"Space!" - An Oral History of Tim Curry’s Greatest Scene

[Tygre]

We all know it, we all love it.

The menace of the build-up, the glee of the setup, the almost impossibly pregnant pause, and finally the release of the punchline.



For many actors it would be the most painful 30 seconds of their careers, the sort of thing that would make them wonder why they took up acting in the first place and how they ended up doing a bad Russian accent while blathering nonsense.

But for Tim Curry, it was the canvas on which he could paint his masterwork:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_U59u69tys

And now, almost 15 years later, the full story of Red Alert 3, and that scene in particular, can be told by the people who were there:

An Oral History of Tim Curry’s Escape to the One Place Uncorrupted by Capitalism

How an unforgettable performance in Red Alert 3 became legend.

www.vice.com

JOSHUA BASCHE (assistant cinematics editor, Red Alert 3): It'd be these long takes of them just sitting there reading a teleprompter as lines came up. It was towards the end of the day, and you could kind of tell Curry was tired, he wanted to get out of there. But then that line comes up. And you saw the smile pop onto his face when he read it through first. The first take was that take.

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MICAL PEDRIANA (story and cinematics producer, Red Alert 3): Everyone was busting up.
JOSHUA BASCHE: It's so bombastic. It's so fantastic.
STUART ALLISON (cinematic editor, Red Alert 3): This is fucking brilliant. I love this. This is Frank N. Furter, for me.

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ANDREW DIVOFF ("General Krukov," Red Alert 3): The Russian uniform I was to wear in the video arrived just a bit before I was due on set. I noticed immediately that the army boots intended for me were quite a bit larger than my size 11 foot required, practically to a clownish extent, but the only pair left in the wardrobe trailer. As Mr. Curry stepped off the set we were introduced by the director, and after acknowledging me, Tim said, "with boots like that your dance card must be full." I laughed and explained the situation to which he replied "keep the boots."

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Sadly of course, not all the people who were there can share their story, including most unfortunately the main character of this tale.

Curry experienced a stroke in 2012, and now requires the use of a wheelchair. In the last decade, he has primarily worked as a voice actor. He periodically—and as recently as this year—does video calls with fans, but hasn't done an interview with the press in years.

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Tim Curry is one of the finest actors to have ever lived, equally at home on stage or screen, capable of the highest drama or the lowest slapstick.

May we all one day find the escape from Capitalism that Premier Cherdenko never did.

 

[Kadzork]

Tim Curry is an absolute treasure - I am always deeply saddened when I am reminded of his current condition.

 

[AuthenticM]

a fucking legendary line.

 

[Wrexis]

❤️ Tim Curry.

But man, that depressing feeling when you realize the line isn't true anymore.

EDIT: Not a particular original take given the article mentions it too.

 

[Helix]

Tim Curry, Legend

 

[Jedi2016]

Makes me want to go back and play it again.. lol

 

[Switters]

This isn't the worst witch. Wtf.

 

[giapel]

Tim Curry is Gabriel Knight.
Gabriel Knight is Tim Curry.

 

[ciddative]

Greatest gaming scene. I don't even think this would crack top 5 given his filmography.

 

[Dolce]

you're really underselling tim curry if you think his wide breadth of work could be singled out to one line.

 

[Jintor]

you're really underselling tim curry if you think his wide breadth of work could be singled out to one line.

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listen i love clue as much as the next guy, and also every other thing he's ever appeared in, but come on. please. it's SPAAAAACEEEEEEEE

 

[rics2980]

listen i love clue as much as the next guy, and also every other thing he's ever appeared in, but come on. please. it's SPAAAAACEEEEEEEE

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Hmm I don't know. Clue is the 🐐. Curry is a treasure.

 

[Dogui]

I love how he tries really hard to not laugh before spaaaceee. They either had time to film only one take or knew this one was too precious to waste.

 

[KillLaCam]

I wish we could get a remaster of this lol

 

[APOEERA]

For you XBox 360/PS3 console players out there, Red Alert 3 servers are shutting down on November 9 2022. May want to hurry and play an online match with others (although connecting really sucks) and laugh/remember such a great line while there's time.

 

[milkyway]

I've never seen this (only played the first Red Alert, certainly full of cinematic genius as well) but now I am much closer to self actualization. Thank you Tim Curry.

 

[NeoBob688]

Wut... he was Arl Rendon Howe in Dragon Age Origins? waaah?

 

[OnionPowder]

Greatest gaming scene. I don't even think this would crack top 5 given his filmography.

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I'd go as far to say the greatest scene in any form of acting in human history actually.

 

[Jintor]

Hold the fucking phone. They didn't originally get JK Simmons for the President of the USA. they got David fucking Hasselhoff, but Hasselhoff got sick and his agent just so happened to be the agent for JK Simmons as well, so they ended up getting him?!?!?!

...and PETER STOMARE WAS THE CRAZY RUSSIAN SCIENTIST????

 

[Cass_Se]

listen i love clue as much as the next guy, and also every other thing he's ever appeared in, but come on. please. it's SPAAAAACEEEEEEEE

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Well, it's a great line, but there are luke 5 lines as good as this in a single song of his in Rocky Horror Picture Show alone

 

[ratcliffja]

I didn't know they made a Red Alert 3. I enjoyed the first one.

 

[Fitz]

I miss the cheesy live action performances from C&C games.

 

[Tygre]

Hold the fucking phone. They didn't originally get JK Simmons for the President of the USA. they got David fucking Hasselhoff, but Hasselhoff got sick and his agent just so happened to be the agent for JK Simmons as well, so they ended up getting him?!?!?!

...and PETER STOMARE WAS THE CRAZY RUSSIAN SCIENTIST????

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Stormare and Simmons are the only two who get anywhere near Curry's performance in RA3.

Glad they dodged the Hasselhoff bullet.

 

[19thCenturyFox]

JOSHUA BASCHE: It's a funny line. "I'm going to escape your capitalism by going into space." And he probably has no context for what the full game is.

HARIS ORKIN: Of course now, that's not true [that space is uncorrupted by capitalism,] with Elon Musk and Bezos building their rocket companies and going off into space.

MICHAEL PACHTER (video game market analyst, Wedbush Securities): I don't accept the premise that capitalism is corrupt, but if you mean is outer space unburdened by capitalism, of course that is correct.

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This gave me almost as good a laugh as the clip itself.

 

[Kitaj]

There's this game I played on Sega Saturn called Frankenstein: Through the eyes of a monster and Tim Curry is also quite spectacular in that one :)

 

[Jawmuncher]

Regardless of how you feel about the actual gameplay of Red Alert 3, the FMV aspect was on point.