Tim Curry once revealed the running joke he shared with Monty Python’s Eric Idle about British typecasting in Hollywood.
The ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ star, who died last week at 80, made the confession during a 1997 appearance on ABC’s ‘The View’ alongside host Meredith Vieira. In the interview, which has resurfaced widely since his passing, Curry explained how he and Idle, 64 at the time, would greet each other whenever they crossed paths in Los Angeles.
“Eric Idle and I actually always have this greeting when we meet each other,” Curry shared with a grin during the broadcast. “We shake hands and say, ‘Butlers and villains,’ because it’s pretty much what happens to you here. I think it happens to a lot of European actors—particularly if you’ve never established yourself as a romantic leading man or whatever.”
Rather than resenting the pattern, Curry embraced his reputation as Hollywood’s go-to antagonist. He argued that villainous roles simply offered better material than heroic ones.
“The fact is though, the bad guys are always much better written than the good guys and they’re kind of irresistible to play!” Curry explained on the program. “They’re so much more fun.”
When Vieira pressed him on why American casting directors so frequently tapped British performers for their primary threats, Curry pointed to the rigorous theatrical training common across the Atlantic.
“I think one of the reasons they come to English actors is that usually by the time we get to America, we’ve done a great deal in England,” he noted. “We’ve probably worked a lot on the stage and I think they probably feel that we bring some kind of style to the job, that we might not have necessarily acquired in the States.”
Curry’s philosophy on villainy extended beyond mere career pragmatism. During the same interview, Vieira confessed her own fascination with his dark charisma, telling the actor: “I’ve thought about this a lot, as I’m a big fan. You’re very seductive. And I thought, ‘If you were the devil, I would pay to go to hell.'”
“Hahahaha, that is going on my resume!” Curry laughed in response.
He then delivered what fans now regard as a masterclass in the psychology of playing evil characters.
“I think it’s terribly important when you’re playing bad guys to make them—I think you have to be the guy they love to hate,” Curry reflected.
“And the fact is, all of us would like to behave badly. All of us would like to behave in an underhanded way perhaps. All of us would like to have the kind of power bad guys have. And I think it’s important to show that it’s fun!”
In the viral moment that has driven renewed interest in Curry’s career reflections, the actor’s unbridled enthusiasm for wickedness—delivered with theatrical precision and genuine delight—captured exactly why audiences found him impossible to resist, whether he was wielding a riding crop as Dr. Frank-N-Furter or lurking in storm drains as Pennywise. The interview clip has circulated heavily across social platforms since news broke of his death, with fans citing his “love to hate” philosophy as the secret behind performances that defined multiple generations of movie villains.
Curry’s screen legacy spans more than five decades across film, television, and Broadway, from his breakout in 1975’s ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ to his chilling turn as the interdimensional clown in 1990’s ‘It’ miniseries.