You know how you watch an old movie and kind of adopt it as your personality for a few weeks? Well, since it’s around Halloween, I recently watched Rocky Horror Picture Show and fell down a rabbit hole, so here are 17 really interesting things I learned about the making of that; if you take a break from doing the “Time Warp,” I bet you’ll enjoy, too.
1.
During the filming of Rocky Horror Picture Show, cast members would hide Easter eggs on set, though not all of them were found and can be seen in the final film, which is where the term “Easter egg” in movies is rumored to originate. Can you find it in this photo?
2.
Patricia Quinn (Magenta) is the set of lips in the opening “Science Fiction—Double Feature” number, but she’s actually lip-syncing to Richard O’Brian’s (Riff Raff) singing.
3.
When recording the lips, she kept moving out of frame. She said, “There was an art lamp in a clamp. They said: ‘Take that lamp out of that and screw her head into that.’ So they clamped my head so I wouldn’t move.”
4.
When Barry Bostwick pounds his hand on the table during the dinner scene, he accidentally crushes Susan Sarandon’s hand, and her reaction can be seen in the film.
5.
For revenge, Sarandon stepped on his foot with her spiky heel during the ending number. His reaction is also visible.
7.
Susan Sarandon caught pneumonia filming the pool scene because the set had no heat and no bathrooms.
8.
To keep her warm, the cast set up a warming tent, but it caught fire (luckily without her in it).
11.
Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon were actually dating during filming, which Richard O’Brien revealed in an interview in 2013.
12.
The play that Rocky Horror Picture Show was based on was actually written by Richard O’Brien, who played Riff Raff in the film and on the stage.
13.
Rocky is wearing a prosthetic plug to cover his belly button. Because Frank-N-Furter created him, he wouldn’t have had an umbilical cord.
14.
Sarandon getting cast was a fluke. She wasn’t intending to audition and stopped by the set to say hi to Tim Curry, who was a friend of hers. Prior to the movie, she was scared to sing. Singing “Happy Birthday” to the casting directors landed her the role, though.
15.
Meat Loaf never rode a motorcycle. The shots up and down the ramps are a stunt double, and the close-ups were achieved by attaching a shield to a wheelchair to achieve the effect.
16.
The two people standing in the back of the wedding photo at the beginning of the movie are a reference to Grant Wood’s painting, American Gothic (which is actually hanging next to the clock in Frank-N-Furter’s castle).
17.
And the skeleton in the clock is a real skeleton. The clock sold at a Sotheby’s auction in 2003 for over $60,000.
Trivia time! Can you complete the quote? “If only we were amongst friends…..or ________!” Drop your answer in the comments 👀