You would need a certified public accountant to calculate the number of cool points John Waters has amassed in his career. From trash cinema classics like ldquo;Pink Flamingos rdquo; and ldquo;Hairspray rdquo; to making Marge Simpson his cartoon hag, there is nothing that the 60-year-old actor and filmmaker can rsquo;t make spectacularly garish with his presence.
Add to that rhinestone-studded list Court TV rsquo;s new show ldquo; rsquo;Til Death Do Us Part rdquo; and ldquo;A Date With John Waters, rdquo; a compilation soundtrack that is hitting CD shelves this very moment.
ldquo; rsquo;Til Death Do Us Part rdquo; is a morbidly entertaining series that reenacts real-life marriages from the wedding until they disintegrate into ill-executed murders. It rsquo;s like ldquo;Tales From the Crypt rdquo; for the ldquo;Bridezilla rdquo; set. Waters plays the character of the Groom Reaper, the cynical host who is usually lurking about somewhere during the opening nuptials and the closing when the body bag is hauled away.
JW: Jeff Lieberman, who directed a lot of great horror movies, thought up this concept and sold it to Court TV and he always had me in mind. Court TV liked the idea. They called me up and I was thrilled.
I thought, ldquo;Wow, a TV series. I rsquo;ve never had that before. That rsquo;s a new one.
rdquo; And the character was well written, funny and sardonic. It seemed to go with my image in a good way. I rsquo;ve followed real-life trials for a long time.
I still do. I watch Court TV. I thought it was a perfect match since I used to go to trials all the time when I was young, to end up being a character on a TV show that is asking the audience to come with me to see a murder.
PGN: The show doesn rsquo;t paint a good picture of marriage, does it? JW: Well, you know. Stay single and stay alive.
That rsquo;s what I believe. This is a pro-divorce show. It rsquo;s saying, ldquo;Don rsquo;t kill them, get divorced.
rdquo; I rsquo;m sure that most of them, after they rsquo;re caught, wished they had done that.
PGN: Your CD, ldquo;A Date With John Waters, rdquo; is coming out soon. What goes on during a date where this would be the appropriate soundtrack?
JW: The CD is me drawing you over to my house and trying to seduce you each step of the way by the song and the order of the play list. Although in real life, if I was trying to seduce somebody, I rsquo;d probably play rap music because I don rsquo;t always date age-appropriately.
PGN: Are you dating someone right now?
JW: Let rsquo;s just say I have friends with benefits.
PGN: You also get the feeling that this CD could be the soundtrack for a rsquo;70s B horror movie? JW: My whole life might be good for a rsquo;70s B horror movie.
In a way, there rsquo;s a thin line between the Groom Raper or the Groom Reaper. I rsquo;m always confused about which one I am. Seventies horror film?
I guess it rsquo;s closer to a soundtrack to my real life or my movies. All my soundtracks for all of my other movies are basically used as a narrative to tell a story. So I think I use music always to seduce and for humor, which, isn rsquo;t that the way?
You make someone laugh and you can get laid.
JW: It helps.
PGN: If you get to do another CD, what will it be?
JW: The next one would either be ldquo;Breaking Up with John Waters rdquo; or a Mother rsquo;s Day album. I haven rsquo;t decided which.
PGN: Do you have any movies in the works?
JW: I rsquo;ve written one and I rsquo;m ready to go but I don rsquo;t have the budget yet. We rsquo;re right in the middle of raising the money. I think it rsquo;s bad cinema luck to talk about something before it happens but it is a children rsquo;s movie.
A John Waters children rsquo;s movie.
PGN: You have popped up in a lot of projects lately. Do you ever get offered a project that you turn down?
JW: A lot of times I say no. I know that rsquo;s hard to believe since I rsquo;m a documentary whore. Have you ever seen a documentary that I rsquo;m not in?
I say ldquo;no rdquo; a lot. I jokingly call my assistants ldquo;rejectionists rdquo; based on a New Yorker cartoon.
PGN: Do you turn down projects because they are too over the top or not over the top enough?
JW: Neither of those is the point. It rsquo;s usually either not funny or it rsquo;s not something I want to do. Or it rsquo;s getting me to do something where they rsquo;re going to make the money.
I never do interviews for books where they say, ldquo;Tell us your favorite five albums. rdquo; Then you talk the whole time, they print it verbatim and they get the money. I try to draw the line at that.
PGN: Is it harder for you to get movies made now than it was 15 years ago? JW: I think every movie I rsquo;ve ever made for the last 40 years was hard to get made except for ldquo;Crybaby rdquo; because it came right after ldquo;Hairspray, rdquo; which was thought of as a hit at the time. I believe every movie that gets made is a struggle.
I don rsquo;t think anybody just turns in a script and the next day they rsquo;re like, ldquo;Fine! Make it. rdquo; These days it rsquo;s very much about budget.
Films are not doing great. That rsquo;s why I rsquo;m so happy ldquo;Little Miss Sunshine rdquo; was a hit. The independent film world needs a crossover breakout hit because we rsquo;re not having any.
People are going to movies less and they seem to be less interested in movies that break the mold except for a tiny audience, and the tiny audience isn rsquo;t enough for the budgets.
PGN: If money wasn rsquo;t an issue and you had George Lucas money to make a film, what would you make? JW: If I had George Lucas rsquo; money, I wouldn rsquo;t need that much.
I rsquo;d be happy. I rsquo;d pay myself all but $10 million. I rsquo;d get a big salary for once.
George probably thinks he doesn rsquo;t have enough money to make his own movies. When they made ldquo;Titanic, rdquo; the director had put up his own money at the end because they didn rsquo;t have enough to make it. You never have enough.
PGN: But you do? JW: I think I only had enough once. Well, maybe twice.
ldquo;Crybaby rdquo; and ldquo;Serial Mom, rdquo; those were the two that I had it all. Money means time in a movie: how many days do you have to shoot it? If you have an action sequence, a low budget makes it really hard because you need little pieces and little set-ups to make it work and each one takes a long time.
PGN: You have a reputation, good or bad, for trashy movies going back to ldquo;Pink Flamingos. rdquo; Do you feel vindicated when you see the spectacle that is reality TV today? JW: Vindication means I was hurt and I was never hurt by it.
I think my career has always been understood. I don rsquo;t watch reality shows. They rsquo;re usually of bad, bad taste.
I live in Baltimore. I don rsquo;t need a reality show. I can step outside and see something insane.
I do like ldquo;Jackass rdquo; very much. That is not reality but I think it rsquo;s very smart and new. Bold, but anarchy the same way ldquo;Borat rdquo; was.
PGN: I rsquo;m from Baltimore, too. JW: So you know what I mean, right? People think my movies are exaggerations until they come to Baltimore for two days and they see all the characters standing on the street corner.
PGN: Whenever you see something based in Baltimore, it rsquo;s either one of your movies or a crime-related show like ldquo;Homicide rdquo; or ldquo;The Wire. rdquo; JW: Baltimore is a city of extremes and I know the mayor gets upset about ldquo;The Wire. rdquo; I think it rsquo;s a great show.
When I rsquo;m away and I see ldquo;The Wire rdquo; and I see the worst parts of Baltimore, I rsquo;m homesick way more than seeing Harbor Place or the tall ships.
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