Strange has been liberating for Barry Bostwick's long, less than "Rocky" career

"Rocky Horror Picture Show" royalty Barry Bostwick will introduce a midnight screening Saturday at the Riverview Theater.

The movie's Brad Majors is scheduled to be at the Minneapolis Convention Center on Friday through Sunday for Wizard World Comic Con. At the Riverview, "I will try to refrain from swearing too much. Lots of time there is profanity, particularly in the midnight show because it's what the audience expects. … Around midday on Saturday I [will read] books to children at the convention, being really sweet and nice, and then at midnight I yell and scream at their parents and grandparents. It makes for a full day for me."

Bostwick was in NYC when I interviewed him by phone.

Q: Like your wife and kids, I didn't follow "Rocky Horror," so a synopsis please?

A: Sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll. It's a tongue-in-cheek look at '50s horror movies, a "Frankenstein" riff. Frankenstein is now named Frank-N-Furter and he's a transvestite and he is making a man for his own pleasure. Susan Sarandon and myself fall into his trap. Our lives are changed.

Q: Now I know what I saw when retired news anchor Don Shelby starred in it at the Lab Theater. Moving on, you're kind of gorgeous, but you still must have habits that annoy your wife. Name them, please.

A: My office is a mess and she won't go in it. I have a tendency to buy old cars and the first thing I say to her is, "It's in perfect shape." Then I will proceed over the next six months, replacing everything on it. I'm restoring an '85 Chrysler LeBaron, a woody-sided one. It's my drug of choice these days.

Q: What is your favorite car to restore?

A: I used to restore early '50s Mercedes. That was a fool's errand because every time I would restore one, I'd try to sell it and I'd lose money on it because I always wanted to restore them as perfect as I could. If you know anything about the classic car business, there's a point at which you have to stop or you just go totally in a hole. I got out of the early '50s Mercedes once I had two children. The children became my hole.

Q: Where did you learn to restore cars?

A: My skill set was developed by ruining a lot of classic cars. [Laughs.] Let's just say it was more error than trial.

Q: Have you ever restored one of those MGs?

A: My first car was a Triumph TR3. I didn't have a clue what I was doing. The MGs are cute. They are very simple cars, if you want to learn how to do simple things. As my attendants, who I have on speed dial, say: You just go ahead and try to fix it, Barry, then tow it down to us and we'll do it right.

Q: Your character on "Scandal" was horrible in that rape scene with actor Bellamy Young.

A: Yeeaaah. I had to play it drunk but I didn't drink. I tried to make it like he wasn't as evil as what he was doing; [so] you could say, "Aw, the guy was just drunk." Then I realized he's just a bad guy. A typical senator of the time who thought he could get away with anything, probably similar to some politicians in office now.

Q: What role do you wish had lasted 10 years and made you as filthy rich as the cast of "Big Bang Theory?"

A: The mayor of New York in "Spin City." Great show, great cast, wonderful character. We went six years. If we could have gone eight years, nine years, then probably I would have been filthy rich. Then I would have blown it all on bad cars and bad real estate. That's the problem with actors. You get money and you have these fantasies but no background to support it.

Q: As I read up on you it appeared you select projects based on how strange the titles are: "FDR: American Badass," "Helen Keller vs. Nightwolves."

A: There you go, they are my two funniest movies lately. Ross Patterson, who wrote them, is this wonderfully obtuse, strange, vibrant filmmaker who creates strange characters. I am attracted to the very strange, which goes all the way back to "Rocky." Strange is freedom to me.

C.J. can be reached at cj@startribune.com and seen on Fox 9's "Jason Show" and "The Buzz." E-mailers, please state a subject; "Hello" does not count.