Robber Bridegroom. His working skills brought him success in films and television. Most notably, are his roles on the hit comedy called Spin City and a Golden Globe award for his performance in the mini-series television show called War and Remembrance. He also got one of his first feature film roles, in a wild card of a film musical called The Rocky Horror Picture Show in 1975. Little did he know that his role of Brad and the musical itself would obtain cult status of the highest magnitude. The film celebrates its 35th anniversary this month with a special Blu-Ray edition set for release on October 19. The Rage Monthly is proud to have been able to talk with Barry about all things Rocky Horror and how the film itself landed him a guest star appearance on the hit musical comedy television sensation of GLEE.
The Rage Monthly: For 1975, the film was very sexual and ribald in presenting its story. Do you feel that the film’s sexuality had a part in creating the film’s longetivity? Barry Bostwick: Absolutely! 95 percent of it is kind of a wink-wink look at the sexual
mores of the mid-1970s. It was this sort of glam rock or glitter rock scene that was going on and the sort of androgynous look of Rock n’ Roll. The “let’s try anything, be anything, do anything” and it’s okay to do that. Let’s put it this way, it wasn’t okay to do it but that’s what they were trying to say, that it was. Don’t dream it…be it. I think people prior to The Rocky Horror Picture Show and a few other things that were out at the time, were still just dreaming it.
Rage: I saw the film in 1978 and for a closeted high school student, Rocky and you and Tim Curry in bed and all the sexual innuendo…it was like, “Oh my!” BB: Was it like, “Oh my, it’s okay,” I feel better about myself or the opposite?
Rage: I was attracted to it as a blossoming homosexual. I hadn’t been exposed to anything that wild. BB: Would you think it affected your life in a negative or positive way?
Rage: It opened ideas but it didn’t have a negative effect on me. It’s just one more excellent musi- cal. It had a lot of inventiveness for the time. I’ve been a couple times to the midnight screenings back at that time and it gets to a point where you can’t hear the film at all…the audience participa- tion is so loud. BB: That’s true. It’s probably worse now over 30 years later.
Rage: In that sense, you just want to watch it at home. BB: Yeah, yeah. That’s what I’ve done in the past couple of years is that I’ve seen it
at home at Halloween on television. I think it’s a really interesting, sharp, funny and brilliant film. I almost want to ask all these theatres to do one screening a month, where
Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, LLC
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