It’s so great to talk to you today, of course, and let me be the latest of many interviewers to wish you a happy birthday!
Thank you! I’ve been celebrating my birthday, it seems, for months.
Are you, generally speaking, a pro-birthday person?
Well, I don’t hide it. But after your 20th, I think you should give your own self a party so it’s no one else’s responsibility…and I have.
You, of course, are a famous Baltimorean, but you have a home here in New York. What do you like to do when you’re here in town and you have free time?
I do the exact same thing I do in all four places I live. I have friends that I’ve had for 50 years. I go out to dinner. I go to movies. In New York, I go to art galleries. And I try to stay home because I travel so much for work, so I do the same thing. All my apartments and homes look alike inside. They all look the same. I have contemporary art, thousands of books, oriental rugs, and the kind of furniture young people hate: antiques. And so, everybody says, “Yeah, this looks like your other place.” Yeah, they all look the same. So they all really feel like home.
That sounds like heaven!
I’ve always said, “Happiness is four pairs of underpants!”
So you don’t go out to the gay bars…Do you think that scene is tacky these days, or maybe always?
I never went to gay bars. The gay men I liked were in straight bars — the three crazy ones. They’re the ones I liked.
I was just going down a YouTube rabbit hole of sorts, and I came across this recent UK podcast interview with the great Mink Stole, a favorite actress and collaborator of yours. She was reflecting on some of the early movies she made with you, including a moment where you had this great idea to set her hair on fire, which she ultimately declined.
Yes, that’s Pink Flamingos. When I asked Mink to do that, I was on marijuana — I wasn’t thinking that it was dangerous or anything. She said, “Well, how are you going to put it out?” And I said, “We’ll throw a bucket of water on you.” And I said it completely thinking that would be a good thing. She was right to say no.
Years later on Cecil B. Demented, you wisely used special effects for a “hair on fire” moment with that film’s star, Melanie Griffith!
It’s one of the worst special effects in the movie.
I loved it! But it made me think of the two halves of your career. The first half is when you were doing everything kind of “for real”: very gonzo and guerilla style, low-budget, shocking grit. And then eventually, when you started making studio films with actual budgets, you had the luxury for special effects and professional stunts and more coverage and better editing.
When you look back at those two halves of your career, do you prefer one over the other?
I think they’re all the same. Serial Mom is my best movie. I think Female Trouble is the best Divine movie. I have a soft spot for Pecker and Cecil B. Demented because they didn’t do as well when they came out. To me, all my movies are the same.
Are you online a lot? Do you do social media?
I don’t have any official websites. There’s not one [social media platform] that I have anything to do with. I spy on them, I look at them. But I want to be harder to reach. I’m not giving away my jokes every day. What would I have in my books or my shows?
I was wondering: If you had come up now as a kid…Do you think instead of making movies, you would just be doing “weird content” on algorithms?
No, I think I would have still made movies. What has become a hit in the movie world from social media? Nothing.
You’re gonna be on the Island this summer!
I need to go back there–that dressing room there. That’s where I saw an old, big, drag queen shoe left on the floor, which did make me laugh. Carol Channing had just been there.
Liza Minnelli was at the Palace not too long ago as well. Legends! And it was where Chita Rivera had one of her last shows.
Well, it’s not going to be my last show! I always feel like Emmanuelle on Fire Island. It seems like a sex tourism place.
You’re going to be frolicking at the Ice Palace on July 25th! “John Waters Is Going to Extremes” is the name of your show. What’s this particular show like? What are you talking about in it?
I mostly rewrite my show once a year, completely. And this is about how we live in extreme times. We have to go more extreme with humor. Humor is how we win. Humor is a weapon. Humor is terrorism. Humor is how we get people to change their minds. So it’s about that.
You will talk about tons of other stuff at the Ice Palace in July! What else is coming up for you?
I got 59 shows this year. I did eight birthday shows. I’m hosting Mosswood Meltdown, the big punk rock festival that Iggy Pop’s headlining; I’ve done it for maybe 12 years now. I’m in American Horror Story. I’ve had more jobs than I’ve ever had in my entire life; so that’s good. I’m afraid that if I quit, I’ll drop dead on stage. And if I do, I always say, “You can take selfies. And if you dig me up from my grave for sex, oral only.”
That’s very generous! Such a pleasure talking to you, and happy birthday once again!
— Check out the full interview on Thotyssey.com’s “On Point With John Waters.”
