Eurogamer meets Gemma and Tim Interview

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Eurogamer: Obviously, Red Alert 3 is likely to be your legacy, the work you're best remembered for...

Tim Curry: I expect so.

Eurogamer: But previously you've been best known for your performance in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which is still hugely popular more than 30 years on. Are you tired of talking about it yet?

Tim Curry: No. I accepted a long time ago that I'd be talking about it probably for the rest of my life, because it is an extraordinary phenomenon. It's the longest-running movie ever. That's a very weird legacy, but I'm really proud of it. I mean, it was my first film. Who knew?

Eurogamer: What for you has been the best role of your career, the one you're most proud of or just enjoyed doing the most?

Tim Curry: Well, there are a few. Mozart in Amadeus, which I opened on Broadway, and The Pirates of Penzance, which I did in Drury Lane. I loved doing Spamalot. And Frank N. Furter was a pretty powerful character to play.

Eurogamer: Personally, I'm a big fan of the butler in Clue...

Tim Curry: I love Clue. The strange thing is, the same people who do the live action Rocky Horror in front of the screen have now started doing Clue. It started in Los Angeles and apparently it's beginning to spread.

Another favourite was It, the Stephen King mini-series where I played this insane, murderous clown from outer space. That was pretty fun.

Eurogamer: Again, a lot of method research involved there, I'd imagine...

Tim Curry: A lot of method research. I did a lot of terrifying children.

Eurogamer: You've played quite a lot of villains in your time, and it does seem a lot of the baddies in Hollywood movies are played by British actors. Why do you think that is?

Tim Curry: I think it goes back to black hat and white hat in the old cowboy movies. I had a very interesting dinner one night with Billy Wilder, Helmut Newton and the guy who directed Mad Max, George Miller, and we were all having this Chinese dinner next to the Chateau Marmont. Oh, and David Hockney was there too. It was one of those extraordinary evenings you can only have in LA. I was an also-ran, mind you.

Billy Wilder said he thought Hollywood had gone downhill. When he started making movies, he and the rest of Hollywood relied a great deal on European actors. He said that now they were just brought in to play dazzling villains, then sent home.

I thought that was very interesting. It's true, and you have to be very careful you don't just play villains, because you can get horribly stuck.

Eurogamer: How do you think videogames and movies compare in terms of artistic value? There's a lot of debate about whether games are an art form; people like Roger Ebert have said they could never be considered as such. Having been involved in both, what's your opinion?

Tim Curry: Oh, I think they're definitely an art form. And they're moving forward all the time, because they're hugely successful - I don't know what the budget for Red Alert 3 was, but it must have been pretty thorough.

If you think how long it took movies to develop, I think videogames are developing enormously. But I they're still essentially popcorn, and that's why they're fun. I don't know that videogames are ever going to be, you know, Schindler's List. Nor would anyone want them to be, I should think.

Eurogamer: I'm not sure that would make for a great Saturday night in.

Tim Curry: Well, exactly. I don't really see a future for Holocaust: The Videogame.

Eurogamer: What about Rocky Horror Picture Show: The Videogame? Is that something you'd like to be involved with?

Tim Curry: Oh, you know, I'm 103 now. It would be very silly for me to be doing it. They're actually remaking it for MTV, and I wish them... [Pause]

Eurogamer: ...Luck?

Tim Curry: Well... [Naughty giggle that turns into a cackle and finishes up a big, deep, trademark Tim Curry laugh]... Pause.