‘The only good cult in the world’: ‘Rocky Horror’ actress who plays Columbia joins Sunday showing of classic film

According to Australian actress and singer Nell Cambell, you are never too young to see “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” for the first time.

No, really. Eleven, 12 months old? Alright by her. There is something innocent about the film, she said, which has contributed to its popularity. If it were a really raunchy film, Campbell, who played Columbia in “Rocky Horror” on stage and screen, does not believe it would have been embraced the way it has.

“I say ‘Let the kiddies watch, because they love all the costumes, the characters and the songs and the wonderful sets,’ ” she said. “And the ‘Time Warp.’ You meet 3- or 4-year-olds doing the ‘Time Warp.’ It’s a marvelous thing.”

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” was directed by Jim Sharman and features a screenplay written by Sharman and Richard O’Brien, who also played Riff-Raff. The movie is based on the 1973 musical of the same name, which features music, lyrics and a book by O’Brien.

The movie follows Brad Majors (Barry Bostwick) and Janet Weiss (Susan Sarandon), a young couple whose car breaks down near a castle, one they soon find is the location of a party attended by costumed strangers. The head of the castle, Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry), invites the pair to stay for the evening before bringing the handsome Rocky (Peter Hinwood) to life. Lots of singing, dancing and seduction ensues.

The film also stars O’Brien, Patricia Quinn, Jonathan Adams, Meat Loaf and Charles Gray.

Though it usually calls the Garland Theatre home, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” moves to the First Interstate Center for the Arts on Sunday as part of the film’s 50th anniversary tour. Campbell will be in attendance.

The film screening features Absolute Pleasure, a local shadow cast which has been performing alongside showings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” at the Garland since 2013.

After the screening, fans can attend a ticketed after-party hosted by Absolute Pleasure. The party features a DJ, themed drinks, food, photo ops with the shadow cast and surprise video appearances.

Campbell knew she wanted to be in the entertainment industry at the age of 6 months old, something she said her mother would confirm. Baby Campbell would try to make people laugh while bundled up in her pram (stroller, for us non-Aussies) and often succeeded.

“It was my raison d’etre from 6 months old and to this very day,” she said.

Campbell was a natural performer. For a costume contest at her school, Campbell’s mother decided to dress her, then 8 years old, as an eyelash. With black tights, black ballet shoes and a black top hat, Campbell won the contest.

“I’ve been wearing a top hat since I was very young,” she said, nodding to her character’s trademark gold sequined top hat.

At 10, Campbell began taking ballet and modern dance classes. She added singing classes to her schedule and tap dance classes around 16 or 17. Soon after she turned 18, Campbell, her parents and one of her sisters moved to London for her father’s work.

Campbell knew right away she would not be going back to Australia anytime soon and began busking with a friend to make money. Sharman saw one of those performances, then later happened to walk into the café in Knightsbridge where Campbell was working, this time with O’Brien in tow.

What did the pair see when they walked in? Campbell tap dancing on a table. It was something she did to keep boredom away while at work, but it led to her being cast as Columbia, a servant and groupie.

With just one professional play in Sydney under her belt, Campbell leapt at the opportunity. The cast had three weeks of rehearsals during which songs were added and the show was finessed.

During that period, Campbell said the team of Sharman, O’Brien, set designer Brian Thomson, costume designer Sue Blane and musical director Richard Hartley were crucial to what the show and the songs became.

After three weeks of rehearsals, the show opened in June 1973 for a three-week run in the attic of the Royal Court Theatre, a space often used for experimental works. The cast was getting paid the equivalent of about $23 a week. During lunch breaks, Campbell often busked in Sloane Square, picking up an extra $5.

Reviewers loved the show, which Campbell said no one expected. Within two weeks, the cast was recording the show album, something nearly unheard of for a production not on the West End.

In 1974, the cast filmed the movie adaptation in just five weeks on a shoestring budget.

“It was one step up from an Andy Warhol film,” Campbell said.

20th Century Fox wanted Sharman to cast all stars (Campbell said Davie Bowie and Mick Jagger were interested in the role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter), but Sharman insisted on using the stage cast. He acquiesced to the studio’s request to have American actors play Brad and Janet and cast Bostwick and Sarandon. Meat Loaf, who played Eddie in the Los Angeles production of the play, was also cast in the film.

The film opened to little fanfare, and distributors quickly reduced the amount of showings. That was until a member of the 20th Century Fox publicity department looked at the film and thought it would work for a midnight screening.

Audiences quickly made it a tradition to see the film every Friday at midnight, eventually adding their own costumes and props to the experience, which has lasted for 50 years and counting, featuring screenings, shadow casts and fans all around the world.

Though she has acted in other plays, films and TV shows and owned a popular New York City nightclub in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Campbell doesn’t mind being connected to “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

She’s heard countless stories over the years from fans that the film “opened doors (they) didn’t realize needed to be opened” and helped them come out of the closet. Among the shadow casts and fellow audience members, many found family within the “Rocky Horror” community.

“I was very lucky to be chosen to be part of the only good cult in the world, as I call it,” Campbell said.