 Camp n : something so outrageous, inappropriate or theatrical as to be considered amusing.
See: a Holy Bible shaped like a handgun.
See: a paperweight bearing a picture of Lizzie Borden.
See: a painting using the artist’s menstrual blood as a medium.
See: decorative figurines depicting the locations of national tragedies.
See: a ceramic ashtray featuring a cartoon girl smoking and the phrase “too young to die.”
Or see these and other oddities in the home of filmmaker John Waters.
Waters has made a career out of being a camp icon. From his very first film in 1964, “Hag in a Black Leather Jacket,” to his X-rated (now NC-17) art house exploitation classic “Pink Flamingos,” to his family film/Broadway hit “Hairspray,” Waters has created a one-man catalog of camp standards.
For this reason, it came as no surprise when the items above were spotted by Fly Magazine amongst the knickknacks in Waters’ living room during a late March visit. Despite these curiosities, the outer façade of Waters’ unassuming sand-colored stucco house, nestled among the greenery of a quaint college neighborhood in Baltimore, is not what you’d expect.
Even the openly gay director/ writer/actor himself was oddly “out of character” when he bounced down the steps to greet us before our photo shoot. Waters, clad in jeans and a T-shirt, had not yet changed into “him” yet – “him” referring to the sharply dressed, thin mustached persona that has made him a pop culture mainstay.
“I’m proud of that,” says Waters of his public image. “In the beginning, I had no money and had no way to promote myself, so I became one of the characters, kind of, that I was selling.”
Many items in Waters’ living room reflect the people and obsessions that influence his films. Items such as the volumes of books on Andy Warhol (among the multitude of art books lining opposing walls) and a statuette of “The Tingler,” a monster from the 1959 movie of the same name.
“I grew up watching very obscure art films and softcore porn films and nudist camp movies,” says Waters. “So all of the extremes were my influence.”
Those extremes include the nudity- and vomit-laden work of Ingmar Bergman, the father of the drive-in gore films, Herschell Gordon Lewis, and sexploitation film juggernaut Russ Myer.
Waters’ earliest work, shot in black and white on 8 and 16mm cameras, were done spur-of-the-moment and often reflected current events such as the suicide of Art Linkletter’s daughter, Diane, in “The Diane Linkletter Story” and the assassination of JFK in “Eat Your Makeup.”
In 1972, Waters made the most popular of his “midnight movies” with “Pink Flamingos,” a cringe-inducing epic of trash-camp cinema. The film infamously closes with Divine, Waters’ drag queen star and childhood friend, devouring a real piece of dog poo.
“Do I think [‘Pink Flamingos’ is] my best movie? No,” says Waters. “Do I think when I die that that picture of Divine with the gun will be in my obituary? Yes. Do you think in the first paragraph it will talk about Divine eating shit? Yes.”
Despite the gross-out tactics, it was never Waters’ intention to shock the audience.
“It’s easy to shock, it’s easy to disgust people,” says Waters. “But to make them laugh and be shocked at their ability to still be shocked by anything at all is, I think, what that was about.”
Just inside the front door of Waters’ home, an innocent-looking wooden chair sits stacked with art books. Closer inspection reveals that this is no ordinary chair, but the replica electric chair used to execute Divine’s character in his 1974 film “Female Trouble.”
Waters’ last underground midnight movie, “Desperate Living,” was released in 1977 and was the first of his films up to that point to not star Divine. Ironically, it was one of his least successful.
Despite that, Waters moved on to more commercial work, filming 1981’s “Polyester” starring Divine and former teen heartthrob Tab Hunter.
“I’ve always had commercial thoughts about every movie,” says Waters of his conscious decision to make a more mainstream film. “Eating shit was a very commercial idea when you have $10,000, believe me.”
Conversely, “Polyester” was given a $300,000 budget and also employed a gimmick called “Odorama” where the audience was given scratch-and-sniff cards to smell during certain scenes in the film. “Polyester” was a minor success (if only critical) and Waters had finally flirted with mainstream cinema while retaining his signature creativity.
Seven years later, Waters would invade pop culture with perhaps the biggest hit of his career – the PG-rated family film “Hairspray.” As the film’s overweight lead character, Tracy Turnblad (played by Ricki Lake), was breaking stereotypes and racial boundaries, Waters was breaking through as well.
“I’m every character,” says Waters of the semi-autobiographical nature of his characters. “Certainly in ‘Hairspray,’ I wasn’t a fat girl, but I used to [be the kid who couldn’t] be on that show, and watch it, and my parents would’ve never allowed me to be on that show. But I used to go down to the black neighborhood and wanna be black and listen to rhythm and blues and I saw James Brown. I was the only white person and got beat up. And all that part is true – it was me.”
In fact, Waters is not only drawn to characters that don’t fit in, but characters that don’t fit in among their own kind.
“I like gay people that don’t even fit in with other gay people,” says Waters. “My people are minorities that don’t fit in other minorities. That’s my core audience.”
“Hairspray” would go on to become a smash-hit Broadway musical in 2002 (and later, a movie based on that musical), winning eight Tony awards, including “Best Musical.” But the 1988 film’s breakout star, Divine, would never know the film’s success, as he passed away just a week after its opening.
Among the most interesting items in the Waters home is a replica Tommy gun in a violin case, laying on the floor just inside the door. The gun is a prop from “Guys and Dolls,” given to Waters by close friend Johnny Depp.
Depp got his first major film role as Wade Walker in Waters’ 1990 movie “Cry-Baby.”
“What I did for [Johnny] was change his image,” says Waters. “And then I think ‘Edward Scissorhands’ gave him, really, the biggest break. But I certainly take credit for erasing his teen image thing … I think he’s wonderful in the movie.”
“Cry-Baby” marked the last time Waters used what critics might refer to as “stunt casting.” For instance, “Ozzie and Harriet’s” David Nelson and infamous ex-convict Patty Hearst playing the parents of former teen porn star Traci Lords.
“I picked Joey Heatherton at the time because she had just been accused of strangling the passport woman for not having the correct change for her passport application,” says Waters.
Now, the tear-shedding “drape,” Wade Walker, is poised to take over New York City, as “Cry-Baby” opened on Broadway late last month.
Waters made four films of varying successes since “Cry-Baby,” including 2004’s return to NC-17 debauchery with “A Dirty Shame,” starring Johnny Knoxville and Tracey Ullman.
Waters’ next film, “Fruitcake,” is described by the director himself as “a terribly wonderful children’s Christmas adventure.” Beyond that, he declines to comment – “I think it’s bad luck to talk about something before I do it.”
Children are of particular fascination to Waters, who owns one of the most bizarre-looking baby dolls you’ll ever see. Perched atop a throne in the corner of his living room is “Bill” – an angry-faced baby with balled up fists, moist lips, a blue jumper and a “do not touch” sign around his neck. Bill recently had his first photos taken by Nan Goldin for New York Magazine.
“He’s gonna get more famous, which means he has to be punished severely because he’ll be expecting things that he’s not getting for doing no work,” says Waters playfully.
Bill is accompanied by a picture of Waters when he was a child, a book on “problem children” and a tiny pink box containing a turd, which was given to Bill by a friend of Waters who had just gotten out of prison for killing two women. And standing next to Bill, red hair, pointy teeth and all, is Bill’s brother, Glenn – one of the actual dolls used as Chucky’s son in “The Seed of Chucky.”
Bill and Glenn will be one of the many topics of discussion on May 23, when Waters brings his one-man show, “This Filthy World,” to the Whitaker Center.
“‘This Filthy World’ has been a stand-up act, a rant, a college lecture, a spoken word act that I have developed really for the last 30 years, and it constantly changes,” says Waters. “But this one really reflects my obsessions – about making my movies, about true crime, about fashion, about advice to juvenile delinquents, about religion, about all my obsessions.”
While the final chapter of Waters’ career is every bit as unpredictable as it is unwritten, he says he’s satisfied with the outcome so far.
“I think I’ve had a great career. … I’ve had a good life. No complaints,” says Waters. “There’s nothing left – [no] burning desire to do something.
“I could have more hair. But that’s not gonna happen. I gracefully accept the shortcomings, the disappointments in life,” he laughs.
FEMALE TROUBLES
Our interview with John Waters takes an abrupt detour when the well-read director (seven newspapers every day, 150 magazines each month) turns our attention to the day’s most pressing political issue.
John Waters: I read today that 25 percent of teenage girls have VD or something.
Fly Magazine: I just read that as well.
JW: Well, not VD, but what is it they have? I’m not vagina-familiar that much. But they have something. What is it?
FM: It’s just an STD.
JW: What’s that mean?
FM: Sexually Transmitted Disease.
JW: Well, what kind? That’s just a new one that’s nameless? A generic one? I mean, when I was young, you got crabs, you got scabies, or you got VD. And then later in the ’80s you were lucky if that’s all you get. So now, it’s just a general – what does that mean? Just puss for no reason? Can you explain to me what that means?
FM: It’s just all-encompassing. It’s VD, herpes, crabs …
JW: All that!? Twenty-five percent of all teenagers have that? I don’t know if I believe that. That must be a reality sandwich for dating. That’s why they all give blowjobs. I keep reading that – in 8th grade, the girls just give blowjobs. I thought, god, when I went to high school, that was after a homerun. That didn’t happen until after you went all the way. … But this new study [is] just saying all vaginas have diseases. Twenty-five percent of them. How about penises? Just women, no men?
FM: It had to come from somewhere, I assume.
JW: But they’re saying that just 25 percent of women have it and men don’t? Jesus.
FM: [Women are] getting a bum rap.
JW: Yeah! It’s a bad time for vaginas. |
