John Waters on 60 years of screen carnage and the politics of trash
Aged 80, the 'Pope of Trash' discusses the making of his angriest film, his decision to quit substances upon success, and draws parallels between his work and current political figures.
Director John Waters, aged 80, has reflected on his six-decade career in an interview with The Guardian Culture, coinciding with the Criterion Collection re-releases of his 1988 comedy Hairspray and his 1977 film Desperate Living. Known as the 'Pope of Trash' by novelist William S Burroughs, Waters discussed his transition from underground cinema to mainstream success, his personal history with drug use, and his views on contemporary US politics.
Waters described Desperate Living as his "angriest" and "ugliest" movie, noting it was the first of his films written without the aid of marijuana. He revealed that he stopped taking drugs the moment he achieved success to avoid distraction, specifically citing a dislike for heroin and ecstasy. He stated that a drug making one love everybody was "not for me," preferring to maintain his edge and focus.
The director provided specific anecdotes about the production of Desperate Living, including the use of a dead dog sourced from a hospital laboratory freezer. Waters noted the animal was not fully defrosted, causing bits to stick to the car axle during filming, which required painstaking removal for a second take. He characterised the scene as part of the "glamorous world of film-making" rather than gratuitous disgust.
Waters criticized current US political figures, including President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr, drawing parallels between their actions and the themes in his work. He compared Trump’s dismissal of Baltimore as a "rat and rodent-infested mess" to the fictional setting of Desperate Living, and chanted a protest line against RFK Jr regarding public health.
He emphasized that his films follow rules of non-judgment, stating viewers should "mind your own business and don’t judge people if you don’t know the whole story." Waters asserted that humour is a tool for change, though he declined to joke about the situation in Israel, describing it as a "lose-lose" scenario. He maintained he has "walked the edge of what you can’t make fun of" for 60 years by mocking things he likes rather than hates.