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John Waters (born April 22, 1946, Baltimore, Maryland) is an American filmmaker known for films displaying what some consider to be "bad taste" while still managing to be humourous to some audiences. He is also a professor of cinema and subculture at the European Graduate School.

Directing career

Waters and his muse Divine (then known as Glen Milstead) lived in Baltimore County, Maryland as boys, a short distance apart, where they met and became friends. Waters' films would become Divine's primary star vehicle.

His earlier film works included Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, and Desperate Living, sometimes referred to as the Trash Trilogy. These films pushed hard at the boundaries of conventional propriety and movie censorship and indeed, many felt, good taste. A particularly notorious final segment of Pink Flamingos, simply added in as a non sequitur to the end of the film, featured, in one take, a small dog defecating and then crossdressing actor Divine eating the dog feces.

Waters' early films were all shot in the Baltimore area with his regular team of local actors (the Dreamlanders) who starred in most of his films, including Divine, Mink Stole, Cookie Mueller, Edith Massey, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, and others. His early films were among the first picked up for distribution by New Line Cinema. His films often premiered at the Charles Theatre.

His 1981 film Polyester starred Divine opposite once-teen-idol Tab Hunter. His films have become less controversial and more mainstream, although works such as Hairspray, Cry-Baby and Serial Mom still retain his trademark inventiveness. The film Hairspray was turned into a hit Broadway musical, which swept the 2003 Tony Awards.

Waters' most recent film, the NC-17 rated A Dirty Shame, is a move back toward his earlier, more controversial work.

Writings

Waters has published collections of his writings including:
  • Shock Value (1981)
  • Trash Trio: Three Screenplays: Pink Flamingos, Desperate Living, Flamingos Forever (1988)
  • Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters (1987, Revised Edition 2003)
  • Hairspray, Female Trouble, and Multiple Maniacs: Three more screenplays (2005)

The photo collections:

  • Director's Cut (1997)
  • John Waters: Change of Life (2004)

Also, Waters co-wrote Art: A Sex Book (2003) with Bruce Hainley, an exploration of erotic content in the contemporary art landscape.

Trivia

  • John Waters guest-starred in an episode of The Simpsons (Homer's Phobia) and played a character called "John" (drawn in Waters' likeness), the owner of a pop culture memorabilia store who becomes friends with Homer until Homer realizes he is gay. There is also a scene where Smithers bumps into John and Homer and it is inferred that John and Smithers may have been together at some stage.

  • Popular talk show host Ricki Lake started her career by appearing in various John Waters films including Hairspray, Cry-Baby (with Johnny Depp), Serial Mom and Cecil B. Demented.

  • According to Waters himself, he is often mistaken for Steve Buscemi, and once sent Christmas cards containing photos of Buscemi to his friends just to see if any of them would notice. Buscemi, in kind, has been known to dress as John Waters for Halloween parties.

  • For years, Waters has been seen in movie art houses announcing that "no smoking" is permitted in the theatre. In this brief filmed announcement, he stares into the camera and he is smoking and obviously enjoying a cigarette. He then goes on: "...which I think is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. I mean, how can anyone sit through a feature-length film; especially a ... foreign film without smoking?" He then takes a heavy drag, with sneering "Mmm, mmm, mmm... Don't you wish you had one, right now?" He reiterates the "no smoking" rule, gently exhales and then snappily re-inhales/snorts the smoke through his nose to suddenly end the 20-second spot. 1

  • John Waters appeared twice on Life on the Street, once as a nameless bartender listening to a disconsolate Detective Bolander, and another time as a talkative prisoner awaiting transfer from New York to Baltimore (escorted by Detective Mike Logan who is turning the prisoner over to Detective Frank Pembleton).

  • Waters is an avid fan of court TV and for a time was notorious for going to high profile court cases as an observer. Waters has been quoted as saying that he saw many of the same people who were court observers all around the country at different trials. John Waters eventually stopped going to trials when more fans started recognizing him and actually going to trials to meet him. He didn't feel it was appropriate to the seriousness of the court system.

  • Played a member of the paparazzi in Seed of Chucky, in which he was killed by acid being poured on his face, melting it off.

John Waters filmography

External links

1946 births | American film directors | LGBT directors | Living people | People from Baltimore | Roman Catholic entertainers | Transgressive artists | English-language film directors

John Waters | John Waters (1946-) | John Waters (regista) | ג'ון ווטרס | ジョン・ウォーターズ | John Waters | John Waters

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "John Waters (filmmaker)".

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