Culture · 10h

Actress Annie Potts says meeting longtime friend Tim Curry was 'love at first sight'

Erika Ryan

NPR's Adrian Florido speaks with actress Annie Potts about being a longtime close friend and neighbor of actor Tim Curry, who died this week at 80 years old.

Transcript

ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:

When I say the name Tim Curry, you might picture him as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW")

TIM CURRY: (As Dr. Frank-N-Furter) Come up to the lab and see what's on the slab. I see you shiver with antici... pation.

FLORIDO: ...Or as the devious butler Wadsworth in "Clue"...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CLUE")

CURRY: (As Wadsworth) I'm merely a humble butler.

MARTIN MULL: (As Colonel Mustard) What exactly do you do?

CURRY: (As Wadsworth) I buttle, sir.

FLORIDO: ...Or the murderous clown, Pennywise, from the 1990 adaptation of Stephen King's "It."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "IT")

CURRY: (As Pennywise) Hi, Georgie. Aren't you gonna say hello?

FLORIDO: The fact is that Tim Curry will be remembered for many iconic roles through the years. But actress Annie Potts will remember him also as a costar, as a friend and a neighbor. She's on the line with me now. Annie Potts, welcome. And thank you for joining us, and I'm sorry for your loss.

ANNIE POTTS: Thank you.

FLORIDO: I want to start at the beginning. Can you tell us how you met Tim? And do you remember what your first impression of him was?

POTTS: Oh, it was sort of love at first sight. We were making (laughter) a very funny, strange film up in the hills of Arkansas. We were playing a couple of televangelists. We just hit it off. There was a place nearby where you could rent a boat. I said, I think it would clear our heads if we get out on a boat and do a little fishing. He would - said, (impersonating Tim Curry) oh, I'd love it.

FLORIDO: (Laughter).

POTTS: So every afternoon, if we got off early, we would go fishing, and we would cook our fish in the Mr. Coffee or the little oven that we had. And we just fell in love over that, you know? And then he always said, you know, he had never liked Los Angeles before. But I brought him to my neighborhood, which is Silver Lake. He said, oh, I love it. It's like Portugal. Tim found the house that I moved into with my family because it was going on the market. It was right next door to his. So we lived next door to each other for many years. And often, when he was in town, he would join us for dinner.

FLORIDO: What was he like as a neighbor?

POTTS: (Laughter) Fabulous. He was always bringing things over. Annie, I don't want this painting. You have it. Annie, I don't want this pot. You have it. His nickname for me was honeypots. But he was wonderful. And, you know, because he lived alone, and we (laugher) - our house was the exact opposite of that, you know, three kids and always extra company and nannies and just, you know, madness. And Uncle Tim would often come for dinner. It was like a nutty boarding house, sort of...

FLORIDO: (Laughter).

POTTS: ...Just fabulous.

FLORIDO: I kind of like that.

POTTS: And I think one of his favorite roles in his life was being uncle. He has two nieces who are both fabulous. He loved the girls and spoiled them and traveled with them and, you know, including in the uncledom (ph) was my three sons. He loved them all and has known them all since they were little.

FLORIDO: What's the one memory of him you have that you just keep going back to?

POTTS: I think sitting near the garden. He was such an English gentleman. He knew more about plants - I mean, he knew their Latin names. He knew how they grew, where they grew, what they bloomed, when they bloomed. And he had the most astonishing, like, 4-acre garden in Los Feliz that was in complete ruin. And he bought it and restored it to, I mean, museum-quality garden. And he taught me that. I don't have the gift of it to the degree that he did, but sitting with him or walking around the garden with him or walking into a room, and he's saying I'm going to put this there and that. And he was masterful at that.

FLORIDO: What would you like people to remember about Tim Curry?

POTTS: (Crying) I'm sorry. Well, I mean, I think, you know, he just finished his autobiography this year, and he was a private man. And I think he didn't let too many people see who he really was. And I felt really lucky to know him. And he let me know him pretty well. But he was magnificent. He was - you know, when people get gifts, sometimes they have one or two. He had them all.

FLORIDO: Well, thank you so much for sharing a little bit about who he was with us. I've been speaking with Annie Potts. She's an actress known for her roles in "Young Sheldon," "Ghostbusters," "Designing Women" and more, remembering her longtime neighbor and friend Tim Curry, who died this week. Thank you so much for joining us.

POTTS: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I'M GOING HOME")

CURRY: (Singing, as Dr. Frank-N-Furter) And I realize I'm going home.

UNIDENTIFIED CAST: (Singing, as characters) I'm going home.

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