Tim Curry Tried (And Failed) To Slip This Suggestive Line Into His Favorite Movie

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Actor Tim Curry has had an illustrious career playing (mostly) villains: Dr. Frank-N-Furter in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” the sewer-dwelling, child-eating clown Pennywise in the 1990 miniseries “Stephen King’s IT,” and dozens of cartoon villains (but, despite his other famous role as an evil clown, 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 chose 1996’s “Muppet Treasure Island,” a puppet-filled adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic pirate adventure book. Curry is the film’s central human star, playing Long John Silver, the ruthless one-legged pirate who claims to be friends with young hero Jim Hawkins (Kevin Bishop).

“The nice thing is that the Muppeteers themselves, if they have their puppet in hand, only speak to you as a character. I love that,” Curry fondly recalled to the Guardian, adding that he “would love to work with the Muppets again.”

Besides Hawkins, Silver and the convict Billy Bones (Billy Connolly), “Muppet Treasure Island” reprises many of the major roles of “Treasure Island” with the 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 character Ben Gunn in Stevenson’s novel.

Miss Piggy is Curry’s favorite puppet and, as he told the Guardian, he tried to create a dirty double entender involving her character. Benjamina alludes to her and Long John sharing a romantic history, so Silver allegedly remarked to Jim, “Once you eat pork, you never go back!” The phrase suggests not only eating pork literally, but eating in… another sense of the word.

The line didn’t make it into the film, but Curry’s performance as Silver remains a highlight.