Writer-director John Waters will be in Maine this weekend for two sold-out shows at the Waldo Theatre. Photo by Greg Gorman
“I was reviled but in the right way, by the right people. It’s made me popular with the people who are against them.”
If you couldn’t guess, that’s legendary filmmaker John Waters, who’s bringing his ever-evolving one-man stage show, currently titled “The End of the World,” to Waldoboro’s Waldo Theatre this weekend. And if you don’t know what an evening with John Waters entails, then this interview with the 77-year-old Baltimore indie film icon should give you at least a hint of the hilarious, filthy, transgressive, ultimately joyous spirit of the writer-director of such cult movie staples as “Polyester,” “Female Trouble,” Serial Mom” and the still-and-forever infamous “Pink Flamingos.” (Or at least as much a hint as you can get in a family newspaper.)
I spoke to the impeccably forthright and funny Waters as a preview of his Saturday and Sunday Waldo Theatre appearances, sure. But, as a lifelong fan, and a ceaseless seeker for the cinematically strange, dangerous and wonderful, it was also the honor of a fanboy’s lifetime to speak to the true godfather of what patrons of Portland’s late, lamented video store Videoport knew as “Incredibly Strange Films.” (Interview edited for length and clarity.)
So it should theoretically take the pressure off this interview that both your shows at the Waldo are sold out.
I’m happy to do it. I can spread my filth across the new recruit filth followers. They love that word, “recruit.” “There’s one – get ‘em!”
So “The End of the World” is the newest version of your previous show, “False Positive.”
Well, I’ve been doing it for 50 years. I rewrite it about once a year, change the title about once every three years. But you haven’t seen this show before.
The title is …
Well, doesn’t it feel that way, kind of? I bitch and moan the first half and I insanely tell you how to fix it in the second half. It’s first pessimistic and then ludicrously optimistic. I talk about everything: fashion, my movies, crime, politics, sex – I cover it all.
Not to get too political, but with the hysteria surrounding sex and gender right now, is it worse than it ever was, or is it just louder?
It’s really gonna help, just like Anita Bryant helped with gay rights. Because she came out, bitched about everything, just like they’re doing now, and everybody banded together, got more militant, stronger, and her career was over. Same thing’s gonna happen here. I built a career on people hating me, on bad reviews. I wish my books (“Carsick,” “Mr. Know-It-All,” “Role Models,” and his recently published first novel “Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance”) were banned. Then they wouldn’t be back in the Gay section near the bathroom, they’d be up front in the banned books section next to the cash register.
Speaking of “Liarmouth,” there have been rumors that it’s going to be your first movie in 19 years (since 2004’s “A Dirty Shame.”)
Well, I can’t really talk about it because of the writers’ strike, but the book was optioned for me to write it as a screenplay. And I have to end it there because of the strike.
When I saw your Christmas show years ago in Portland, you were also talking about “Fruitcake,” a Christmas movie you wanted to make about, among many things, runaway child meat thieves.
Yeah, that’s still possible. But I really can’t talk about writing movies. But that’s still out there.
I don’t want to do anything to monkey-wrench either, so I’ll move on. I’ve heard you talk about the changing times and attitudes, and how your movies would be received if they were made today …
I go through a whole thing in my show about how I could get canceled and how I could make them all “woke.” The woke rewrites of all of my movies I reveal in my show. They’re even more ridiculous.
It’s strange as a longtime fan of comedians who were seen as transgressive – seeing them sort of sour into old men complaining about cancel culture is very depressing.
Well that is true. And I’m one of ‘em, but I make fun of it in a good way. I tell kids, you’ve got to do something to appall my generation. Well, they have. It is the new rebellion because both the extreme right and the extreme left hate it. I am now the most shocking thing because I’m the middle of the road. And I used to love the extreme left – Antifa still has good outfits – but finally, for once, I’m in the middle, which is shocking.
But your middle and other people’s middle are pretty different.
Well, I still say the most ludicrous stuff, but I don’t get canceled because I make fun of things I love and I still make fun of myself first. Comedy’s always walking the cliff, the line of taste and what you can joke about, and it’s still incredibly interesting.
I know you’ve said you don’t even favor banning hate speech on social media.
I’m not on social media at all – I want to be harder to reach, and I don’t care what you had for lunch. No, technically, I think you should be able to shout “Fire!” in a crowded theater. (Laughs.) I’m taking it to the worst extremes, that we have to put up with the worst extremes to have freedom. I fought for free speech. Just don’t go if you don’t like what they’re saying. Nobody’ll pay them.
I hope this question comes off as intended, but you’re beloved. Does that ever shock you?
You’re right! I don’t ever get attacked, by politically correct people or by others. I go on Fox News when they ask me because it’s so ludicrous. To go into enemy territory. I’m not a separatist. I think if you ever want to change somebody’s mind, you make ‘em laugh. You don’t try to make them look stupid.
Still, do you ever find it strange that there’s so much affection for you as a public figure now when you were just reviled early in your career.
I was reviled, but in the right way, by the right people. It’s made me popular with the people who are against them. I always had an audience, and it was always minorities who couldn’t even get along with their own minorities. It still is my best audience. Now I’m hosting a show of all my movies at the Academy Museum, from the Academy Awards. How could that ever happen? It’s extremes – it’s just the middle that I always have trouble with. But now “Hairspray” is a huge success with middle America, the final irony. ‘Cause that’s the most devious movie, because I snuck in all my ideas, and they’re still doing it in schools.
Even now?
It confuses people who want to attack you. I joke that even racists like “Hairspray” because they don’t realize I’m against them. They like the music and everything. Because they’re stupid. I’m not getting around it – being racist does mean you’re stupid. There’s no smart racists really. It’s because you’ve never traveled. They never leave their own neighborhood, that’s why they’re scared, and they get stupid.
I remember going to a midnight revival of “Pink Flamingos” in Portland (at the Movies on Exchange Street) for its 25th anniversary – and people still walked out.
Sure! It’s worse now with everybody being nervous about it. Then it got named by the government to the National Film Registry (alongside “The Fellowship of the Ring” and “Wall-E,” among others), which is pretty funny and great. I don’t know, I’m not mean, maybe that’s why. Mean is funny for 10 minutes, not 90.
Are there any filmmakers out now who you feel like are on your same wavelength?
Not that they imitate me or anything, but – they’re all foreign – I love Gaspar Noé, Bruno Dumont; in America, I like Todd Haynes, Todd Solondz, I like “Beau Is Afraid.” There’s good stuff out there.
What is it about those that you connect to?
Originality. And nerve. A (expletive) vision and taking big chances.
I think a lot of people would wonder what it is that can make John Waters sit back and think, “Wow.”
Well, I like a feel-bad French movie with frontal nudity.
John Waters’ one-man show “The End of the World” will be at the Waldo Theatre for two sold-out shows on Saturday and Sunday.
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