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Actor Tim Curry has had an illustrious career playing (mostly) bad guys: Dr. Frank-N-Furter in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” sewer-dwelling, child-eating clown Pennywise in the 1990 “Stephen King’s IT” mini-series, and dozens of cartoon villains (but, despite his other famous evil clown role, not the Joker).
Curry has written a new memoir, “Vagabond,” about his life and recently sat down with The Guardian to discuss the book and himself. When discussing his favorite role, he picked 1996’s “Muppet Treasure Island,” a puppet-laden adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic pirate adventure book. Curry is the central human star of the movie, playing Long John Silver, the ruthless one-legged pirate who pretends to be a friend to young hero Jim Hawkins (Kevin Bishop).
“The great thing is that the Muppeteers themselves, if they have their puppet on their hand, they only talk to you as the character. I love that,” Curry recalled fondly to The Guardian, adding he’d “love to work with the Muppets again.”
Aside from Hawkins, Silver, and the doomed Billy Bones (Billy Connolly), “Muppet Treasure Island” recasts many of the major roles in “Treasure Island” with Muppets. Captain Smollett of the central ship Hispaniola is played by Kermit the Frog, while Kermit’s girlfriend Miss Piggy plays Benjamina Gunn, revised from the male Ben Gunn in Stevenson’s novel.
Miss Piggy is Curry’s favorite Muppet and, as he told The Guardian, he tried to ad-lib a dirty double entendre involving her character. Benjamina alludes to her and Long John sharing a romantic history, so Silver would’ve remarked to Jim: “Once you’ve had pork, you never go back!” The line suggests not just eating pork literally but eating in … another sense of the word.
The line didn’t make it into the movie, but Curry’s performance as Silver remains a highlight.
