See Mick Rock’s exclusive pics of Tim Curry behind the scenes of ‘Rocky Horror’

Mick Rock had a priveleged vantage point of the 1970s. The British photographer was the go-to shooter of the punk and glam scenes, responsible for images of David Bowie, Lou Reed, Queen, Blondie, Iggy Pop, the Ramones, the Talking Heads, and Joan Jett so iconic they still adorn many a dorm room wall.

For one of his gigs, Rock, who died in 2021, found himself embedded on the set of an oddball indie musical with free rein “to snap whatever caught my eye, stirred my imagination.” That production, filmed on the same soundstages as many of the classic Hammer horror movies, was The Rocky Horror Picture Show. To commemorate the film’s 50th anniversary — it was released in the U.S. on Sept. 26, 1975 — Rock’s rare images have been compiled in Rocky Horror: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Cult Classic. The new volume, with a foreword by Rocky Horror mastermind Richard O’Brien, features Rock’s photos and recollections alongside cast interviews, including Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, and the late Meat Loaf, and testimonials from such superfans as Billy Corgan, Courtney Love, Juliette Lewis, Norman Reedus, Jinkx Monsoon, Trixie Mattel, Anna Sui, and Betsey Johnson.

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One subject that definitely caught Rock’s eye and stirred his imagination was the film’s star, the inimitable, inevitable Tim Curry. The exclusive excerpt below focuses on the casting and performance of the magnetic star and includes some little-seen photos of Curry that Rock proclaimed “rank up there with my signature images of Bowie, Iggy, Lou Reed, Freddie, Johnny Rotten, etc. Together, we captured his iconic energy forever.”

‘GIVE YOURSELF OVER TO ABSOLUTE PLEASURE’: FRANK-N-FURTER

Tim Curry remains and always will be THE definitive Frank-N-Furter,” said Mick. “It’s unquestionably a brilliant and unique bravura performance. He played the character to the hilt and provided a performance for the ages. He is so strong that his blueprint of the role is the one that every successive stage Frank has tried to copy. It’s as if he’s precluded any other way of interpreting it.”

For Curry, there were two keys to the invention of his iconic role: the accent — which migrated from Transylvania to an English country manor over the course of rehearsals — and the towering Terry de Havilland–designed platform heels.

“The shoes were very important,” he told The Rocky Horror Picture Show magazine. “I didn’t get near the part until very late in rehearsal and I said I must have the shoes. Then it all happened. I tend to work from the feet upwards. It’s a question of balance, of dynamics.”

The rest is history.

“It takes a certain amount of courage to play Frank. But the only thing I’m sure about as a performer is that you have to be dangerous. He’s the dynamics of the show — he’s the one who makes things happen,” said Curry. “It’s such a witty part that the bizarre aspects don’t bother me. He’s just another variation of the mad scientist really — and he is funny. The odd thing about Frank-N-Furter is that he can go from doing something really outrageous and horrific to being deeply endearing, sort of jolly. I think that’s why he has worked the way he has.”

Frank-N-Furter — and the music of Rocky Horror — was perfect for Curry for another reason too. “I couldn’t make up my mind whether to be a singer or an actor,” he says. “Although in Hair they never let me sing that much, because the score was fairly high and I didn’t have a high enough voice. I treated Hair like a drama school. You were always able to rewrite your part. You built up your physical presence. And because everyone was competing for attention, you learned quite quickly to make your presence felt.”

Richard O’Brien says, “I’ve always thought of Frank as a cross between Ivan the Terrible and Cruella de Vil of 101 Dalmatians. It’s that sort of evil beauty that’s attractive. And Tim is a great performer. I much prefer to see him singing, dancing, and acting — the three things together, rather than when he limits himself to just straight acting.” As Curry explained to the New York Times in 2015, O’Brien had “reached up into the zeitgeist and brought down the most salient ingredients.” Those ingredients were, of course, right in Mick Rock’s wheelhouse. And as with so much of Mick’s work, the authenticity of his Rocky Horror oeuvre pops off the page when his photos are printed.

As Larry Viezel, president of the official Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Club, puts it: “You can almost smell the makeup on Tim Curry’s face just by looking at some of Mick’s pictures.”

“Tim’s campiness in the role wasn’t a fey camp,” Mick himself explained. “It was a potent, quite masculine camp. There’s an aggressive power-hungry twist to his projection. Frank was definitely in charge even in the shots where he’s half in and halfout of character, hanging about on the set, being made up, chatting with the other actors, with the crew, or with Jim. His presence is potent. Tim looked like a boss, and his voice was like a fantastic mixture of Queen Elizabeth and his own mother. And he rocked the corset too.”

Mick also raved about how much fun it was to shoot Curry. “In many ways, our special setups with his over-the-top projections have become the definitive stills of the movie. He was just a stunning photo subject and was totally responsive to my mildest prodding. He’s completely in playful character in every frame of my special setups, whether solo or with Riff Raff or with Magenta and Columbia. The solo images of Tim rank up there with my signature images of Bowie, Iggy, Lou Reed, Freddie, Johnny Rotten, etcetera. Together, we captured his iconic energy forever in still form.”

At the time, as Curry explained in an exclusive interview in 2024, he didn’t necessarily foresee the earth-shaking implications his performance would have: “I wasn’t aware of any epochal moment. I had no intention of influencing the prevailing culture. I just wanted to entertain and amuse.”

Excerpted from Rocky Horror: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Cult Classic (HarperPop) by Mick Rock, Tim Mohr, foreword by Richard O’Brien, afterword by Pati Rock; available now. All photos courtesy of HarperPop and the Mick Rock estate.

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