Master of the Maze
Childhood legend of Crystal Maze fame, creator of the Rocky Horror cult, and able to perform the Timewarp on the guitar in the Union chamber without looking like a complete prick, Richard O'Brien is a man worth meeting. Far from the otherwordly, sinister character we are used to on screen, O'Brien comes across as a self-deprecating, sensible family man who relishes "kindness and intelligence" and whose best moments in life "were as trite as the children being born."
You'd hardly guess it, looking at him. O'Brien's small, wizened face tops a frame so wiry that he has more the body of teenager than a 62-year-old, which tonight is clad in trademark black. The long coat, leggings, knee-high boots and gothic t-shirt are all on display, whilst a beanie hides his infamous bald head. I'm fascinated to know the secret of his youthful physique, and he puts it down quite bluntly to "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll - and vanity, basically, is the driving force."
"You should never underestimate vanity...I think it's perfectly okay, and certainly not one of the deadly sins. Ego is the problem. People get very lofty and take the moral high ground. I'm not good with people who have a kind of ego problem. There are a few in the film world that do and in fact undermine you, and you think 'Why are you doing this? Is it just so that you shine, and I look like shit? Why don't you want me to be better, so we can both be wonderful?'"
O'Brien's colourful career certainly positions him well to comment on the traits of various A-list celebs. Since confirming his talent with The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the actor and composer's roles in hits such as Dungeons and Dragons, Flash Gordon and Dark City have seen him appear alongside Russell Crowe, The Spice Girls, Meat Loaf, Tim Curry, Rufus Sewell, Susan Sarandon and Drew Barrymore...not forgetting, of course, 'Mumsy' of the Crystal Maze.
For most of our generation it is O'Brien the creepy Crystal Maze host who stands out in the mind, and fellow students are obviously eager to know more about Ed Tudor-Pole and the 'Ocean Zone'.
"The Ocean Zone was kind of alright, but my heart wasn't in the show at that stage. I actually wanted to leave after I did series two. If I stay here too long I'm a game show host - I don't want to be a game show host. On TV, as soon as they've finished with you you're out - unlike acting in older roles." So off he went to film in Australia, and along came his successor Tudor-Pole, whom O'Brien calls "slightly eccentric". Clearly then, they weren't
looking for continuity in the show's hosts.
Though he admits some of the games on the Crystal Maze were actually impossible, he likens the show metaphorically to a good soufflé in contrast with the stodgy Fort Buyard, the similar game show which has graced tea-time telly more recently. But the show's host Melinda Messenger wins his approval: "She's actually unpretentious and straightforward and not terribly Essex."
Quite how O'Brien found himself working in the entertainment industry in such a wide and eclectic sense is surprising considering that, on leaving school aged 15, he had "no signs of any potential in any field of life whatsoever", as well as "never having any ambition. I never wanted to be famous or have money."
Richard Smith - as he was born - moved to New Zealand in 1952 when his family emigrated to work on a sheep farm. Lacking his own sense of destiny he consequently followed the family path with a three year course in dairy farming, but on realising this was not the ideal career moved back to London, where his horse riding skills served him well: he entered the film world as a stunt man. Soon he was hankering after bigger things on the big screen, despite the conviction that he still had "no talent whatsoever".
Yet determination alone served O'Brien well enough. Success lay not only on film sets but on the stage and in songwriting - the latter clearly his great passion. Earlier this evening, he looked completely at home casually strumming on the guitar as he joked with the audience, and his songs were unexpectedly tender for a man so outwardly austere. It was his love of songwriting that propelled him to create The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a film he reckons has been watched by 100 million people around the world, "creating so much pleasure and opening so many doors." Thankfully for O'Brien, the sustained phenomenal popularity of the film has ensured him not only the fame but the fortune to "put the children through school", and allow him to dabble in what he enjoys. He's currently writing a screenplay - "but I've no idea if it's got any legs" - and he adds: "I'd quite like to do some more acting, more make believe."
Typically for O'Brien, his next acting venture is something completely different: "I'm doing Zebedee in The Magic Roundabout! Don't ask me to do a Zebedee voice because I've got no idea. I hope they can play me some of the stuff I've done before because I've really got no idea how my Zebedee is talking."
Magic roundabouts aside, rumour - or perhaps wishful thinking on the part of O'Brien's fans - has it that he may have his sights set on Dr. Who. Should we hold our breath? "I think that would be fun. I'd have thought I was an obvious kind of choice for that kind of thing. But it's not as if my life depends on it."
This attitude sums up O'Brien: where he lacks pure steely ambition, he makes up for it with a general passion and commitment for his craft, and though he happily talks of his career he seems more comfortable chatting about the city of Oxford, September 11th and the problem with Hollywood. For someone who readily admits his own vanity, he is a riddle of contradiction: "I've no qualifications...no hidden depths. I'm an exceptionally boring person really," he drawls, with a wry smile. I'm inclined to disagree - getting Union-types grooving to the Timewarp takes a special kind of person.
3rd Apr 2004