Latest / The Bechdel Cast / The Rocky Horror Picture Show with Joan Haley Ford
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: On the beck Doll Cast, the questions asked if movies
- 0:03Speaker 1: have wenen inum? Are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands?
- 0:08Speaker 1: Do they have individualism? The patriarchy? Zef invest start changing
- 0:13Speaker 1: it with the beck del Cast. Hello listeners, you're about
- 0:17Speaker 1: to hear an episode that we recorded live at the
- 0:20Speaker 1: Ruby in Los Angeles on the movie Rocky Horror Picture Show.
- 0:26Speaker 1: And speaking of episodes recorded live at the Ruby in
- 0:30Speaker 1: Los Angeles, we are doing another one on November nine
- 0:35Speaker 1: pm and we're covering Home Alone. And this is a
- 0:39Speaker 1: show you don't want to miss because it's our last
- 0:41Speaker 1: show at that location because the Ruby is moving to
- 0:44Speaker 1: a different spot in l A. But that location has
- 0:47Speaker 1: been our home for live l A shows for over
- 0:51Speaker 1: a year, so it's very special to us and we
- 0:54Speaker 1: want you to come hang out with us there one
- 0:57Speaker 1: last time. Tickets and details are at Bechtel cast dot com.
- 1:02Speaker 1: Click on the live tab and we'll see you there.
- 1:06Speaker 1: Enjoy the episode. Hello, thank you for coming to the
- 1:13Speaker 1: life Stow. This is the Bechtel Cast. Welcome, Welcome, you
- 1:17Speaker 1: recome to see I see some T shirts in the crowd.
- 1:21Speaker 1: I wait, I need to get I have too many
- 1:23Speaker 1: you all use situate. I'll talk. Hello, Um, I'm dressed
- 1:27Speaker 1: as Brad Brad Majors from tonight's film. I'm dresses I
- 1:35Speaker 1: don't know. I was like, it's Halloween where black, and
- 1:41Speaker 1: then I didn't have time to go to CVS to
- 1:42Speaker 1: get fishnets. But if I had, you would have been like, oh,
- 1:46Speaker 1: I get it right. So just imagine I would run
- 1:49Speaker 1: that errand I was supposed to run. Yeah, I mean
- 1:51Speaker 1: you've got lipstick on. I think that's great. That's more
- 1:55Speaker 1: effort than I would normally demonstrate at this event. Uh so, yeah,
- 1:59Speaker 1: but I love you, Bradfit. It's incredible. Thank you. The
- 2:02Speaker 1: jacket the Bradfit. The jacket isn't quite right, and I
- 2:07Speaker 1: apologize for that, but don't apologize. That's right. Women apologize
- 2:12Speaker 1: too much. And yeah, we're putting it. I've been saying
- 2:15Speaker 1: it for years. Women need to stop apologizing for their
- 2:17Speaker 1: Brad cosplay. They really do. You're doing great. Thank you anyway.
- 2:23Speaker 1: My name is Caitlin Dronte, my name is Jamie Loftus,
- 2:26Speaker 1: and we thank you. We are the Bechtel Cast. We
- 2:31Speaker 1: talk about the representation of women in film and how
- 2:35Speaker 1: it's usually pretty abysmal. We use the Bechtel test as
- 2:40Speaker 1: a jumping off point, and that is a media metric
- 2:44Speaker 1: also sometimes called the Bechtel Wallace test, that requires that
- 2:48Speaker 1: two female identifying characters with names talk to each other
- 2:53Speaker 1: about something other than a man. Does it normally have
- 2:55Speaker 1: an in movie three to one? No, we've got a
- 3:00Speaker 1: doozy tonight. You know, there's a real like shaky hand.
- 3:06Speaker 1: Hard to say because I think the things that I mean.
- 3:10Speaker 1: And spoiler alert too if anyone is a new listener
- 3:14Speaker 1: on this episode. Uh, this show has very little to
- 3:16Speaker 1: do with the actual Bechdel test, but in terms of
- 3:20Speaker 1: determining it for this movie, it's very hard because there's
- 3:23Speaker 1: molt there's I think three or four layers into determining,
- 3:27Speaker 1: and then there's also like a consent question that has
- 3:30Speaker 1: nothing to do with gender that you're just like there watching,
- 3:35Speaker 1: So it's unclear. This is a wild one where we're
- 3:40Speaker 1: very excited and we've been getting this request forever. Um
- 3:43Speaker 1: and tonight's tonight. Tonight's the night on it by round
- 3:46Speaker 1: of applause. Who has seen the movie Rocky Horror Picture Show? Wow,
- 3:54Speaker 1: I think it's done your homework alright, looking carefully, Uh,
- 3:58Speaker 1: this is anyone not seen it. Clap clap, Yes, Okay,
- 4:04Speaker 1: we are not going to do what Rocky Horror does,
- 4:06Speaker 1: which is humiliate you if you've never seen the movie.
- 4:10Speaker 1: It's fine. Not everyone can see every movie. Isn't that
- 4:14Speaker 1: a fun community aspect where if you haven't done what
- 4:16Speaker 1: everyone else has done, you're absolutely humiliated, Uh, in front
- 4:21Speaker 1: of strangers. I think that's a very chill entry point
- 4:24Speaker 1: to a community. Definitely, that's great, and I think it's
- 4:27Speaker 1: brave of you to to show up to an event
- 4:29Speaker 1: about a movie you have not seen. Yes, good enough, Yes,
- 4:36Speaker 1: we love that. Okay. So we are talking about Rocky
- 4:39Speaker 1: Horror Picture Show tonight and we have a guest with us,
- 4:43Speaker 1: returning guest to the show. We love her. Yes, you
- 4:46Speaker 1: might remember her from our Scream episode. She is a
- 4:49Speaker 1: comedian and a writer for Nurdist and ThunderCats Roar on
- 4:53Speaker 1: Cartoon Network. It's Joan Ford. Hi. I've always wanted to
- 5:03Speaker 1: be a Halloween tradition and now I am one. Yes, Yes,
- 5:08Speaker 1: welcome back, Thanks for having me. So. I mean, since
- 5:12Speaker 1: we're commenting unfits an incredible seemed Halloween fit, I feel like, yeah,
- 5:18Speaker 1: I decided, I'm like, I'm I'm backstage decided, I'm like Halloween, Janet.
- 5:22Speaker 1: I feel like this is what Janet. She wouldn't get
- 5:25Speaker 1: a full costume, but she'd wear like a cute dress
- 5:26Speaker 1: with like skeletons on it. Like, yeah, I know native,
- 5:31Speaker 1: I'm getting the spirit of it. So, John, what's your
- 5:36Speaker 1: history relationship with this iconic film? Okay? I was growing up,
- 5:42Speaker 1: like I was like in my like early like ten
- 5:45Speaker 1: eleven years, um, you know, the early, the early, the
- 5:49Speaker 1: tens and eleven, whatever you call it. That was the
- 5:51Speaker 1: early ones when like I think it was, this was
- 5:53Speaker 1: just hitting its twentieth anniversary. I remember like Fox was
- 5:57Speaker 1: like playing it. It was like Fox is making like
- 5:59Speaker 1: a big deal of like after Herman's Head, It's time
- 6:02Speaker 1: for where the first network broadcast of of the Rocky
- 6:05Speaker 1: Horror Picture Show, And like I did not know what
- 6:07Speaker 1: this thing was. I had kind of heard inklings of
- 6:10Speaker 1: it like as a as a like cult movie, but
- 6:13Speaker 1: I didn't really know what it was. And I remember
- 6:14Speaker 1: seeing it for the first time like on that broadcast
- 6:17Speaker 1: and being kind of like transfixed by it but not
- 6:20Speaker 1: quite knowing why. Like I remember going back to my
- 6:24Speaker 1: like Catholic grade school the next day and telling everyone
- 6:27Speaker 1: about like and there's this he's like a transvestite. And
- 6:30Speaker 1: I didn't know quite what I was saying, but it
- 6:32Speaker 1: got me in trouble um. But yeah, I was just
- 6:35Speaker 1: like this is so I was like, I was like,
- 6:37Speaker 1: this is very cool. Like I thought this I had
- 6:39Speaker 1: discovered a cool thing, which I had, but not many
- 6:42Speaker 1: people everyone agreed, but I was like, this is cool,
- 6:44Speaker 1: Like he's a transdestite. It's a cool thing, right, And
- 6:46Speaker 1: everyone's like and uh and yes, that was like my
- 6:50Speaker 1: first memory of it. And then it kind of like
- 6:52Speaker 1: it's a thing that I mean, you know, I was
- 6:55Speaker 1: a closeted, queer, white theater kid in suburban America, so
- 7:00Speaker 1: it kept creeping up in my life. I remember once
- 7:03Speaker 1: like I got home from like a thing and my
- 7:06Speaker 1: dad was like, hey, like I taped Rocky Horror Picture
- 7:10Speaker 1: Show for you off of Comedy Central, and like by
- 7:13Speaker 1: that time, I like internalized that it wasn't something I
- 7:15Speaker 1: was supposed to like. So I was like, I don't
- 7:16Speaker 1: like that thing. I don't want to watch that thing.
- 7:17Speaker 1: Why did you take that for me? And I think
- 7:19Speaker 1: that's when my dad like stopped being like, well, no
- 7:23Speaker 1: longer am I going to like try to involve myself
- 7:25Speaker 1: in their queer identity. That's it. I'm giving up. I
- 7:28Speaker 1: turned them off to it and strike and it was
- 7:31Speaker 1: one strike yes, um, and then yeah and then I
- 7:35Speaker 1: I went to the shadow cast in like high school,
- 7:38Speaker 1: and then in college and again when I moved out here.
- 7:40Speaker 1: So it's just a thing that's been like ever a
- 7:42Speaker 1: present thing in my life, like from a very early age.
- 7:45Speaker 1: The tens in the eleven Yes, the tens and elevens. Yes,
- 7:49Speaker 1: a bottle of them, Jamie, how about you. I got
- 7:53Speaker 1: into Rocky Horror. I think around high school. I know
- 7:57Speaker 1: the first time I went. I was like it was
- 7:59Speaker 1: my freshman year in high school. My mom was very
- 8:03Speaker 1: into Rocky Horror. Um the there everyone's laughing because maybe
- 8:08Speaker 1: some people have already seen the pick. But she tweeted
- 8:11Speaker 1: at the betel Cast account of her, at age seventeen,
- 8:14Speaker 1: wearing really not many clothes. That was her. That was
- 8:17Speaker 1: my mom. I thought that was you maybe No, no, no,
- 8:21Speaker 1: I there the pictures of me are far less cool
- 8:23Speaker 1: than the ones that were tweeted. I'm wearing far more clothes. No,
- 8:27Speaker 1: they're my mom like in because you know, I grew
- 8:30Speaker 1: up in like a suburban area as well, where queer
- 8:34Speaker 1: community was kind of scant to be found. And my
- 8:38Speaker 1: my mom when she was younger, like loved going. She
- 8:42Speaker 1: went every single month. She was a stand She was there,
- 8:45Speaker 1: she knew it all, she loved wearing Leo tarts in public.
- 8:49Speaker 1: She just was there. So she was like really encouraging
- 8:52Speaker 1: me to go. When I was a young teen and
- 8:55Speaker 1: I went, I went with my cousin. I think we
- 8:57Speaker 1: went maybe like once a year when I was in
- 9:00Speaker 1: high school to the West Bridgewater showing. I mean, if
- 9:04Speaker 1: all my Westbridgewater heads listening to this, it's a very
- 9:08Speaker 1: small theater, but a lot of enthusiasm. And then I
- 9:11Speaker 1: think I went like once or twice more in college
- 9:14Speaker 1: and then when I lived here. But I've I've been
- 9:16Speaker 1: like I didn't want to say, like five or six times. Okay,
- 9:18Speaker 1: very good. What about you, Caitlin. I've never been to
- 9:21Speaker 1: a live screening. I've seen this movie probably only a
- 9:24Speaker 1: handful of times. I saw it for the first time
- 9:27Speaker 1: in college when I was getting one of two film
- 9:30Speaker 1: degrees that I would eventually have. But I I like,
- 9:36Speaker 1: I thought it was like cool and campy and subversive.
- 9:40Speaker 1: But you you may know this about me. I'm not
- 9:44Speaker 1: a huge fan of musicals, although this is one that
- 9:47Speaker 1: I tolerate quite a bit more than than others. But
- 9:51Speaker 1: for me, it comes down to story and the story
- 9:55Speaker 1: of the because again, I do have a master's degree
- 9:57Speaker 1: in screenwriting from Boston University that I simply hate to mention.
- 10:02Speaker 1: It's not what one would call yeah, not a not
- 10:07Speaker 1: a classic three act structure. I think that there's because
- 10:11Speaker 1: all three of us have watched it multiple times in
- 10:14Speaker 1: preparation for this, and between the three of us we
- 10:18Speaker 1: really tried to place together like, oh, I think that
- 10:21Speaker 1: they maybe thought they were foreshadowing there, yeah, yeah, like
- 10:27Speaker 1: when do we find out these characters are aliens? Um.
- 10:31Speaker 1: This was the first time I watched in and completely
- 10:33Speaker 1: realized Brad and Janet have absolutely no bearing on the
- 10:37Speaker 1: actual like plot of the film. They could be a
- 10:43Speaker 1: raised from the story and the film every the film
- 10:45Speaker 1: would end the exact same way it ended. Yes, if
- 10:49Speaker 1: they had never arrived, they had never arrived them even
- 10:53Speaker 1: like them arriving as an inciting incident. If we're talking
- 10:56Speaker 1: your degree and thank you so much, makes it doesn't incite.
- 11:01Speaker 1: It used to incite what was going to happen anyway, Yes, yes,
- 11:05Speaker 1: it incites nothing like the party was going to happen,
- 11:09Speaker 1: the brutal murder of famous rock star meat Load was
- 11:13Speaker 1: going to happen. And they're not even in that they
- 11:17Speaker 1: are audience circuits in the most literal way, and that
- 11:19Speaker 1: they are just audience members who I get to have
- 11:23Speaker 1: sex with the with the main character at one point. Yes,
- 11:26Speaker 1: that's the best audience circuits. I like to think that
- 11:29Speaker 1: Brad and Janet inspire riff Raff and Magenta to rise
- 11:34Speaker 1: up against their bourgeois oppressor and take over. Right the end, well,
- 11:43Speaker 1: here's Mike. But I was getting a lot of like
- 11:45Speaker 1: Cerce and Jamie Lanister energy from them because they keeping like,
- 11:49Speaker 1: we're siblings, but we're kissing and you're like, let's not
- 11:53Speaker 1: go here, like but then at the end they're like, no,
- 11:58Speaker 1: we are still siblings who are fucking. But the twist
- 12:00Speaker 1: is we're alien siblings who are fucking. You're like, all right,
- 12:06Speaker 1: I guess that's a twist. I don't know who you
- 12:08Speaker 1: get who you was right? Well with that? Should we
- 12:12Speaker 1: get into the story that the words story and plot
- 12:20Speaker 1: loosely for this movie, but here it is the three
- 12:23Speaker 1: of us will we'll do our fare at Truly, if
- 12:27Speaker 1: anyone in the crowd has exposition some little seedling that
- 12:31Speaker 1: was planted that we totally missed, let us know. It's
- 12:34Speaker 1: very possible. Maybe we're bad viewers. Yeah, you guys, educate us.
- 12:38Speaker 1: We're blaming ourselves. I know we just talked about it.
- 12:42Speaker 1: But I apologize for what I what's about to happen.
- 12:45Speaker 1: I'm already sorry for it. I think this is gonna
- 12:48Speaker 1: go great. Okay, okay, okay, thank you, Brat, you're welcome.
- 12:52Speaker 1: So Janet which is Susan Surrandon's character, and Brad played
- 12:58Speaker 1: by Barry Boss. He was on Spin City Brave. I've
- 13:03Speaker 1: never seen it, but he say break camp. Yes. They
- 13:09Speaker 1: are at their friend's wedding and the two of them
- 13:14Speaker 1: get engaged after the wedding. It's unclear whether they want
- 13:21Speaker 1: to get engaged. They definitely think they should get engaged
- 13:23Speaker 1: right right, and then they sing a song about being
- 13:27Speaker 1: engaged or the best songs in it. I mean, damnit, Janet,
- 13:31Speaker 1: good stuff. This is when it's revealed that Susan Sarandon
- 13:34Speaker 1: has a serviceable high school soprano. Bad they're not helping her,
- 13:45Speaker 1: like it's just not her it's clear that she's an alto.
- 13:50Speaker 1: Then we cut to a scene where they are driving
- 13:54Speaker 1: in the dark and stormy night to visit their friend Dr.
- 13:58Speaker 1: Everett Scott, as as we all do right after we
- 14:02Speaker 1: get engaged. The first thing, the first people you tell
- 14:04Speaker 1: after you get engage, you're a high school science teacher,
- 14:08Speaker 1: not your parents. That's a fun thing to imagine, like, oh,
- 14:12Speaker 1: what if I just went to Mr grinds Head. And
- 14:16Speaker 1: they're traveling on what turns out to be a dead
- 14:19Speaker 1: end road, and then they get a flat tire, so
- 14:22Speaker 1: they get out of the car and walk to this
- 14:25Speaker 1: castle that they had passed a few miles back, and
- 14:28Speaker 1: the light is on in the castle, so they figure
- 14:32Speaker 1: they can go in and use their phone to call
- 14:35Speaker 1: for help, and then a spooky looking person answers the door.
- 14:41Speaker 1: The writer of the movie Riff, rafted by Richard O'Brien.
- 14:45Speaker 1: Richard O'Brien, who comes back time and time again, is
- 14:48Speaker 1: a person who wants to be taken very seriously as
- 14:50Speaker 1: an actor, but he created Rocky Horror Picture Show and
- 14:55Speaker 1: he plays riff Raff and he answers the door and
- 14:59Speaker 1: Janet Brad here's some commotion and Riff Raff tells them
- 15:04Speaker 1: about a social event that the Master is hosting que
- 15:10Speaker 1: the iconic time warp song which Joan mentioned last night
- 15:16Speaker 1: everyone from their youth, yes, yes, oh yes, I mean
- 15:20Speaker 1: my sense memory of that scene is that there's literally
- 15:23Speaker 1: like a hundred people at dance hall and we watched
- 15:26Speaker 1: last night and when there's like maybe twelve, I was like,
- 15:29Speaker 1: why memorial asked, memories are so fall Memories are memories
- 15:33Speaker 1: are lies? There's twelve l a casting people like stumbling
- 15:39Speaker 1: their way into they've all kind of learned the dances.
- 15:43Speaker 1: They clearly like, yeah, they had a day for rehearsal. Yeah,
- 15:46Speaker 1: they have closed shots on like the three or four
- 15:49Speaker 1: who learned it, and then the rest there you just
- 15:55Speaker 1: have fun, do something and does move to the music.
- 15:57Speaker 1: It later becomes clear that there were days that they
- 15:59Speaker 1: could have award for those same extras to come back,
- 16:01Speaker 1: and days where they clearly couldn't afford not to jumphead
- 16:05Speaker 1: but the floor show, like there's no audience for the
- 16:07Speaker 1: floor show, and it's like you've written like people who
- 16:09Speaker 1: have the whole job in the movie is just to
- 16:11Speaker 1: watch what's going on, and they're not there for the
- 16:15Speaker 1: like big finale show. It wasn't in the budget, but
- 16:21Speaker 1: the song does slap and that's what's good lap. And yeah,
- 16:27Speaker 1: so there's all these like suddenly there's a bunch of
- 16:28Speaker 1: like cookie people and they're all singing and dancing, and
- 16:32Speaker 1: among them are Magenta and Colombia. Uh. And then Janet
- 16:37Speaker 1: is like, let's get out of here. It's weird and scary,
- 16:41Speaker 1: and just then Dr Frankenforter shows up Tim Curry and
- 16:49Speaker 1: the role of a lifetime. Yes, I want to take
- 16:51Speaker 1: I want to take elocution lessons from him from this movie,
- 16:55Speaker 1: like just pronounce everywhere the way he does. So I
- 17:00Speaker 1: did some Tim Curry diving on this one. And Terry
- 17:03Speaker 1: Gross I mean an icon and her own right, Uh, Terry,
- 17:07Speaker 1: Like she asked him, like, you know, how did you
- 17:09Speaker 1: develop this party? He's like, well, I was trying to
- 17:11Speaker 1: figure out, like I guess that, like Frankenfurter was American
- 17:15Speaker 1: accented for a while, Cockney accented for a while. And
- 17:19Speaker 1: then Tim Curry was like, but what if Frankenfurter sounded
- 17:22Speaker 1: like the Queen? And that was that was why why
- 17:26Speaker 1: the credre sounds that way? And it's terrific. It's a
- 17:29Speaker 1: great choice, and Frank Confurter sings a song about uh
- 17:35Speaker 1: and I feel weird using these words, but being a
- 17:39Speaker 1: sweet transvestite from trans sexual Transylvania. And that song also slaps. Yes,
- 17:47Speaker 1: it absolutely dies and the performances incredible. Oh yes, And
- 17:54Speaker 1: then Janet and Brad are invited upstairs and there was
- 17:59Speaker 1: the castle has an la vater. Yes, the castle has
- 18:02Speaker 1: an elevator. They're wet, clothes are removed, so now they're
- 18:06Speaker 1: just in their underwear for a little while. And Dr Frankenfurter,
- 18:10Speaker 1: who is Jenna ever get her clothes back? I think
- 18:15Speaker 1: they get robes. They get very silky, definitely gets her
- 18:20Speaker 1: clothes back less so than Brad. She's in her underwear
- 18:24Speaker 1: for I would say the majority of the yes is correct.
- 18:27Speaker 1: But Frankenfurter is a mad scientist and he unveils his
- 18:32Speaker 1: latest creation, which is a person named Rocky Horror. Get
- 18:37Speaker 1: it and Rockies bandages are removed, and then he sings
- 18:43Speaker 1: a song. I mean like they're just song after so
- 18:46Speaker 1: many songs, I would say that Rocky Horror, the actor
- 18:51Speaker 1: playing Rocky Horror tries to sing a song in this
- 18:55Speaker 1: they hired a model. Yes, it's a lot of like
- 18:58Speaker 1: screen singing. Yeah, Yeah, there's a lot of high school energy.
- 19:05Speaker 1: Dr Frankenfurter is very pleased with how Rocky turned out
- 19:09Speaker 1: because he's very muscular and very diplomatic way to put that. Yet, well,
- 19:15Speaker 1: he seems to have created Rocky mostly so that he
- 19:18Speaker 1: can have sex with Rocky. Yes, and then Eddie meat
- 19:22Speaker 1: Loaf shows up, and then we're like, hold on meat Loaf,
- 19:29Speaker 1: and then we pause and we're like pre Bad out
- 19:31Speaker 1: of Hell or a post Bad out of Hell, pre
- 19:34Speaker 1: pre he's not famous yet this one because I was
- 19:38Speaker 1: just trying to figure out, well, we were all trying
- 19:39Speaker 1: to figure out where's the majority of this budget coming from. Yes,
- 19:42Speaker 1: and it seems like it was post Bad out of Hell.
- 19:45Speaker 1: A lot of it will be going towards meat Low,
- 19:46Speaker 1: but it's pre so we just don't know. Yeah, if
- 19:49Speaker 1: anyone knows, like what you had to pay for it
- 19:51Speaker 1: from meat Loaf cameo in n let us know. I
- 19:55Speaker 1: don't think it was super high. I was like Tim Curry,
- 19:58Speaker 1: Susan Surrandon and meat Loaf, we're all like pre being
- 20:01Speaker 1: very famous in this movie. So we just corners were
- 20:05Speaker 1: cut unclear wild the budget was only a little over
- 20:08Speaker 1: a million dollars, right, right, So I mean it's a
- 20:12Speaker 1: billion dollars. I don't know, I'm just like a million dollar.
- 20:16Speaker 1: Frank Confreter's makeup alone cost five hundred thousand dollars big,
- 20:22Speaker 1: probably big, like Sequin budget too. Okay. So then Eddie
- 20:29Speaker 1: is there. He's a biker. He's a biker, He's got
- 20:32Speaker 1: a big gash on his head. He sings a song.
- 20:35Speaker 1: He's Mr. Lobotomy. It took me forever to figure out
- 20:39Speaker 1: what was happening there, but he loves rock and roll.
- 20:42Speaker 1: He sings a song about it, and then seemingly out
- 20:45Speaker 1: of nowhere, Frank Confreter chops him with an axe and
- 20:48Speaker 1: kills him. And we're like, oh, surely this will come back,
- 20:54Speaker 1: and and for a long time it doesn't. And then
- 21:00Speaker 1: Frank Conferter goes off to have sex with his creation, Rocky,
- 21:03Speaker 1: And meanwhile, Brad and Janet are shown to separate rooms
- 21:07Speaker 1: to sleep him. And then someone who Janet thinks is
- 21:10Speaker 1: Brad comes in and starts kissing her, but it's actually Frankenfurter,
- 21:16Speaker 1: in a scene that we will talk about, don't you worry.
- 21:21Speaker 1: And then Frankenfurter does the same thing to Brad in
- 21:25Speaker 1: another scene when we will also talk about and then
- 21:27Speaker 1: meanwhile Rocky has gotten loose from his chains because well
- 21:34Speaker 1: because in that Rocky is a prisoner of Frankenfurter. But
- 21:39Speaker 1: then the reason that he is I still haven't made
- 21:42Speaker 1: heads retails with this is because he's taunted by a candelabra, yes,
- 21:47Speaker 1: being held by riff Raff, and Riff is like, hey,
- 21:51Speaker 1: candle labra and Rockie's like, no, candle labra, and then
- 21:56Speaker 1: he is scay. I was like, that is what breaks him? Well, yeah,
- 22:00Speaker 1: he's being killed prisoner gothic lighting. No thank you. He's like,
- 22:05Speaker 1: I'm out of here, and he shimmies down the fire pole.
- 22:09Speaker 1: It was like, why was why was riff Raff taunting
- 22:12Speaker 1: him with that candelabra. I simply don't know. I don't know. Well,
- 22:17Speaker 1: everyone pour into our d m is telling us why
- 22:20Speaker 1: we're so dumb. Realizing the candelabra taunt. Rocky does not
- 22:26Speaker 1: get very far and then Janet finds him and she
- 22:29Speaker 1: is extremely horny now, so she sings a song about
- 22:33Speaker 1: how she wants him to have sex with her, and
- 22:37Speaker 1: then they have sex, and I'm gonna say I that's
- 22:39Speaker 1: my most that that song slaps, that's my favorite song. Yes,
- 22:44Speaker 1: and we get to see the ever so rare female
- 22:47Speaker 1: orgasm on screen. Oh, is that what happens? Caitlyn will
- 22:53Speaker 1: unpack this at a letter. I think it's implied that
- 22:57Speaker 1: that's what happened at the end, and then the red
- 23:00Speaker 1: silk sheet is pulled over her, like don't look at it,
- 23:03Speaker 1: you know. It's like, oh, that's why we're here. Okay,
- 23:09Speaker 1: good to know. Yeah. Then Dr Everett Scott shows up
- 23:14Speaker 1: and Frankenfurter considers Doctor's got to be a rival mad
- 23:18Speaker 1: signed like a rival scientist, classic, right, Yeah, And Frankenfurter
- 23:24Speaker 1: thinks that Dr Scott sent Brad to the castle to
- 23:28Speaker 1: spy on Frankenfurter, but the reason he actually come was
- 23:32Speaker 1: to find his nephew Eddie, who saw nephew and now
- 23:38Speaker 1: he's dead. It's ti together very naturally. We're like, this
- 23:44Speaker 1: is not German scientist never love ah. Yes, And then
- 23:54Speaker 1: Frankenfurter and Brad discovered Janet and Rocky post coitus and
- 23:59Speaker 1: I guess po orgasm and they're not happy about. But
- 24:03Speaker 1: then they all have dinner together and during the tense dinner,
- 24:08Speaker 1: it's tense during dinner, we find out that Frankenfurter and
- 24:13Speaker 1: company are aliens. Over an hour into the movie. By
- 24:18Speaker 1: the way, everyone who lives in this castle is an alien.
- 24:21Speaker 1: Also the castles of Spaceship Yeah. And then Dr Scott
- 24:26Speaker 1: finds out that his nephew Eddie was killed and like
- 24:30Speaker 1: the reason that Eddie had a gash on his head.
- 24:32Speaker 1: We find out eventually that Frankenfurter removed part of Eddie's
- 24:37Speaker 1: brain to put into Rocky's head. So now we understand
- 24:42Speaker 1: meat Love's head scar clue shadow foreshadowing for a payoff
- 24:50Speaker 1: that never comes, or it's like, oh, okay, so his
- 24:54Speaker 1: brain was cut in half. Does that have bury on
- 24:56Speaker 1: future events? It's just stated and you're like, oh, that
- 25:01Speaker 1: sucks for meat Love. Oh he's dead, I guess yeah,
- 25:05Speaker 1: And and they ate him, so he has bigger fish
- 25:08Speaker 1: to fry in this situation. Really, it's so confusing. And
- 25:11Speaker 1: then Frank Confurter turns Brad Janet, Doctor Scott, Columbia, and
- 25:17Speaker 1: Rocky into stone statues because he's had enough of them.
- 25:22Speaker 1: I guess, I'm not, I don't know. And then he
- 25:26Speaker 1: puts on a show featuring the statues, which then turned
- 25:30Speaker 1: back into the people, and then riff Raff and Magenta
- 25:34Speaker 1: show up and they're like, hey, Frankenfurter, we're going back
- 25:37Speaker 1: home to our home planet. They're in space outfits now, yes, yeah,
- 25:42Speaker 1: and they're going back to their home planet in the
- 25:44Speaker 1: Transylvania Galaxy. And then Frankenfurter sings a song about how
- 25:48Speaker 1: happy he is to be going home, but riff Raff
- 25:51Speaker 1: is like, you misunderstood. It's only me and Magenta who
- 25:54Speaker 1: are going back, and then he shoots Cerci and Jamie
- 25:57Speaker 1: and they're like, no one is any thing. We're gonna
- 26:00Speaker 1: kill everyone who isn't directly related to us. Because then
- 26:05Speaker 1: frankin Fur gets shot with a laser gun and Rocky
- 26:09Speaker 1: tries to save him, but they both die. And then
- 26:12Speaker 1: riff Half is like, hey, Brad and Janet and Dr Scott,
- 26:16Speaker 1: you should get out of here now because we're about
- 26:17Speaker 1: to leave on our castle spaceship. And then they leave
- 26:21Speaker 1: and the castle blasts off into space and that's everyone's
- 26:25Speaker 1: like the weird night. Also the story that like, there
- 26:33Speaker 1: are cuts to the narrator who is like, uh something,
- 26:39Speaker 1: he's I don't know who he is. The narrator I
- 26:42Speaker 1: believe in the is like build is like the criminologist
- 26:45Speaker 1: or something. So yeah, this is like a it was
- 26:49Speaker 1: the first true crime podcast. It was like it was
- 26:51Speaker 1: just recount. He was recounting the story this true crime
- 26:53Speaker 1: that happened. So that's the story of Rocky Horror Picture Show. Yeah,
- 27:07Speaker 1: that's so fun. I feel like even the biggest fans
- 27:10Speaker 1: of this movie would struggle to explain the plot. I
- 27:14Speaker 1: think they're like, the first half hour is amazing, and
- 27:18Speaker 1: then by then, hopefully you're drunk. So there's a lot
- 27:24Speaker 1: to unpack here. Yes, let's let's get into it. Where
- 27:28Speaker 1: shall we start? Gosh, well do we want to start?
- 27:32Speaker 1: I suppose was like the cultural impact this movie has had. Yeah,
- 27:36Speaker 1: I mean there, I've done a lot of a lot
- 27:39Speaker 1: of research outside because I mean, there's a lot to
- 27:42Speaker 1: talk about about what happens in plot, but the main
- 27:45Speaker 1: legacy of this movie is the subculture that has popped
- 27:50Speaker 1: up around it. And so I did a fairer amount
- 27:52Speaker 1: of research because I've gone to see Rocky Horror Picture
- 27:56Speaker 1: Show in theaters and number of times, but never I
- 27:58Speaker 1: was yeah, of a like so young when I started
- 28:01Speaker 1: seeing it that I didn't really question the culture around it,
- 28:06Speaker 1: and then continue to not do. So, Yeah, it's like
- 28:10Speaker 1: I probably the last time I went to a a
- 28:14Speaker 1: stage show or a shadow cast of it was maybe
- 28:17Speaker 1: like eight or nine years ago, and um, yeah, I
- 28:20Speaker 1: guess I didn't. I didn't know back then the shouting
- 28:23Speaker 1: slut a hundred times at the screen, which was bad, right,
- 28:27Speaker 1: So so that is like the main thing that people
- 28:30Speaker 1: take issue with. So if you're not familiar with the
- 28:32Speaker 1: culture that surrounds live screenings at the Rocky Hard Picture Show,
- 28:36Speaker 1: there's a very well documented and kind of like unchanging
- 28:40Speaker 1: sequence of things that people yell at the screen, props
- 28:43Speaker 1: that they bring, There's like stuff that like there's forks
- 28:46Speaker 1: thrown at one point, there's water that's sprayed, and it's
- 28:49Speaker 1: like a very ritualistic thing. And some of the rituals
- 28:53Speaker 1: are very like cookie and fun, and other of the
- 28:56Speaker 1: rituals have not aged very well, such as any time
- 28:59Speaker 1: that and Its character is on screen, you're supposed to
- 29:02Speaker 1: scream slut at the screen, even though she has sex
- 29:06Speaker 1: no more than anyone else in the movie, like Brad.
- 29:10Speaker 1: She and Brad stray about from each other from each
- 29:13Speaker 1: other and about equal announce like, and yet he is
- 29:16Speaker 1: not referred to as a slot never Yeah, and and
- 29:19Speaker 1: so there is some interesting, I think conversation that I
- 29:22Speaker 1: will just admittedly just scratch the surface here on the
- 29:26Speaker 1: conversation around this culture because it is like an interesting,
- 29:30Speaker 1: complicated legacy for a movie that I mean, certainly in
- 29:35Speaker 1: my area, and I think a lot of areas in
- 29:38Speaker 1: America in particular are an entry way into queer culture
- 29:43Speaker 1: and a very clear place to go that if you
- 29:47Speaker 1: are if you want to be involved, like it's a
- 29:50Speaker 1: good place to start. Yeah, it's it's just kind of
- 29:53Speaker 1: a like it's it's a very like almost like Mickey
- 29:55Speaker 1: Mouse version of like of like queer culture, which is appropriate.
- 30:00Speaker 1: Disney owns it now, Um right yeah yeah, yeah, um
- 30:05Speaker 1: think about that. Um but um, Columbia Ware is making
- 30:09Speaker 1: Mouse years halfway through it, so like so they are
- 30:11Speaker 1: they knew what's gonna happen four years later? Um, but yeah,
- 30:14Speaker 1: it is like I mean the fact, like I think
- 30:16Speaker 1: back on like that story told the fact that my
- 30:19Speaker 1: dad was like, you know, hey, like I recorded this
- 30:22Speaker 1: off TV for you tells me that you know, it
- 30:24Speaker 1: is like and I knew he knew what it was,
- 30:27Speaker 1: but it's just like it's just this very like safe
- 30:29Speaker 1: like it's still like challenges you and is inviting you
- 30:32Speaker 1: into a kind of like new, weird, fun world, but
- 30:36Speaker 1: it's like this it's kind of like it's the safety
- 30:39Speaker 1: version of that. Right. It seems to be a lot
- 30:41Speaker 1: of people like step one into like like I have
- 30:45Speaker 1: questions about my sexuality or this is just something that
- 30:47Speaker 1: is this is a community that is cool and interesting
- 30:51Speaker 1: to me and like let's explore it. It's a lot
- 30:53Speaker 1: of people step one because it's accessible to younger people
- 30:56Speaker 1: as well, And so I don't want to neg this
- 30:59Speaker 1: community on the whole because there's a lot about it
- 31:02Speaker 1: that is absolutely wonderful and like necessary, especially in places
- 31:05Speaker 1: where queer communities aren't as accessible. Um, I mean there's
- 31:09Speaker 1: a there's a lot of value in like having media
- 31:13Speaker 1: like like this movie that's like palatable for you know
- 31:17Speaker 1: young well Urban Night it's like, well it's very you
- 31:22Speaker 1: know like and will will hollow the word well it's
- 31:25Speaker 1: very problematic, let's say. Um, it is a lot of
- 31:28Speaker 1: people's like first exposure to queer community, and it was
- 31:33Speaker 1: I think one of my first involvement like and just
- 31:36Speaker 1: it was like there was literally the g s A
- 31:39Speaker 1: at my high school and you could go to Rocky Horror,
- 31:42Speaker 1: and that was really all you could do, and so
- 31:45Speaker 1: it was like it was important. But that said, there
- 31:48Speaker 1: is a lot in the community that has been challenged
- 31:51Speaker 1: and questioned over the years that I think is very interesting.
- 31:54Speaker 1: The yelling slut at Janet, I think it is the
- 31:57Speaker 1: most obvious, but there's also I mean there's like lines
- 32:01Speaker 1: I looked through just kind of the stuff I'd forgotten
- 32:03Speaker 1: about what people yell at the screen of when Janet says, oh,
- 32:06Speaker 1: I was saving myself, and the audience will reply for
- 32:09Speaker 1: what a rainy day, Look outside, bitch, it's pouring, Like
- 32:12Speaker 1: they're just constantly yelling ship at Janet um And so
- 32:18Speaker 1: I I was researching there was some great stuff written
- 32:21Speaker 1: about because another component of the Rocky Horror experience is
- 32:25Speaker 1: that there's a shadow cast acting out the movie in
- 32:28Speaker 1: front of you. So there's like local actors and they
- 32:31Speaker 1: often have like a pretty cult following. They become like
- 32:34Speaker 1: celebrities within this like small niche community. I mean, I
- 32:38Speaker 1: had the biggest crush on whomever was playing Rocky Horror
- 32:44Speaker 1: in West Bridgewater in the late two thousands. I was like,
- 32:49Speaker 1: I loved them, but it was I was they were
- 32:52Speaker 1: like a local celeb, and I was like, I can't approach,
- 32:55Speaker 1: you know. And so there is like this untouchable, like
- 32:58Speaker 1: kind of cool quality UM. And there's been a lot
- 33:01Speaker 1: written and and interviewed about people like this. So I
- 33:06Speaker 1: I first wanted to share a few quotes from a
- 33:09Speaker 1: former director and cast member from the eighties and nineties
- 33:13Speaker 1: who was involved in Rocky Horror in the Houston area. UM.
- 33:17Speaker 1: His name is Jeff Rowner. This was written a couple
- 33:20Speaker 1: of years ago, just kind of reflecting on his experience
- 33:24Speaker 1: and the Rocky Horror cast. He's a siss head man,
- 33:28Speaker 1: and he sort of wrote a column about UM reflecting
- 33:32Speaker 1: on it years later. So a few quotes from there.
- 33:36Speaker 1: He says, quote, it's not as fun as it used
- 33:39Speaker 1: to be watching Rocky after years of being a media
- 33:41Speaker 1: critic has definitely worn the shine off the film and
- 33:44Speaker 1: the cold experience that grew up around it isn't really
- 33:47Speaker 1: much better. Take screaming slit whenever anyone says Janet's name
- 33:51Speaker 1: is arguably the single most basic call line in Rocky
- 33:54Speaker 1: Horror history, alongside screaming asshole. When anyone says Brad, it's
- 33:58Speaker 1: basically Rocky one on one for divergence, which we'll get to. Uh,
- 34:02Speaker 1: so they can get used to the whole talking of
- 34:04Speaker 1: the screen thing. I remember when I was a cast director,
- 34:07Speaker 1: we got a complaint letter sent to the theater. The
- 34:10Speaker 1: main gist was that having hundreds of people screaming slut
- 34:13Speaker 1: was kind of funked up, kind of uh I with
- 34:20Speaker 1: the righteous indignation only a twenty year old white dude
- 34:24Speaker 1: can muster through a fit. How dare they besmirge a
- 34:27Speaker 1: traditional part of the experience. How they no appreciation for
- 34:30Speaker 1: the culture of the thing? How they know respect for
- 34:33Speaker 1: the unique cinematic experience that was rocky Looking back at
- 34:36Speaker 1: it now, I sounded like a fucking gamer gator. I
- 34:41Speaker 1: sounded like every other aggrieved son of privilege beating his
- 34:44Speaker 1: chest because his toys made other people uncomfortable. It's a
- 34:47Speaker 1: weirdly conservative mindset for something that was supposed to be
- 34:50Speaker 1: about breaking boundaries. A lot of the people I ran
- 34:53Speaker 1: with considered offense to be the whole point of the enterprise,
- 34:56Speaker 1: which is kind of bizarre for a film whose main
- 34:59Speaker 1: tagline is don't dream it, be it. So that was
- 35:04Speaker 1: one one perspective on Just like someone who was very
- 35:07Speaker 1: deeply involved in the culture and then was questioning his
- 35:09Speaker 1: own attitudes towards it. Oh, and then he goes on
- 35:13Speaker 1: to say, and then I have a please bear with me,
- 35:15Speaker 1: anyone there's this is a very deeply in trance community.
- 35:19Speaker 1: So he goes on to say, quote, a friend of
- 35:21Speaker 1: mine once said that Rocky was LGBT cosplayed for straight people.
- 35:26Speaker 1: And that is definitely a sentiment I understand now. It's
- 35:29Speaker 1: less of a boundary breaker and more of a chance
- 35:31Speaker 1: for the comfortable to dip their toes in their perception
- 35:34Speaker 1: of gay culture. Don't get me wrong, I loved being there. Hell,
- 35:38Speaker 1: the first LGBT people I ever met were there, which
- 35:41Speaker 1: is not surprising since I got my start back in
- 35:43Speaker 1: when Houston was still sporting anti gave vice laws, and
- 35:46Speaker 1: there weren't there. There just weren't a lot of places
- 35:49Speaker 1: LGBT people could go and be themselves. It feels like
- 35:52Speaker 1: an artifact to be appreciated for its historical value more
- 35:56Speaker 1: for than its continued cultural relevance. It's basically the South
- 35:59Speaker 1: Park of Holt Films, and that what it had to
- 36:04Speaker 1: say has long since been said by better voices. So
- 36:08Speaker 1: that was one perspective of a former cast member. Um
- 36:11Speaker 1: and then there was a writer, Lindsay King Miller, who
- 36:15Speaker 1: interviewed a number of current Rocky Horror Picture Show cast
- 36:20Speaker 1: members just last year who first shared their own experience
- 36:25Speaker 1: that I'd be curious. I mean when when I was
- 36:28Speaker 1: going to and we were just talking about this backstage,
- 36:31Speaker 1: Like I look back on going to the Rocky Horror
- 36:33Speaker 1: Picture Show generally positively, and it's like a fun experience.
- 36:37Speaker 1: But even so, there is that culture around the idea
- 36:41Speaker 1: of like if you're a quote unquote virgin going to
- 36:43Speaker 1: the show, or if it's your first time going, there
- 36:46Speaker 1: is a lot of pressure put on you too. I mean,
- 36:51Speaker 1: there were accounts in this story which was published by
- 36:54Speaker 1: them last year about people in certain areas who were
- 36:58Speaker 1: asked to flash the audience because it was their first
- 37:01Speaker 1: time going to Rocky Horror. I remember when I went
- 37:05Speaker 1: for the first time, they were trying to convince people
- 37:08Speaker 1: to kiss on stage if they were virgins, you know, virgins.
- 37:11Speaker 1: But also I was fourteen, and I remember telling the
- 37:16Speaker 1: person I was like, oh, this is my cousin, and
- 37:18Speaker 1: you know, like I was there with my cousin and
- 37:21Speaker 1: being fourteen, and and it just wasn't even something I
- 37:24Speaker 1: even thought about until I was reading these other accounts
- 37:27Speaker 1: of like, oh yeah, I remember having to like, you know,
- 37:29Speaker 1: kind of hang on to my cousin and be like, oh,
- 37:32Speaker 1: we gotta, you know, look at for each other. And
- 37:35Speaker 1: so I just want to share a little bit from
- 37:36Speaker 1: Lindsay's story. They didn't interview One of the most quote
- 37:41Speaker 1: sorry journalism, okay quote. One of the most visible faces
- 37:47Speaker 1: of the movement for a safer Rocky Horror Picture Show
- 37:50Speaker 1: is New York City cast member Jackson Tory Bart, aged
- 37:54Speaker 1: twenty three, who started attending shadow cast performances at the
- 37:57Speaker 1: Rocky Horror as a teenager, and Jackson says, quote, what
- 38:02Speaker 1: I found there was a place to explore and express
- 38:05Speaker 1: my non binary gender as it began to take shape,
- 38:08Speaker 1: and lived truer in my queer identity. And then Jackson
- 38:11Speaker 1: later joins the New York City Rocky Horror Picture Show
- 38:13Speaker 1: cast and says that quote, upon interacting with the wider community,
- 38:18Speaker 1: I was surprised to find leadership dominated by siss gender
- 38:21Speaker 1: straight people, most often men. Unquote. They realized quickly that
- 38:26Speaker 1: the Rocky Horror subculture was far from immune to the
- 38:28Speaker 1: homophobia and transphobia from which it was supposed to be
- 38:31Speaker 1: a refuge. Jackson says, quote, I will never forget being
- 38:35Speaker 1: told that my gender was fake and invalid by a
- 38:37Speaker 1: middle aged sciss man and of course at heels and
- 38:40Speaker 1: garters unquote. Lindsay also interviews another cast member named Cassia,
- 38:47Speaker 1: who is a member of the r k O Army
- 38:49Speaker 1: cast alongside Jackson in New York. Cassia goes on to say, quote,
- 38:53Speaker 1: I had people calling me a cunt, saying I was
- 38:56Speaker 1: oblit to society, threatening to sue me, threatening to try
- 38:59Speaker 1: to get me kicked off my cast, spreading gossip about
- 39:02Speaker 1: me unquote when they attended a Rocky Horror convention, and
- 39:08Speaker 1: so whenever an allegation would come forward about a Rocky
- 39:12Speaker 1: Horror cast member, uh quote, Cassia, already familiar with potential repercussions,
- 39:18Speaker 1: was ready to support them and help call out their abusers.
- 39:21Speaker 1: Although Jackson and Cassia say they have faced backlash from
- 39:24Speaker 1: name calling to threats of legal action for turning a
- 39:27Speaker 1: spotlight on predators who use Rocky Horror as a hunting ground,
- 39:31Speaker 1: they have also been met with gratitude and support from
- 39:33Speaker 1: the community. Quote. Not everyone in the cast is as
- 39:36Speaker 1: loud about this as we are Cis Cassia, but everyone
- 39:39Speaker 1: cares a lot about this issue and what we are
- 39:41Speaker 1: trying to do unquote. So even within the Rocky horror community,
- 39:47Speaker 1: there has been of a fair amount of pushback in
- 39:51Speaker 1: recent years to be more accepting. And I think that
- 39:55Speaker 1: a lot of this comes up in the seventies nous
- 39:59Speaker 1: that this move be as routed in in terms of
- 40:02Speaker 1: just like seeking consent and considering the age of audience
- 40:06Speaker 1: members and and and homophobia and transphobia that just spiral out. Yeah,
- 40:11Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, I think that we are the
- 40:13Speaker 1: three of us watched it last night, and I think,
- 40:15Speaker 1: I mean, we were all pretty taking it because I
- 40:17Speaker 1: would say, like this is last night was probably one
- 40:19Speaker 1: of the first times I like watched watched the just
- 40:21Speaker 1: the movie as a movie and you know, um, and
- 40:25Speaker 1: not that I would have been making this call like
- 40:27Speaker 1: ten years ago, but seeing the scene where like the
- 40:31Speaker 1: two scenes in a row where Frankenfort just kind of
- 40:33Speaker 1: like you know, pulls a like Revenge of the Nerds
- 40:36Speaker 1: to like be with both of them is like really
- 40:40Speaker 1: like gross, Like it's really gross. And I mean, I
- 40:44Speaker 1: think you're right, it's that kind of you know, it's
- 40:46Speaker 1: it's a. It's there's something like a little bully ish
- 40:49Speaker 1: to it, like like everything you're describing like just it's
- 40:51Speaker 1: just these like bully undertones and then I don't know
- 40:54Speaker 1: that they're I think you're right, and seeing like those
- 40:57Speaker 1: things they exist like within the film to an extent. Right, Yeah,
- 41:02Speaker 1: it's interesting. I mean it's like I think there's definitely
- 41:04Speaker 1: a lot of discussion to be had, and it is
- 41:07Speaker 1: such a vast cult following that it's like from region
- 41:10Speaker 1: to region. I'm sure that the like the following around
- 41:14Speaker 1: it differs, but but it is. It was interesting too.
- 41:18Speaker 1: I mean I feel like it is generally painted as
- 41:20Speaker 1: like such a friendly and all encompassing, you know, open
- 41:24Speaker 1: space and then to hear that of course, like as
- 41:27Speaker 1: we've found out so many times that even these spaces
- 41:29Speaker 1: that were supposedly designed with openness in mind have this
- 41:34Speaker 1: insidious nature to them. Yeah, that's the thing. Well, speaking
- 41:38Speaker 1: of the director or the creator, yes, let's talk about creator,
- 41:42Speaker 1: Richard O'Brien, Yes, um, yeah, I mean Richard O'Brien was
- 41:46Speaker 1: like on record fairly recently, i think, like within the
- 41:49Speaker 1: last like two months as saying that he, uh, he
- 41:53Speaker 1: does not believe that like he does trans women are
- 41:57Speaker 1: not women. This essentially it was the extent of a
- 41:59Speaker 1: sentiment that a trans woman will always be like a
- 42:03Speaker 1: man in address, like it's it's all what I'm I
- 42:07Speaker 1: don't have to write down because it's all like the
- 42:09Speaker 1: best the you know, the turkey best of um um.
- 42:14Speaker 1: But it's and it's and and and he does say,
- 42:17Speaker 1: you know, like I consider myself like a third like
- 42:19Speaker 1: the third gender. I think that's a real thing, but
- 42:22Speaker 1: like transit trans people are not a real thing. And
- 42:25Speaker 1: it's like wow, way to like like gender is just
- 42:28Speaker 1: as fluid as you needed to be and goes no further. Yeah,
- 42:32Speaker 1: like I and like I don't know, but it's it
- 42:35Speaker 1: was like genuinely dishearm. It was genuinely sad, like because
- 42:39Speaker 1: not a huge part, but Rocky Horror was definitely a
- 42:43Speaker 1: part of my you know, kind of figuring myself, that
- 42:46Speaker 1: journey of figuring myself out. And I think, you know,
- 42:49Speaker 1: I was watching Laver Cox talk about her because she
- 42:52Speaker 1: played frankn Furder in the Two Sons two sixteen version,
- 42:55Speaker 1: and she talked about how, you know, she she's known
- 42:57Speaker 1: a lot of people who Yeah, Rocky Horror was the
- 43:00Speaker 1: start of their journey into you know, to figure out
- 43:03Speaker 1: who they were. Uh So, so I don't know, Like
- 43:06Speaker 1: I think of it as like it's like fucking like
- 43:09Speaker 1: Santa Claus telling you there's no Santa Claus. It's like
- 43:13Speaker 1: it's like Santa Claus like shows up and he's like,
- 43:15Speaker 1: I'm not real and then he disappears, and you're like,
- 43:16Speaker 1: what the fuss what my brains to think about this? Um?
- 43:20Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't know. It's it's it's it's confusing
- 43:26Speaker 1: because I didn't realize this until very recently when I
- 43:29Speaker 1: started doing some research about Richard O'Brien. But I pulled
- 43:33Speaker 1: some quotes from a BBC article. Is from this yea
- 43:38Speaker 1: from me? And in the article, he uh speaks, well,
- 43:45Speaker 1: I don't know pronouns, I don't know, but O'Brien speaks
- 43:48Speaker 1: about their gender identity and fluidity, saying, it's my book
- 43:52Speaker 1: quote journalism, thank you new bit quote. It's my belief
- 43:58Speaker 1: that we are on a tenuum between male and female.
- 44:02Speaker 1: There are people who are hardwired male, and there are
- 44:05Speaker 1: people who are hardwired female, but most of us are
- 44:08Speaker 1: on that continuum. And I believe myself probably to be
- 44:12Speaker 1: about se male female O'Brien has also and this is
- 44:18Speaker 1: me talking now unquote is what you say, right? Um? Journalism, yes, journalism.
- 44:25Speaker 1: O'Brien has also identified Joan, as you said, as being
- 44:28Speaker 1: a third sex and has taken estrogen. So we're like, okay,
- 44:33Speaker 1: he's he's gender fluid. But and then he's like, but
- 44:37Speaker 1: trans women aren't women, And you're like, what, Richard, what?
- 44:44Speaker 1: So it's confusing. Yeah, I mean to me, it just
- 44:48Speaker 1: you know, it speaks to this like intense inability to
- 44:51Speaker 1: look like kind of look outside yourself like all, I
- 44:56Speaker 1: like literally all. And I read in the interview. I
- 45:00Speaker 1: read that he's still that it's still he still us
- 45:02Speaker 1: mail pronounce. That's what I was. So that's where I
- 45:04Speaker 1: was going with. But like he's still, um, you know
- 45:08Speaker 1: you understand it's like lack of empathy, like he understands
- 45:10Speaker 1: what's going on inside of him, and but he can't
- 45:14Speaker 1: like extend that to like anybody, which you know, like
- 45:18Speaker 1: tracks with just like other things I've learned about him,
- 45:21Speaker 1: and like namely like you know, he's just like his
- 45:25Speaker 1: distaste for like how like popular his thing has become.
- 45:29Speaker 1: The thing is like with Richard O'Brien, outside of his
- 45:34Speaker 1: very messy views on gender and identification. In general, he
- 45:39Speaker 1: just seems like a pretty bitter person about like I
- 45:43Speaker 1: mean and but I'm sorry if there's stands in the audience,
- 45:46Speaker 1: but like but but in general, like he does come
- 45:49Speaker 1: off as like you're ruining my creation. And he's always
- 45:52Speaker 1: like why didn't people appreciate me as riff rap? And
- 45:56Speaker 1: you're like, I'm sorry, Yeah, there's a and I would
- 46:00Speaker 1: recommend why because I think the production itself is fun
- 46:03Speaker 1: On YouTube there is a like two fifteen stage production.
- 46:07Speaker 1: It's a lot of fun. Like Stephen Fry is the narrator,
- 46:09Speaker 1: but like they like interview Richard O'Brien like halfway through
- 46:13Speaker 1: and like it's just clear that he's like disgusted with this,
- 46:17Speaker 1: with this and he's people and he's like yeah, it's
- 46:19Speaker 1: just his vibe of like why, like these people are
- 46:22Speaker 1: ruining my my brilliantly crafted script, and it's like yeah, yeah,
- 46:30Speaker 1: or is your sophomore triumph? It was Shock Treatment, that
- 46:36Speaker 1: was his fault. That was his sequel to Rocky Horror.
- 46:37Speaker 1: It did not make an impact, as that reaction will
- 46:40Speaker 1: tell you. I have not I haven't seen it, but
- 46:43Speaker 1: but people it seems like people have generally argued that
- 46:46Speaker 1: it is a more cohesive piece than Rocky Horror. Yes,
- 46:49Speaker 1: I would say it's a more cohesive piece, I would say,
- 46:52Speaker 1: and none of the songs slap. Well, then what's the point. Um.
- 46:57Speaker 1: So that's a little bit of background I had about
- 46:59Speaker 1: the the state of the subculture. Uh, and then too
- 47:02Speaker 1: to everyone listening to everyone here the show, and I
- 47:04Speaker 1: mean I'm very interested in and we were talking about
- 47:07Speaker 1: this in last night of just like what is the
- 47:09Speaker 1: current uh state of Rocky Horror fandom? Because it does
- 47:14Speaker 1: seem like in some cases it does skew older and
- 47:18Speaker 1: where there are more options for many for queer community.
- 47:21Speaker 1: Now like where yeah, where does that fandom stand? Because
- 47:24Speaker 1: I mean, like we have the new art one which
- 47:27Speaker 1: I think is the lot the one of the new
- 47:28Speaker 1: art o Santa Manicas. Yeah, let's all go afterwards, let's
- 47:33Speaker 1: uh who can get it? Like a fifty person left? Um,
- 47:36Speaker 1: it's a um, it's still it's been going for like
- 47:38Speaker 1: pretty much for you, like since has been going for
- 47:42Speaker 1: almost consistently every Saturday night since since eighty six. I
- 47:45Speaker 1: believe they took some time off in the early two
- 47:47Speaker 1: thousands to repo the genetic opera. Remember that referencing I
- 47:51Speaker 1: have movies everybody remembers. Um. But yeah, they've been doing
- 47:55Speaker 1: it for like like thirty five years or something, right,
- 47:59Speaker 1: I mean, so it's and it's like really the only
- 48:01Speaker 1: movie of its kind that has this kind of following,
- 48:05Speaker 1: which which is like a gigantic accomplishment for the piece
- 48:09Speaker 1: and for the community around it. But yeah, I just
- 48:12Speaker 1: I haven't been in several years myself, and I'm just like, yeah,
- 48:15Speaker 1: where does it stand, especially our young younger people still
- 48:19Speaker 1: interested in going? Like is this still an entry point
- 48:22Speaker 1: for younger people? Because I don't know if a fourteen
- 48:24Speaker 1: year old today would be like, oh, here's here's the
- 48:27Speaker 1: best option in my area, you know what I mean. Uh,
- 48:31Speaker 1: we don't know. We'll find out, we'll get we'll take
- 48:33Speaker 1: some questions at the end. Let's talk about the actual
- 48:41Speaker 1: female characters in the phone. Okay, um, well, unbelievable that
- 48:46Speaker 1: you suggest that. I'm sorry, y'all go home. Let's start
- 48:50Speaker 1: with Janet. I suppose, as we already hinted at, she
- 48:55Speaker 1: is basically inconsequential to the plot, if you can call
- 48:59Speaker 1: it that, but love she does faint once during time
- 49:09Speaker 1: war she fainted. She shrieked, and then she faints again
- 49:12Speaker 1: when Frank conferred her first appear because say it with me,
- 49:16Speaker 1: now women fainting, And there's also when she doesn't faint
- 49:22Speaker 1: in something dramatic happens. She then shrieks and rushes into
- 49:25Speaker 1: the arms of the most recent person she's had sex with. Yes,
- 49:29Speaker 1: so that is another quality, right she She's written as
- 49:33Speaker 1: a fairly timid, like, oh Brad, I'm so scared protect
- 49:39Speaker 1: me type of female character, but she does have an arc.
- 49:42Speaker 1: She doesn't definitely. She starts by saying she doesn't like
- 49:46Speaker 1: men with muscles, and then she does yes, and then
- 49:50Speaker 1: has sex with a man with muscles who might be
- 49:55Speaker 1: a baby. We'll talk about it. Yes, here's what we know.
- 50:00Speaker 1: He has muscles. But then she's only like sexually liberated
- 50:06Speaker 1: after she gets raped by Frankenfurter, so that we'll get
- 50:12Speaker 1: to that. There are a few I mean, and this
- 50:15Speaker 1: is in no way defending the two consecutive rape scenes
- 50:20Speaker 1: that are played for jokes, but there are a few
- 50:22Speaker 1: things I thought that were like planted for Janet, planeted
- 50:27Speaker 1: for Janet, damn it uh, and where there are a
- 50:32Speaker 1: few moments where Janet is starting to have fun, like
- 50:36Speaker 1: at the party and at the time where I think
- 50:37Speaker 1: it's during the time where she goes like, oh, this
- 50:40Speaker 1: is fun and Brad's like, no, it isn't and she's
- 50:43Speaker 1: like okay. But there there are a few times where
- 50:45Speaker 1: Janet wants to participate and her fiance, but where her
- 50:55Speaker 1: fiance is like, we don't like this, and Janet kind
- 50:59Speaker 1: of you calibrates and it's like, okay, okay, I'm not allowed.
- 51:02Speaker 1: Does that mean that Brad is basically cal Hockley and
- 51:05Speaker 1: that Rocky is Leonardo DiCaprio slash Jack Dawstin's is Titanic?
- 51:10Speaker 1: Yes it does. We both have red hair and there's
- 51:15Speaker 1: a ship there's either sinks or blast off into space.
- 51:21Speaker 1: I'm willing to explore this, yes, but but yeah, like
- 51:26Speaker 1: it is hinted at a few times that Janet is
- 51:28Speaker 1: more receptive and like, is I mean hornier. She also
- 51:33Speaker 1: insists on going with Brad when their car breaks down.
- 51:38Speaker 1: He's like stay here, I'll go find help, and she's like, no,
- 51:41Speaker 1: I'm coming with you. She pushes against him in very
- 51:45Speaker 1: subtle ways, but she does push against what he wants
- 51:48Speaker 1: a few times. But at the beginning when he says no,
- 51:52Speaker 1: we don't do that, she obeys, and I would also say, like,
- 51:56Speaker 1: you know, I don't necessarily want to give like the
- 51:58Speaker 1: movie too much at it in this direction, but I mean,
- 52:02Speaker 1: I do think we are kind of supposed to be
- 52:04Speaker 1: watching parodies of nineteen fifties b movie like cute team Couple,
- 52:10Speaker 1: So you know, I don't the reason I don't want
- 52:13Speaker 1: to give it too much credit in that direction because
- 52:15Speaker 1: I feel like at the end of the day that
- 52:16Speaker 1: it doesn't have much to say about them. It just
- 52:20Speaker 1: kind of like it presents them and it's like these
- 52:23Speaker 1: like I don't know, it does not he to say,
- 52:25Speaker 1: but like it's like, I do think we are watching like,
- 52:27Speaker 1: you know, archetypes of like characters and not not necessarily
- 52:30Speaker 1: like but no fans for Geno Brian maybe not the
- 52:33Speaker 1: most like well developed predimensional characters logging in right now
- 52:38Speaker 1: like how dare you? Yeah? I was reading some similar
- 52:43Speaker 1: an analysis. There was a visa reference later by a
- 52:47Speaker 1: queer writer named Ronnie Baker, who did a fair amount
- 52:50Speaker 1: of research into the references this movie is making, uh,
- 52:55Speaker 1: most of which have not survived the test of time
- 52:58Speaker 1: that we would be able to pick up on them.
- 53:01Speaker 1: But basically the queer coded sci fi movies that came
- 53:04Speaker 1: out in the fifties and sixties and into the seventies
- 53:07Speaker 1: that kind of influenced and made this movie what it
- 53:10Speaker 1: was in some ways, um that are kind of left out.
- 53:12Speaker 1: And I think that the meat loaf character is also
- 53:14Speaker 1: supposed to be a reference to like fifties like you know,
- 53:18Speaker 1: James Dean biker boys right right, and then him getting
- 53:23Speaker 1: like killed so abruptly. It's supposed to be, but we
- 53:26Speaker 1: don't know, but it's a metaphor. It's like basically like
- 53:32Speaker 1: if you're watching like like date movie, like it's in
- 53:35Speaker 1: thirty years, you're just gonna not know where all these
- 53:36Speaker 1: references are. Yeah, you're like, oh, reference equals comments, got it?
- 53:41Speaker 1: Uh what you were saying about the Oh that that
- 53:45Speaker 1: was all I had to say on on it for
- 53:46Speaker 1: the moment. But yeah, there's there's there's more to come
- 53:49Speaker 1: with that one. But basically that there in b movies specifically,
- 53:53Speaker 1: there were some characters that made more explicit challenge to
- 53:59Speaker 1: je Under that seemed to have influenced Frankenfurter's character that
- 54:04Speaker 1: have just kind of been because they were the movies
- 54:08Speaker 1: or kind of like forgotten comic books lost to time,
- 54:12Speaker 1: but there is a clear history of like influence that like,
- 54:16Speaker 1: like this movie didn't come out of nowhere. Y gotta
- 54:21Speaker 1: got it. Should we talk about those rapes scene? I
- 54:27Speaker 1: mean we've got it in some must Thanks for coming
- 54:30Speaker 1: out tonight, everybody. I love to just get a room
- 54:34Speaker 1: of people and just be like, let's talk about those
- 54:37Speaker 1: rape scenes. But we must, we must, we must. Um.
- 54:41Speaker 1: So what happens here in this narrative is that first
- 54:46Speaker 1: we see Janet in bed, someone who she thinks is
- 54:50Speaker 1: her fielce say comes in and starting kissing her, and
- 54:56Speaker 1: then suddenly it turns out to be Frankenfurter in disc eyes.
- 55:01Speaker 1: She freaks out, She tells him to stop, screams for help, says,
- 55:06Speaker 1: you tricked me. I wouldn't have and then Frank Confreter says,
- 55:13Speaker 1: stop it. Do you want Brad to see you like
- 55:15Speaker 1: this in a compromising sexual position, because he basically grabs
- 55:20Speaker 1: her legs and like kind of thrust his pelvis into yes,
- 55:27Speaker 1: um without doubt, placing the blame on her. And then
- 55:32Speaker 1: she says, like, what it's your fault, You're to blame.
- 55:36Speaker 1: I was saving myself. And then Frank Confreter responds by saying, well,
- 55:41Speaker 1: I'm sure you're not spent yet, and then suddenly her
- 55:45Speaker 1: attitude changes and then he is like kissing her again,
- 55:51Speaker 1: and then she's like, promise you won't tell Brad, and
- 55:55Speaker 1: then they presumably have sex. And this is supposed to
- 55:59Speaker 1: be for is a funny moment, yeah, And second, a
- 56:04Speaker 1: moment that is supposed to indicate, like you were saying, Caitlin,
- 56:07Speaker 1: a liberation in the character where this like pretty explicit assault,
- 56:13Speaker 1: very it's supposed to mean. And now she is open
- 56:17Speaker 1: to sexual experience because she was raped, which is pretty
- 56:21Speaker 1: clearly the opposite of what that is. A similar thing
- 56:26Speaker 1: happens in Cruel Intentions with the Selma Blair character. But yeah, basically,
- 56:31Speaker 1: I mean to break down this scene, she is assaulted
- 56:35Speaker 1: just by the mere fact of she thinks that Frank
- 56:38Speaker 1: Conforter is someone else, and then it's like the revenge
- 56:41Speaker 1: of the Nerds thing, and then she says no, no, no,
- 56:47Speaker 1: like denying consent, and then Frank Conforter is like, come on, though,
- 56:52Speaker 1: you'll like it, and then she's like contenticating that you
- 56:56Speaker 1: can be talked out, persuaded, and then he's like gas
- 57:00Speaker 1: lighting her and then suddenly she's into it, question Mark,
- 57:06Speaker 1: It's just kind of like this like idea of like
- 57:08Speaker 1: you know, like a like a no is just like
- 57:11Speaker 1: a yes that needs a little more negotiate. Like she
- 57:14Speaker 1: just you know, she doesn't know what she wants. She's
- 57:17Speaker 1: just waiting for like the right like guy to come
- 57:20Speaker 1: along and and and show her right. And the same
- 57:23Speaker 1: thing happens to Britten. And I think that like both
- 57:28Speaker 1: Janet and Brad are victimized by these scenes. And the
- 57:32Speaker 1: way that Frankenfurter's character is written is enforcing all these negative, negative,
- 57:37Speaker 1: negative stereotypes yes about you know, and it's it's hot.
- 57:42Speaker 1: I don't know exactly how we should be classifying Frekenfurter specifically,
- 57:46Speaker 1: but you know, just I say, will call him queer
- 57:50Speaker 1: and like, yes, just like all these like negative like
- 57:52Speaker 1: you know, negative stereotypes that exist about that have existed
- 57:56Speaker 1: about queer people in like you know sci fi and
- 57:59Speaker 1: horror movie is like really up until like very recently
- 58:04Speaker 1: yesterday and still but just yeah, like implying that by
- 58:10Speaker 1: I mean and again it's like not made explicitly clear,
- 58:12Speaker 1: but that by challenging the gender binary in any way
- 58:17Speaker 1: that Frank converter, is a predator, is a cannibal, is
- 58:22Speaker 1: like is a murderer, and and then conflating it with
- 58:26Speaker 1: anyone who challenges the gender binary at which is like
- 58:30Speaker 1: a problem that comes up again and again and again,
- 58:33Speaker 1: and even in this extremely iconic movie, it's very present.
- 58:37Speaker 1: Oh no, but I mean, I mean, like it extends
- 58:39Speaker 1: to like, you know, it's Buffalo Bill, This is like, yeah, yeah,
- 58:43Speaker 1: it's It's also that these scenes are like campy rape
- 58:49Speaker 1: scenes in a campy movie. I know, they're like it's right,
- 58:55Speaker 1: but it's fine, But like is it that makes it
- 59:00Speaker 1: all the more dangerous because the whole the scenes are
- 59:02Speaker 1: played for humor and for laughs, and it's like disguising
- 59:07Speaker 1: full assault in camp and which I sort of am
- 59:12Speaker 1: of the mind of. Like that is almost like the
- 59:14Speaker 1: most insidious dangerous way to do it. That If you
- 59:17Speaker 1: can play a scene like that and make people laugh
- 59:20Speaker 1: with it, that's a very potent dangerous thing we co
- 59:24Speaker 1: do for sure. Um and is not something that has
- 59:27Speaker 1: been challenged as much as I mean it was genuine.
- 59:32Speaker 1: I mean I think that the first time I saw
- 59:33Speaker 1: that when I was fourteen, I didn't know what to
- 59:37Speaker 1: make of it. But everyone was laughing, and so you
- 59:39Speaker 1: recalibrate to be like, Okay, I guess that's funny. I mean, yeah,
- 59:42Speaker 1: I mean I saw it as a like I think
- 59:44Speaker 1: I saw that scene in a very like you know,
- 59:46Speaker 1: tens of levens. I saw it pretty young age, and yeah,
- 59:51Speaker 1: it just it just kind of like gave me this
- 59:53Speaker 1: idea of like, Okay, this is like a normal, acceptable
- 59:57Speaker 1: excemple thing. My parents did not only let me watch
- 1:00:00Speaker 1: Fox at such a young age, but yeah, yeah, yeah,
- 1:00:03Speaker 1: so so that I mean, no one comes out of
- 1:00:07Speaker 1: those scenes. I mean it's just like it's on every
- 1:00:09Speaker 1: level it does not hold up. No, no, uh. The
- 1:00:14Speaker 1: most that it does, I guess is like sort of
- 1:00:18Speaker 1: solidifies Frankenfurter as like by or maybe even pan sexual.
- 1:00:25Speaker 1: So it's not good representation of queerness on screen, but
- 1:00:28Speaker 1: it's there. So that's confusing to grapple with. Yeah, well,
- 1:00:37Speaker 1: I mean I feel like that sort of goes into
- 1:00:39Speaker 1: the the larger conversation about Frankenfurter in general. So let's good,
- 1:00:45Speaker 1: let's get into that. I mean, there's truly where to begin. Um, yeah,
- 1:00:51Speaker 1: I guess I'll start on the lighter side of the
- 1:00:54Speaker 1: conversation and UH, talk a little bit about Tim Curry,
- 1:00:59Speaker 1: who plays part who kind of I mean, it's it's
- 1:01:04Speaker 1: we're we're in an era where so few people hold
- 1:01:07Speaker 1: up as people, much less people worth admiring, and Tim
- 1:01:11Speaker 1: Curry it seems to generally hold up as a person,
- 1:01:14Speaker 1: which is great, Um, Tim Curry. So, what I wasn't
- 1:01:18Speaker 1: aware of prior to like researching for this episode was
- 1:01:21Speaker 1: that Rocky Horror was a stage show first. So Tim
- 1:01:24Speaker 1: Curry had already been playing the party originated the part
- 1:01:27Speaker 1: of Frankenfurter Uh in UH nineteen seventy three, played it
- 1:01:32Speaker 1: in London, played it on Broadway, and then was one
- 1:01:36Speaker 1: of the few cast members that also played it in
- 1:01:38Speaker 1: the movie. UM, and so had a good understanding of
- 1:01:42Speaker 1: this piece based on my research. This was not the
- 1:01:45Speaker 1: first time that Tim Curry had played around with gender
- 1:01:48Speaker 1: in his uber. He had also been in a play
- 1:01:53Speaker 1: called The Maids in nineteen seventy one, where he played
- 1:01:55Speaker 1: a sado massochistic female maid named Solange would Love to
- 1:01:59Speaker 1: See Sho. So Tim Curry already had a history of
- 1:02:05Speaker 1: having an interest in playing with gender UH and his
- 1:02:07Speaker 1: performances and is still very much stands by the legacy
- 1:02:13Speaker 1: of Rocky Horror. And so this is a quote from
- 1:02:15Speaker 1: OH five in an interview with Terry Grows where he
- 1:02:20Speaker 1: says that he views Rocky Horror to be quote a
- 1:02:23Speaker 1: rite of passage and adds the film is quote a
- 1:02:27Speaker 1: guaranteed weekend party to which you can go with or
- 1:02:30Speaker 1: without a date and probably find one if you don't
- 1:02:32Speaker 1: have one. And it's also a chance for people to
- 1:02:34Speaker 1: try on a few roles for sides, you know, figure
- 1:02:37Speaker 1: it out, help them maybe figure out their own sexuality unquote. Um.
- 1:02:42Speaker 1: And he's remained pretty involved in the Rocky Horror community
- 1:02:45Speaker 1: to the point where he was the narrator in the
- 1:02:48Speaker 1: Laverne Cox stage adaptation that was on Fox in So
- 1:02:53Speaker 1: uh yeah, Tim Curry, Now let's get into the harder
- 1:02:59Speaker 1: stuff A well. I I thought that because the only
- 1:03:04Speaker 1: real serious attempted update at this material, because it is
- 1:03:08Speaker 1: in some in a lot of ways kind of un
- 1:03:11Speaker 1: updatedble yah. A real example against reboot culture because it's
- 1:03:18Speaker 1: like some material it's just like it's so in the
- 1:03:20Speaker 1: DNA of it. But this was rebroadcast is one of
- 1:03:23Speaker 1: the like broadcast Broadway shows in sixteen, and Frankenfurter was
- 1:03:28Speaker 1: played by Liver and Cox And I know you've done
- 1:03:32Speaker 1: some research into this as well. I have some quotes
- 1:03:34Speaker 1: from her that I thought were really interesting. Well, I
- 1:03:38Speaker 1: think and I think this might be what you're getting too,
- 1:03:40Speaker 1: but like at least in terms of what she had
- 1:03:42Speaker 1: to say about like, you know, Frankenfurter and their identity. Um,
- 1:03:47Speaker 1: she talked a lot about it. The fact that you know,
- 1:03:49Speaker 1: she as a character as a person identifying as like
- 1:03:53Speaker 1: a like you know, a quote unquote like trans sexual,
- 1:03:57Speaker 1: transvestite like that. That was like of the language and
- 1:04:02Speaker 1: the level of the language a person a person like
- 1:04:05Speaker 1: that would have like at the time, at the time
- 1:04:08Speaker 1: the playteam, at the time the movie came out. So
- 1:04:11Speaker 1: you know, it was kind of like with frankin fur
- 1:04:14Speaker 1: you're kind of looking at a character like bumping up
- 1:04:18Speaker 1: against the walls of you know, just of understanding that
- 1:04:22Speaker 1: the culture had at that time, and that's how they
- 1:04:25Speaker 1: were defining themselves. Um. And you know, it would probably
- 1:04:28Speaker 1: be a you know, a very different character if they
- 1:04:33Speaker 1: were written today. But I think there's still kind of
- 1:04:35Speaker 1: the idea that you know, you honor how they saw
- 1:04:38Speaker 1: themselves back then, because that's you know, we still want
- 1:04:41Speaker 1: to honor that and observe it, and I guess if
- 1:04:43Speaker 1: that makes sense. Yeah, so I totally agree. I I
- 1:04:47Speaker 1: it's so like what served to me because I tried
- 1:04:49Speaker 1: to go through a little bit of the because it
- 1:04:51Speaker 1: seemed like people like it wasn't like a huge event,
- 1:04:54Speaker 1: but people enjoyed it. It was generally well regarded. Victoria
- 1:04:58Speaker 1: Justice Victor Jealousy plays Janet, you know, like we love it.
- 1:05:05Speaker 1: Tim Curry plays a Narator, the Verne Cox is Frank Conforter.
- 1:05:08Speaker 1: You know, it's like, I feel like, as far as
- 1:05:10Speaker 1: an attempt at an update, they did, but they're good.
- 1:05:13Speaker 1: But what I thought was interesting was when Laverne Cox
- 1:05:16Speaker 1: was doing interviews about this project, Um, she was talking
- 1:05:19Speaker 1: a lot about, I mean, when we've talked about this
- 1:05:21Speaker 1: in the on the podcast, a fair amount of pressure
- 1:05:24Speaker 1: on a specific actor to represent their entire community in
- 1:05:29Speaker 1: every part they play. And Laverne Cox kind of spoken
- 1:05:33Speaker 1: on this to an extent when she was talking about this,
- 1:05:35Speaker 1: because she recognizes in interviews that this is not the
- 1:05:39Speaker 1: most up to date of the moment park at play,
- 1:05:42Speaker 1: but she's acting and and and sort of the pressure
- 1:05:45Speaker 1: that she is one of the only prominent trends of actors.
- 1:05:49Speaker 1: Working to always be representing not just her own work
- 1:05:53Speaker 1: but just of everyone is an enormous pressure. So a
- 1:05:58Speaker 1: few quotes from her that she that she said when
- 1:06:01Speaker 1: this came out was quote to call a trans woman
- 1:06:05Speaker 1: a transstite in is very offensive. But as an actor,
- 1:06:10Speaker 1: I don't play roles based on politics. This is just acting.
- 1:06:13Speaker 1: I think of all the male identified actors who have
- 1:06:16Speaker 1: played Dr Frankenfurter on stage over the years, I don't
- 1:06:18Speaker 1: think any of them identified as transvestites either. People are
- 1:06:23Speaker 1: confused about trans identity anyways, but hopefully we can have
- 1:06:26Speaker 1: a discussion about it. Um. So that was just like
- 1:06:29Speaker 1: the little bit of what she said when she played
- 1:06:31Speaker 1: this role that I thought was interesting, And I think
- 1:06:33Speaker 1: that's I mean, you know, kind of like what I
- 1:06:35Speaker 1: get from Like the heart of that is, you know,
- 1:06:37Speaker 1: like why this is like Frankfurter, you know stuff aside,
- 1:06:41Speaker 1: like is like a fun like role to get to play,
- 1:06:44Speaker 1: Like it's a fun like character to live in, especially
- 1:06:47Speaker 1: for like that the big number, and it's you know,
- 1:06:50Speaker 1: it's I understand the desire to be like I don't
- 1:06:55Speaker 1: constantly want to be like defined by the politics surrounding
- 1:06:59Speaker 1: my identity. Some times, and I just want to like
- 1:07:01Speaker 1: have fun in a role sometimes I just want to
- 1:07:03Speaker 1: you know, like act and seeing and like have play
- 1:07:06Speaker 1: a big, campy character. And I think she has that.
- 1:07:09Speaker 1: I totally think she has that right as a performer. Absolutely. Yeah.
- 1:07:14Speaker 1: So that that was like one thing that was just like, like,
- 1:07:17Speaker 1: what what an extreme pressure put under? That would be
- 1:07:21Speaker 1: put on very few other working actors to represent everybody
- 1:07:26Speaker 1: at once. Um so so yeah, I mean, and and
- 1:07:30Speaker 1: then there's the troops we were discussing earlier, which was
- 1:07:33Speaker 1: just Frankfurter presenting a queer identifying character as literally every
- 1:07:39Speaker 1: negative stereotype I can think of, down to cannibal, which
- 1:07:42Speaker 1: I don't even normally think about. It also took me
- 1:07:46Speaker 1: a few views of this movie to be like, oh,
- 1:07:48Speaker 1: they're eating meat. Loof, like I'm not the meat. Then
- 1:07:54Speaker 1: that would have been way chiller. But they were eating
- 1:07:57Speaker 1: the famous musician. Did they but catch up on him? Though?
- 1:08:01Speaker 1: That's how you eat meat love. I believe, Yes, I
- 1:08:05Speaker 1: actually believe Frankenfunter puts me catch up on him. Yes,
- 1:08:10Speaker 1: it's so it is very as well as like portraying
- 1:08:15Speaker 1: Frankenfurter is very very spiteful and jealous and vengeful and
- 1:08:20Speaker 1: violent and just really everything in the book. But but
- 1:08:24Speaker 1: what the arc that was pointed out by the writer
- 1:08:27Speaker 1: Ronnie Baker that I wanted to point out that was
- 1:08:31Speaker 1: sort of pulled from that legacy of B movies and
- 1:08:34Speaker 1: comic books with characters challenging gender that came before it.
- 1:08:39Speaker 1: And this also sort of ties into and I haven't
- 1:08:41Speaker 1: done the deep research necessary, so dragged me a few must.
- 1:08:44Speaker 1: But the where the place that movie codes were at
- 1:08:48Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies, we're at a very in between
- 1:08:51Speaker 1: place where the extremely rigid codes of like Doris Day
- 1:08:55Speaker 1: end up being a wife and wifeing rules like that
- 1:09:00Speaker 1: has fallen away, and now there's more room for for
- 1:09:04Speaker 1: more challenging material but still with restrictions. And Rocky Horror
- 1:09:08Speaker 1: is kind of a good bottle example of that, where
- 1:09:11Speaker 1: we are allowed to love enjoy in spite of the
- 1:09:16Speaker 1: fact that there's a lot of negative stereotypes being portrayed.
- 1:09:19Speaker 1: But but people love Dr Frank Confer there like he's
- 1:09:24Speaker 1: the center of the movie. He's the most remembered character,
- 1:09:27Speaker 1: and so we're allowed to have this character front and
- 1:09:29Speaker 1: center as long as as the movie plays out. This
- 1:09:33Speaker 1: character is punished for their transgression at the end, which
- 1:09:37Speaker 1: is what happens when riff Raff and Magenta come back
- 1:09:41Speaker 1: and they zapp him and he dies and it's very tragic.
- 1:09:44Speaker 1: And that was sort of where where the narratives stood
- 1:09:48Speaker 1: in terms of how queer characters can be portrayed. Yes,
- 1:09:51Speaker 1: and uh and also like you know, I think, like, um,
- 1:09:54Speaker 1: I bring this zap Columbia. Columbia dies too in that scene.
- 1:09:58Speaker 1: And you know, I feel like lot of the kind
- 1:10:01Speaker 1: of the way like trans like specifically like trans women
- 1:10:04Speaker 1: are portrayed in in media in general, but specifically in
- 1:10:08Speaker 1: horror films, they are you know classically like the Kill
- 1:10:11Speaker 1: like you know, the Villain Sleepway, Sleepaway Cam, like uh,
- 1:10:18Speaker 1: the Brian, the Brian to Palmer movie with Mike Caine,
- 1:10:21Speaker 1: Dead Kill, Kill, Sleepaway Camp, the Seed of Chucky like um,
- 1:10:30Speaker 1: and my God. But like all those things kind of
- 1:10:33Speaker 1: like come down to I feel like it's like it's
- 1:10:36Speaker 1: not just the trend. It's not just like specifically like
- 1:10:39Speaker 1: trans women are villains. It's that there's something I feel
- 1:10:42Speaker 1: like if there's something innately like duplicitous and villainous about
- 1:10:46Speaker 1: like women, and that's and what and then and therefore
- 1:10:49Speaker 1: like what could be like more like band that wants
- 1:10:52Speaker 1: to take on those qualities because like if you like
- 1:10:55Speaker 1: watch like like I'm gonna use a seed of Chucky
- 1:10:59Speaker 1: at dress to kill as my two private examples, but
- 1:11:02Speaker 1: there's a lot of examples of this of where it's
- 1:11:05Speaker 1: like presented is very binary, Like the character has a
- 1:11:07Speaker 1: male side and a female side, and it's always in
- 1:11:10Speaker 1: those movies, it's always like the female side is the
- 1:11:12Speaker 1: one that is like doing the killing. Um, so, you know,
- 1:11:16Speaker 1: and I think that like plays out in the mote
- 1:11:18Speaker 1: in in Here where it's it's not just like Frankenfurter
- 1:11:21Speaker 1: that is, you know, it is kind of villainized for
- 1:11:25Speaker 1: kind of messing with the gender binary a little bit.
- 1:11:28Speaker 1: But you know, like Columbia is a you know, it's
- 1:11:31Speaker 1: kind of like a hysterical, like very like jealous woman.
- 1:11:34Speaker 1: Like she's like driven pretty much entirely by jealousy throughout
- 1:11:38Speaker 1: the entire film, you know that, and no one like
- 1:11:40Speaker 1: you know, like it's kind of hard to keep track
- 1:11:43Speaker 1: of what her relationships are because just like there's like
- 1:11:46Speaker 1: multiple times where she bursts out and she's like I
- 1:11:48Speaker 1: was in love with you, and you're like who are you, um,
- 1:11:52Speaker 1: but like she's another I feel like, you know, she
- 1:11:55Speaker 1: is punished for that as well. At the end. Something
- 1:11:58Speaker 1: that because I always think about at least like transphobia
- 1:12:01Speaker 1: specifically towards like trans women trans women, is that it's
- 1:12:04Speaker 1: it's just a it's also just you know, massa, it's
- 1:12:07Speaker 1: just it's just misogyny in another form. Yeah. And and
- 1:12:12Speaker 1: then I mean, just even based off of you talking
- 1:12:14Speaker 1: about that, I mean, there's really not anyone who presents
- 1:12:19Speaker 1: in traditional men's clothing who has made out to be
- 1:12:22Speaker 1: remotely bad in this movie where they're mostly victimized. Where
- 1:12:26Speaker 1: with the meat Load character coming out in the like
- 1:12:28Speaker 1: traditional mancho James dean biker outfit, hacked a death immediately
- 1:12:32Speaker 1: he's victimized. The scientist is also the rival scientist is victimized,
- 1:12:39Speaker 1: Brad is victimized. Where and then it's made out that
- 1:12:43Speaker 1: Frank Conferter, like the characters that present female like whether
- 1:12:47Speaker 1: that be Frank Conferter, or that the Janet being like
- 1:12:52Speaker 1: feeling welcome to have sex well in audience full of
- 1:12:55Speaker 1: people thirty years later screaming sled her like they are
- 1:12:59Speaker 1: more are aggressively punished by the narratives that makes a
- 1:13:02Speaker 1: lot of sense. Oh boy. I mean, just to touch
- 1:13:08Speaker 1: on a few of the other female characters, not that
- 1:13:11Speaker 1: there are many, but um comb Magenta is riff Raff's
- 1:13:19Speaker 1: sister slash lover question Mark um Like that whole storyline
- 1:13:26Speaker 1: is she's pretty sidelined. Like there's a few scenes where
- 1:13:30Speaker 1: she's like talking to Columbia and then like but never
- 1:13:35Speaker 1: really doing anything. Or the only scene where she's talking
- 1:13:38Speaker 1: to Columbia is the scene that is the Bectel test
- 1:13:42Speaker 1: mind funk of this movie, where it's Columbia and Magenta
- 1:13:46Speaker 1: talking to each other as they're watching a TV screen
- 1:13:50Speaker 1: of with that clearly without consented Janet Janet and Rocky
- 1:13:56Speaker 1: is a baby is a born sexy yesterday? But yeah
- 1:14:02Speaker 1: it's true, which is a subversion that I like sometimes
- 1:14:08Speaker 1: that people like I'm subverting the troupe. I'm like, okay,
- 1:14:10Speaker 1: so you're just hurting someone else, cool, good for you.
- 1:14:14Speaker 1: But like they're they like Columbia Magenta are watching and
- 1:14:18Speaker 1: you know, unconsented twitch stream of Susan Saranda during her
- 1:14:24Speaker 1: high school soprano like catch me. So they're watching people
- 1:14:29Speaker 1: funk without their consent and making fun of them, and
- 1:14:33Speaker 1: it is the it doesn't but we'll get there. But yeah,
- 1:14:37Speaker 1: I mean, I guess my point is like Magenta truly
- 1:14:41Speaker 1: doesn't really matter to this story at all. I mean,
- 1:14:44Speaker 1: I'm sure she's a beloved character, but like even when
- 1:14:47Speaker 1: like mostly it seems like riff Raff has decided like
- 1:14:51Speaker 1: I'm going to overthrow this mad scientist and you know,
- 1:14:55Speaker 1: kill him and then take oh like fly this ship
- 1:14:58Speaker 1: out of here. You know, Magenta is very sidelined in
- 1:15:02Speaker 1: that scene, which I think is partially because Richard O'Brien
- 1:15:05Speaker 1: is like film me, I'm ready for my close to
- 1:15:09Speaker 1: an actor. But yeah, I mean, I think overall the
- 1:15:15Speaker 1: movie doesn't care very much about its female characters. And
- 1:15:20Speaker 1: I also viewed Colombia being another person who sort of
- 1:15:25Speaker 1: falls dead at the end of the movie to be
- 1:15:28Speaker 1: that the only people were I mean, Frankenfurter's character. I
- 1:15:32Speaker 1: would say, it's like kind of inconsistent towards the end.
- 1:15:35Speaker 1: Where towards the end, I think that Frankenfurter's song has
- 1:15:39Speaker 1: become very sympathetic, where uh, you know, he's singing don't
- 1:15:44Speaker 1: dream it be It and is singing about you know,
- 1:15:46Speaker 1: like challenging things. Oh yeah, I mean I will say
- 1:15:49Speaker 1: like as a kid, like no, like very few like
- 1:15:52Speaker 1: lines and songs spoke to me as much as like
- 1:15:54Speaker 1: whatever happened to Fayray that delicate satin drape frame as
- 1:15:59Speaker 1: I something like I started to cry because I wanted
- 1:16:02Speaker 1: to be dressed just the same, and like that lyric
- 1:16:04Speaker 1: means like I'm not gonna hear but that, but that
- 1:16:08Speaker 1: like lyric, like that is so sympathetic towards like what
- 1:16:12Speaker 1: I felt like myself going through at that time, and
- 1:16:15Speaker 1: like to hear it has expressed very lovely. I think
- 1:16:18Speaker 1: that it is such a lovely expression of of what
- 1:16:22Speaker 1: I felt and what that character is feeling. And like
- 1:16:24Speaker 1: I don't know, I just I yeah, it gets very
- 1:16:27Speaker 1: he gets very sympathetic at the end. Yeah, he really doesn't.
- 1:16:29Speaker 1: In those last songs, they're very beautiful and they're very honest,
- 1:16:33Speaker 1: and they are not the cannibal murderer of forty five
- 1:16:37Speaker 1: minutes ago, certainly, And it's only then that Frank Inverter
- 1:16:42Speaker 1: is killed, when when he's expressing his most like concise truth,
- 1:16:47Speaker 1: as well as Colombia, who I think is a reference
- 1:16:51Speaker 1: to a movie company, uh being being the only one too.
- 1:16:57Speaker 1: I mean female character, so shriek out in his defense.
- 1:17:02Speaker 1: But she's the only person besides Rocky who expresses upset
- 1:17:08Speaker 1: at his being killed, and so she's killed and Rocky's killed.
- 1:17:12Speaker 1: And because Janet and Brad and Dr Scott are the
- 1:17:16Speaker 1: bystanders who said nothing, they get to go on and
- 1:17:19Speaker 1: live their lives. And that feels like kind of sending
- 1:17:22Speaker 1: a I don't know how intentional it would have been
- 1:17:25Speaker 1: at the time, but it does sort of seem to
- 1:17:27Speaker 1: send a message of like, the people who stood up
- 1:17:29Speaker 1: for the one character that expressed their truth at least
- 1:17:32Speaker 1: at the very end, Uh, go down with that character.
- 1:17:37Speaker 1: And that my academic So yeah, that those are those
- 1:17:47Speaker 1: are my thoughts on Frankenfurter. Yeah, Wow, there's there's just
- 1:17:52Speaker 1: so much. So I think that there's a little bit
- 1:17:55Speaker 1: to be said about Brad here where I mean, I
- 1:17:58Speaker 1: think one of the few things that I am like,
- 1:18:01Speaker 1: yeah sure about the live culture of the movie is
- 1:18:04Speaker 1: shouting asshole at Brad because he is an asshole. Uh
- 1:18:07Speaker 1: we're at the beginning. I like that they're kind of
- 1:18:09Speaker 1: satirizing the expectations of like the traditional like sis Head,
- 1:18:14Speaker 1: White couple of this time where there it does it
- 1:18:17Speaker 1: does seem like it's trying to be implied at the
- 1:18:19Speaker 1: beginning that they're only getting engaged because they feel like
- 1:18:23Speaker 1: that's what they're supposed to do. They're at a marriage
- 1:18:26Speaker 1: they you know, Janet is like, oh, I need to
- 1:18:29Speaker 1: get married next, and then Brad like, okay, like his
- 1:18:32Speaker 1: that's the whole vibe damage and she's like, um, well,
- 1:18:37Speaker 1: even like the choreography, it's just like he's like saying it,
- 1:18:41Speaker 1: but he's like physically like removing himself from it. It's
- 1:18:45Speaker 1: like it's a darting away. Yeah, and and and so
- 1:18:49Speaker 1: I mean, and I'm going to just kind of remove
- 1:18:52Speaker 1: the assault scenes from this analysis because those seem to
- 1:18:56Speaker 1: be kind of a thing unto themselves that aren't dealt
- 1:18:59Speaker 1: well well within this movie. But in general, uh, Brad
- 1:19:03Speaker 1: seems to be this character that is acting on what
- 1:19:05Speaker 1: he thinks he is supposed to be doing. He is
- 1:19:07Speaker 1: completely almost acting on like what the expectations of a
- 1:19:10Speaker 1: quote unquote man at this time should be doing. And
- 1:19:15Speaker 1: then we see him and Janet at the end when
- 1:19:18Speaker 1: they're unstatuified question mark um, you know, and they're all
- 1:19:24Speaker 1: they're all wearing the frank confurter um. Why can't I
- 1:19:27Speaker 1: think of the word. Yeah, they're all wearing the uniform
- 1:19:32Speaker 1: basically at this point, and they sing about how they
- 1:19:35Speaker 1: feel liberated, and that leads into dunk dream it be it,
- 1:19:39Speaker 1: And I do like the idea of where that arc goes.
- 1:19:45Speaker 1: I truly detest that a jokey rape scene is part
- 1:19:50Speaker 1: as one of the main plot points that helps them
- 1:19:52Speaker 1: again to that place. But taking I mean, one of
- 1:19:54Speaker 1: the I thought the more effective commentaries of this movie
- 1:19:57Speaker 1: is taking that that very trope couple that's like, I
- 1:20:01Speaker 1: guess we're getting married. I guess we love each other,
- 1:20:04Speaker 1: and then taking them on this journey and ending them
- 1:20:08Speaker 1: with like Janet saying that she has all this new
- 1:20:11Speaker 1: sexual confidence and that she feels like a new person,
- 1:20:13Speaker 1: and Brad doing that really kick that made me horny
- 1:20:17Speaker 1: when I was little, the very spinny yeah, not full kick,
- 1:20:30Speaker 1: and then the shutter is it okay? But like but again,
- 1:20:34Speaker 1: that also implies that the queer characters are there to
- 1:20:37Speaker 1: further the straight character's narratives. So there, there's there's just
- 1:20:41Speaker 1: there's truly every problem. Indeed, Yeah, Brad is an interesting
- 1:20:46Speaker 1: underwritten character, much like every character in this true I
- 1:20:54Speaker 1: don't know if I have that much else. Does anyone
- 1:20:56Speaker 1: else have any other final thoughts? Not really, I mean
- 1:21:02Speaker 1: I'm sure, yeah, I'm sure that there's stuff we're missing here.
- 1:21:06Speaker 1: Uh you know, uh, we're all watching this together. Last
- 1:21:10Speaker 1: night I was like, I love meat loaf, and then
- 1:21:12Speaker 1: I googled meat loaf politics, and now I don't. Yeah, yeah, sorry,
- 1:21:18Speaker 1: I propose we can all still listen A bad out
- 1:21:21Speaker 1: of Hell. But yeah, I don't google meat loaf politics.
- 1:21:27Speaker 1: He is addicted to Mitt Romney. Yeah, yeah, to him,
- 1:21:33Speaker 1: the main Romney. Yeah, it's it's nasty and boring. So yeah,
- 1:21:43Speaker 1: there we go. Shall we take a few moments for
- 1:21:46Speaker 1: some audience questions comments? Story? But oh well, actually I
- 1:21:52Speaker 1: have a I have a friend here. Uh and she
- 1:21:54Speaker 1: was like a pretty active part of like a Rocky
- 1:21:57Speaker 1: You were in the Rocky Horror scene, right, Kate, my
- 1:22:00Speaker 1: friend Kate Rap Hi, everyone to give my friend Kate
- 1:22:02Speaker 1: wrapped a hand like you have like a bicoastal like
- 1:22:06Speaker 1: Rocky Horror story. Rights. Yes, yes, yea Kate rap my
- 1:22:15Speaker 1: righting partner comes to our show at some point. Yeah,
- 1:22:18Speaker 1: it's at some point. Okay, so I'll make this really quick.
- 1:22:22Speaker 1: But I did go to the like the new art
- 1:22:25Speaker 1: shows in high school because I grew up in the
- 1:22:28Speaker 1: South Bay not too far from here, and I remember
- 1:22:32Speaker 1: being like seventeen and thinking that Rocky was super hot.
- 1:22:38Speaker 1: I mean, like the guy who plays Rocky is just
- 1:22:40Speaker 1: like an icon in any Rocky Horror performance, like, and
- 1:22:45Speaker 1: I saw him after the show, and I don't know
- 1:22:47Speaker 1: how it happened, because I did get like probably black
- 1:22:50Speaker 1: out drunk, which is also like a weird part of
- 1:22:53Speaker 1: the Rocky Horror live show culture, like they like want
- 1:22:57Speaker 1: young children to get very drunk. It's very weird, like
- 1:23:02Speaker 1: you're back. Yeah. So I was like very drunk, and
- 1:23:05Speaker 1: I made out with Rocky, like I think, just in
- 1:23:07Speaker 1: front of the theater like at the New York Like
- 1:23:09Speaker 1: we didn't go to a bar or anything afterwards. So
- 1:23:12Speaker 1: I was like, this was the highlight of my life.
- 1:23:14Speaker 1: I was like seventeen. I got to make out with
- 1:23:16Speaker 1: Rocky and then he takes his wig off and he
- 1:23:18Speaker 1: looks very different, and I was just like, this is strange,
- 1:23:22Speaker 1: Like I'm feeling something different now. I was, You're a
- 1:23:26Speaker 1: real human, this is not the same anyway. Um fast forward,
- 1:23:32Speaker 1: I go to college in New York like a year later,
- 1:23:35Speaker 1: and he's like doing a guest slot at the like
- 1:23:38Speaker 1: Chelsea in New York like version of Rocky Horror. And
- 1:23:41Speaker 1: I made out with him again, So I mean I
- 1:23:45Speaker 1: with Rocky twice. It's the height of my sexual conquest.
- 1:23:51Speaker 1: And I think he's like a Trump supporter now, so
- 1:23:55Speaker 1: he like sucks. What is I think he's like, really
- 1:23:59Speaker 1: he's really be it might have been meat load. Oh
- 1:24:04Speaker 1: my god, thank you for sho you feel slightly guilty
- 1:24:10Speaker 1: because like when I when I asked, you, like, come
- 1:24:12Speaker 1: tell the story. It's gonna be really fun, and then
- 1:24:14Speaker 1: I was I did not also say like we're gonna
- 1:24:16Speaker 1: be talking about rap scenes for like minutes. Build enough
- 1:24:19Speaker 1: to the questions comments, any thoughts from from anyone? Yeah,
- 1:24:28Speaker 1: oh yes, and the person who has not seen Rocky
- 1:24:31Speaker 1: Horror before, I just want to know which role Alfred
- 1:24:34Speaker 1: mull Thank you so much. Drasing Well, I think if
- 1:24:39Speaker 1: we're under selling his talents, which we never should, uh,
- 1:24:43Speaker 1: he would play an excellent Brad. It would bring you know,
- 1:24:47Speaker 1: not to not to downplay Berry or his kicks, but
- 1:24:50Speaker 1: you know, couldn't bring a lot more. But you know,
- 1:24:53Speaker 1: he could have brought a lot more to that role,
- 1:24:55Speaker 1: I think. But Ultimately, I think that we should have
- 1:24:58Speaker 1: had him playing Rocky Horror, Like we really need a
- 1:25:02Speaker 1: British beefcake in that role. Um, and not an American model.
- 1:25:07Speaker 1: Is there anyone? I mean he also could have play River.
- 1:25:09Speaker 1: I mean he could have played literally anyone in the
- 1:25:11Speaker 1: movie nowadays. He could be like, like, well, I think
- 1:25:15Speaker 1: I could see him as the criminologist. Obviously he's in
- 1:25:18Speaker 1: Frozen two. He is. Yeah, another reason to see Frozen two.
- 1:25:23Speaker 1: I know, well, Alfred Billio is in it. He I mean,
- 1:25:27Speaker 1: as usual, any role will do, But I feel like
- 1:25:31Speaker 1: Tim Curry has to play Frank Confurter. That's the only
- 1:25:35Speaker 1: like normally I will displace any actor in favor of
- 1:25:38Speaker 1: Alfread Billina. But I do think that Tim Curry will
- 1:25:41Speaker 1: stay h and Alfred Billina would not be like I mean,
- 1:25:45Speaker 1: as we know, he's our friend. He's our friend, he's
- 1:25:48Speaker 1: not a diva. He won't be like I can't believe
- 1:25:51Speaker 1: he would say, I'm just thrilled to be here. Yeah
- 1:25:54Speaker 1: that's true. Um yeah, but started going off of what
- 1:25:58Speaker 1: he was saying about the pressure to get teens drunk.
- 1:26:00Speaker 1: That is one thing that I didn't mention in my
- 1:26:03Speaker 1: discussion of the community of there have been issues with
- 1:26:06Speaker 1: the upside of the community is that everyone is welcome
- 1:26:11Speaker 1: regardless of age, so you have young teens coming into
- 1:26:14Speaker 1: the community. The downside of that is that there are
- 1:26:17Speaker 1: pictures posted of scantily clad teenagers without their consent, alcohol
- 1:26:21Speaker 1: being passed around to them, and a lot of sexual
- 1:26:24Speaker 1: pressure being put on young people without any regard for
- 1:26:28Speaker 1: their age. So just a fun thing me love, Yes,
- 1:26:37Speaker 1: he's alive or do we have any other com questions
- 1:26:41Speaker 1: or commute? Jumping off from the discussion of trans women
- 1:26:47Speaker 1: being the villains also psycho yes, yes, drasticill is, terror
- 1:26:53Speaker 1: is terrible and the complete something changed. I'm sorry, but
- 1:26:58Speaker 1: spirit Halloween. Um, I think it should be discussed whether
- 1:27:02Speaker 1: or not Frank comes scaps. I no one has ever
- 1:27:08Speaker 1: wanted to bring this up before. People are usually upsetting, horrified. Okay,
- 1:27:13Speaker 1: so let's open the floor here Frankenfurter. When Frankenfurter comes,
- 1:27:19Speaker 1: we usually have this conversation and regards to Beetle'll just
- 1:27:21Speaker 1: pull let's up in it up to Frankenfurter. What the
- 1:27:23Speaker 1: material that has come with it? I think it would
- 1:27:27Speaker 1: be like, no, well, well we're not the thing that
- 1:27:30Speaker 1: bothers me is that people are like, it's not scaps.
- 1:27:32Speaker 1: It's for sure scaps. But even for even for Frankenfurter
- 1:27:37Speaker 1: Halloween characters comes scaps. Okay, it's cannon. Okay, it's cannon.
- 1:27:43Speaker 1: But the question where or dry he's well, he's an
- 1:27:46Speaker 1: a like you know, he's an alien, so like we
- 1:27:48Speaker 1: don't know what his internal internal like biology is like
- 1:27:52Speaker 1: you know what kind of what organs he does or
- 1:27:55Speaker 1: doesn't have, So like, yeah, I think like I think
- 1:27:58Speaker 1: he comes from a race where anybody comes scabs. Yes, okay,
- 1:28:06Speaker 1: but are they are they dry? Um, they're wet? Yeah,
- 1:28:10Speaker 1: team wet scat, you're dry the wet they're usual. I
- 1:28:15Speaker 1: am always team dry scap. Imagine the card of the
- 1:28:18Speaker 1: deck of cards literally beetle juice comes dry scabs like yeah, yeah, yeah,
- 1:28:27Speaker 1: just like like like a machine gun, yes yeah, just
- 1:28:29Speaker 1: a one scab after another and then wet scabs. I
- 1:28:32Speaker 1: can't say it enough. Is a laser jab printer printing
- 1:28:34Speaker 1: a full color? Okay, we had some other we got
- 1:28:38Speaker 1: to change something, other questions, other comments, Yes, come come
- 1:28:43Speaker 1: on down. Just another quick thing. At the beginning of
- 1:28:47Speaker 1: the film, when at the wedding scene, where the car
- 1:28:50Speaker 1: drives up and on the side of the car it
- 1:28:52Speaker 1: says like just married and like shaving cream, and right
- 1:28:56Speaker 1: below that it says she just got hers. Now tonight
- 1:29:01Speaker 1: he's gonna get his, which is very iggy. Yes, yes,
- 1:29:06Speaker 1: thank you for pointing that out. I guess that's like
- 1:29:10Speaker 1: commentary on how like, oh, this is how straight people be,
- 1:29:15Speaker 1: but I don't even know I think that. Yeah, like
- 1:29:18Speaker 1: it has a comment on like women want marriage, men
- 1:29:21Speaker 1: want to just that you know that bridal party. Don't
- 1:29:26Speaker 1: put that much on the car, right yeah, your friend's relationship,
- 1:29:33Speaker 1: that's not your jobs per funcing on the bride's friends friends.
- 1:29:40Speaker 1: To make no mistake, this couple is problematic and all
- 1:29:43Speaker 1: the expected we are going is goodbye. We're gonna use
- 1:29:47Speaker 1: this in the chance to sub tweet them. But I
- 1:29:50Speaker 1: also feel like that opening sequence with like the wedding
- 1:29:53Speaker 1: and everything is like, oh, look look at these fucking
- 1:29:57Speaker 1: normies and their heteronormativity. Wait till you get to the
- 1:30:01Speaker 1: castle and that's when things get cool and fun and
- 1:30:04Speaker 1: you get hosted and then also you will be assaulted.
- 1:30:08Speaker 1: Um so than you know, problems winning. Uh, well, does
- 1:30:15Speaker 1: the movie pass the Bechdel test? No, no, it does.
- 1:30:19Speaker 1: It does. There we was there, we was so there
- 1:30:22Speaker 1: was a there's the one question mark scene where we
- 1:30:24Speaker 1: were all sort of like, might it yes? The question
- 1:30:28Speaker 1: is is it saying someone's dialogue back to them or
- 1:30:33Speaker 1: in a mimicking tone countess dialogue? Like it's it's like
- 1:30:39Speaker 1: being like that is that that kind of dialogue? And
- 1:30:43Speaker 1: that's the Magenta Columbia scene that we have alluded to
- 1:30:45Speaker 1: you before, but ultimately for me because in this scene
- 1:30:49Speaker 1: it is two women with names talking to each other
- 1:30:53Speaker 1: about surveilling a heterosexual couple without their consented and making
- 1:30:59Speaker 1: fun of them. I say it doesn't pass right. I
- 1:31:03Speaker 1: mean the line goes because they're watching Janets sing a
- 1:31:08Speaker 1: song too Rocky about how she just had sex with Frankenfurter,
- 1:31:13Speaker 1: and Magenta says do you mean she, and Columbie says
- 1:31:17Speaker 1: uh huh. And that's the only scene I clocked where
- 1:31:21Speaker 1: women interact. Later, they do sing refrained like a touch
- 1:31:26Speaker 1: of touch me I wanted to dirty back and forth
- 1:31:28Speaker 1: to each other. That is then like just sn't like yeah,
- 1:31:33Speaker 1: which like passes I guess on paper. But the context
- 1:31:37Speaker 1: is like they're talking about the kind of hetero sex
- 1:31:41Speaker 1: with a man and just like, regardless the fact that there,
- 1:31:46Speaker 1: I mean, that would be maybe our wildest pass yet
- 1:31:48Speaker 1: that like watching people fucking without their consent and making
- 1:31:52Speaker 1: fun of them somehow passes. The still tasks like almost
- 1:31:57Speaker 1: regardless of what they're saying, Like even if they're watching
- 1:32:00Speaker 1: an unconsented feed of people having sex and being like,
- 1:32:04Speaker 1: so have you read the latest Roxanne Gay, I'd still
- 1:32:06Speaker 1: be like, I don't know that this passes. They're still
- 1:32:09Speaker 1: doing something that's very illegal, so I don't Yeah, I
- 1:32:14Speaker 1: I I don't think it passes from me. Yeah. Well,
- 1:32:20Speaker 1: Times have rated on our nipple scale um zeroified nipples
- 1:32:26Speaker 1: based on its representation of women, but all things considered
- 1:32:31Speaker 1: based on our entire discussion because there's value in this
- 1:32:36Speaker 1: movie like being kind of, you know, a gateway for
- 1:32:40Speaker 1: people who might be questioning their sexuality or gender to
- 1:32:46Speaker 1: kind of have exposure to something. This might have been
- 1:32:49Speaker 1: more true in decades past because now there is more
- 1:32:53Speaker 1: content available the focuses on queer narratives, but because it
- 1:32:58Speaker 1: does have such a big cultural impact. Um. But then
- 1:33:02Speaker 1: also the movie truly doesn't really have any vested interest
- 1:33:06Speaker 1: in any of its female characters. They impacted the plot
- 1:33:11Speaker 1: almost none, and I'm getting there. The prologue is, um,
- 1:33:20Speaker 1: I have to say like one and a half, I
- 1:33:24Speaker 1: was gonna say, is that too how low? Or too high?
- 1:33:28Speaker 1: Too high? The audience? O, my god? Stand thank you? Okay, fine,
- 1:33:38Speaker 1: I'll apologize again and I'll stand by my decisions. Okay,
- 1:33:42Speaker 1: thank you, thank you. I'm so like Coodness you're yelling
- 1:33:46Speaker 1: at her. There you guys. I'm also everyone is I'm
- 1:33:51Speaker 1: still dressed as brad Um. Okay, one and a half
- 1:33:57Speaker 1: nipples and I will give one of them to Tim
- 1:34:03Speaker 1: Curry and my half nimble to Susan Surrandon, but for
- 1:34:09Speaker 1: Thelma and Louise and not this movie. I'm also going
- 1:34:14Speaker 1: to go one and a half. I don't want any comments,
- 1:34:18Speaker 1: thank you. No, I'm gonna go one and a half.
- 1:34:21Speaker 1: I appreciate and still, you know, like I mean, it's
- 1:34:26Speaker 1: it's I'm glad that the Rocky horror cultural legacy exists.
- 1:34:30Speaker 1: I think that it has a ton of value, especially
- 1:34:33Speaker 1: in its time, and I think that it is like
- 1:34:35Speaker 1: more of a region to region influence than most of
- 1:34:38Speaker 1: the movies that we cover were Like I mean, yeah,
- 1:34:41Speaker 1: I mean in in some reasons, I would imagine that
- 1:34:44Speaker 1: Rocky Horror is still an extremely valuable resource of community
- 1:34:49Speaker 1: for people who are questioning or want to be involved
- 1:34:52Speaker 1: in the queer community to go to. UM. So I
- 1:34:55Speaker 1: am very grateful for its legacy. In terms of content,
- 1:34:59Speaker 1: as we you said, it's all fucking over the place. Uh.
- 1:35:02Speaker 1: It does not have a lot of regard for its
- 1:35:04Speaker 1: female characters. It is not a very thoughtful representation of
- 1:35:08Speaker 1: really anybody at all. UM very white movie as well,
- 1:35:14Speaker 1: extremely white movie. You only see people of color in
- 1:35:17Speaker 1: background shots, and they can't afford to bring the extras
- 1:35:20Speaker 1: back in every scene, so it is just it is
- 1:35:24Speaker 1: a mess. I am glad that it was successful. I
- 1:35:27Speaker 1: think this is a great example of a movie we've
- 1:35:29Speaker 1: covered that paved the way for better perspectives. Because this
- 1:35:34Speaker 1: movie had a one point four million dollar budget and
- 1:35:37Speaker 1: made one hundred times its budget at the box office.
- 1:35:40Speaker 1: It was extraordinarily successful and so for all of its many,
- 1:35:44Speaker 1: many many faults that we've discussed, a movie being that
- 1:35:48Speaker 1: successful and presenting queer culture in any way I feel
- 1:35:52Speaker 1: like does pave the way for uh, more qualified voices
- 1:35:57Speaker 1: and more progressive voices to take the lead. Because with
- 1:36:01Speaker 1: when it comes to you know, the capitalistic night where
- 1:36:04Speaker 1: we live in. If something makes money, people will give
- 1:36:09Speaker 1: those types of narratives more of an opportunity with different writers.
- 1:36:13Speaker 1: So I'm glad it exists. And uh and and one
- 1:36:16Speaker 1: and a half nippies for that and that alone. I
- 1:36:21Speaker 1: will give one to Tim Curry and I'm going to
- 1:36:23Speaker 1: give a half e too, Rocky because he was a baby.
- 1:36:28Speaker 1: He was a baby, and we didn't talk about that enough.
- 1:36:31Speaker 1: Born Sexy yesterday. Look up the trope. This is the
- 1:36:33Speaker 1: only male example we've recovered of it. Um. I think
- 1:36:40Speaker 1: both of what you said was stating very elegantly about
- 1:36:43Speaker 1: you know, the cult of the importance of the cultural
- 1:36:45Speaker 1: impact of the film and uh, you know, speaking to
- 1:36:48Speaker 1: someone who can relate to that, you know, to some extent,
- 1:36:51Speaker 1: it wasn't the most important or influential piece of you know,
- 1:36:55Speaker 1: queer media in my in my youth, um, but it
- 1:36:57Speaker 1: was still like it was still important to me there
- 1:37:00Speaker 1: for me at certain points that I agree with all that. Um,
- 1:37:03Speaker 1: But I do think, you know, it really seems like
- 1:37:06Speaker 1: this is a subculture for you know that I'd love
- 1:37:09Speaker 1: to sit to see stick around, but also like a
- 1:37:12Speaker 1: lot of subcult like you know, subcultures right now need
- 1:37:15Speaker 1: to be like reevaluated, you know, yes updated, you know,
- 1:37:20Speaker 1: we can find a better thing to what's the progressive
- 1:37:24Speaker 1: thing we can Yet, like Janet every time she comes
- 1:37:26Speaker 1: on screen, does exactly watch the Videl the Vicdel's cat.
- 1:37:33Speaker 1: Um they should all be pluns for your for your powers.
- 1:37:36Speaker 1: Um but um so yeah so I and I think
- 1:37:40Speaker 1: I like that their their voices within the space now
- 1:37:44Speaker 1: sticking up, trying to find the trying to find ways
- 1:37:47Speaker 1: to you know, bring bring you know, Rocky Horror for
- 1:37:51Speaker 1: as you know, messy and uh complicated a piece of entertainment.
- 1:37:56Speaker 1: It is, bring that culture, bring that community into you know,
- 1:38:01Speaker 1: into nineteen and beyond. And that's something you know, because
- 1:38:04Speaker 1: it would it wouldn't make me sad. It would make
- 1:38:06Speaker 1: me sad to think that like Rocky Horror just like
- 1:38:09Speaker 1: stopped existing because you know, I did a lot of
- 1:38:12Speaker 1: you know, this morning, I did a lot of research,
- 1:38:14Speaker 1: you know or not am I read like three wikipe
- 1:38:17Speaker 1: I read like three articles online. I did a ton
- 1:38:19Speaker 1: of research. Um but I like you know, found like
- 1:38:23Speaker 1: like um articles from you know, like little like colleges
- 1:38:27Speaker 1: like in the middle of the country and for them
- 1:38:29Speaker 1: like you know, like from like literally like this, like
- 1:38:33Speaker 1: this October, like a couple like a week or two
- 1:38:34Speaker 1: ago talking about you know, like you know, Rocky Horror.
- 1:38:38Speaker 1: You know, coming to campus is like this big deal
- 1:38:41Speaker 1: and it is like you know, they like one of
- 1:38:43Speaker 1: one of like two or three, like you know, queer
- 1:38:46Speaker 1: focused events they have every they have every year, some
- 1:38:50Speaker 1: pieces not even every year. So you know, I think
- 1:38:52Speaker 1: there is still like an importance and a you know
- 1:38:55Speaker 1: outside of maybe where we are, outside of our bubble,
- 1:38:58Speaker 1: like there's still a lot of like good community can do.
- 1:39:00Speaker 1: So long as it a key, it evolves, and you know,
- 1:39:03Speaker 1: um yeah, and I guess I would say I'm gonna
- 1:39:06Speaker 1: stay on the one and a half stars training and
- 1:39:09Speaker 1: say I'll give I'm gonna give a half a star
- 1:39:12Speaker 1: to Tim Curry and then I'll give one half to
- 1:39:16Speaker 1: the Magagina and one half Columbia. And for the very
- 1:39:19Speaker 1: cool normal activity of painting each other's toe nails. Yes,
- 1:39:23Speaker 1: which does so? I think we're talking to painting to
- 1:39:28Speaker 1: like painting your friend's house is a form of communication.
- 1:39:31Speaker 1: It is, yes, yes, we think about Oh goodness, well, John,
- 1:39:38Speaker 1: thank you so much for being here. Give it up
- 1:39:40Speaker 1: for John Ford. John Buss where can people follow you?
- 1:39:45Speaker 1: What would you like to plug? Tell us everything? Oh gosh, um,
- 1:39:48Speaker 1: I'm on Twitter and Instagram. Is Joan Hailey Ford I
- 1:39:52Speaker 1: have a If you're in l a uh Me and
- 1:39:55Speaker 1: Kate have a show coming up December twelve at the
- 1:39:59Speaker 1: UCB Theater. It's our two person sketch team Red and Yellow.
- 1:40:02Speaker 1: So please come, please come see that eight thirty UCB
- 1:40:04Speaker 1: K Which which theater? Is it? Sun Sat? You see
- 1:40:08Speaker 1: sun Sat? There you go? Yeah? Yeah, Scot, Joan and
- 1:40:14Speaker 1: thank you too, so so much for coming. Thank you
- 1:40:16Speaker 1: to the Ruby Theater. Thank you to Aristotle, all staff
- 1:40:22Speaker 1: of the Ruby is Thank you Jamie than you can.
- 1:40:27Speaker 1: Thank you for coming. Have a good night. There you
- 1:40:31Speaker 1: have it our live Rocky Horror Picture Show show. Thanks
- 1:40:36Speaker 1: again to everyone who came out. Thanks again to the
- 1:40:39Speaker 1: Ruby for having us. Don't forget about our final live
- 1:40:42Speaker 1: l A show at that location at the Ruby on
- 1:40:45Speaker 1: November nine, We're covering Home Alone. Don't miss it. Details
- 1:40:50Speaker 1: for that and other live shows that we do in
- 1:40:53Speaker 1: various locations can be found on places like bechtel cast
- 1:40:58Speaker 1: dot com, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You can follow us
- 1:41:02Speaker 1: on those platforms at bechtel Cast also don't forget to
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- 1:41:13Speaker 1: bonus episodes a month for only five dollars per month.
- 1:41:17Speaker 1: You can also visit our merch store at t public
- 1:41:20Speaker 1: dot com slash the Bechtel Cast for all of your
- 1:41:24Speaker 1: merchandizing needs, including some spooky designs like feminist icon Beetlejuice,
- 1:41:31Speaker 1: Team dry Scabs, Team wet Scabs, and his Wife. Other
- 1:41:36Speaker 1: than that, just go and do the time warp again
- 1:41:40Speaker 1: by