John Waters’ issues with being an icon: “I never wanted to be a cult filmmaker”
Over the years, filmmakers have burst into the industry loudly, unable to hide the fact that the movie they’ve just made is more than just shocking – it challenges social norms, explores all things grotesque, and aims to make viewers wholly uncomfortable. For John Waters, his early films instantly attracted the attention of people interested in all things weird and wonderful, although it wasn’t long until his movies were banned in certain countries and labelled as depraved pieces of art.
One of his earliest films, Multiple Maniacs, features everything from a man eating his own vomit to a lesbian sex scene in a church with the participants using rosary beads as an anal stimulant. Pink Flamingos, which came in 1972, was even worse. It’s a film that is equally addictive and stomach-turning, with Waters aiming to exercise as much bad taste as possible.
It follows a bizarre plot: Divine, undercover as Babs Johnson, is desperate to be labelled the filthiest person alive, but the Marbles couple – who run an underground lesbian baby ring – do what they can to claim the title instead.
Pink Flamingos shocked many people, and to this day, it is still banned in various regions due to its shocking content. Waters used a fearless DIY approach, recruiting his friends, whom he called his Dreamlanders, to star in his film. He also completed much of the production himself, from filming and editing to producing and writing.
From there, he continued his approach for several more films, like the camp classic Female Trouble, before going onto slightly bigger budgets and working with more well-known stars. The filmmaker might have appeared to have betrayed his roots when he made films like the relatively family-friendly Hairspray, but Waters knew that to survive in the film industry, he couldn’t keep making DIY movies. Even now, he has admitted to struggling to finance his next film, Liarmouth, which would be his first since 2004’s A Dirty Shame.
Waters’ more mainstream films have always retained a fiercely independent and unconventional approach, as shown in his comedic slasher Serial Mom and his surreal comedy Cecil B. Demented. While some diehard fans might believe he ‘sold out’, Waters has no shame in moving away from completing all the production elements himself and earning little in return – it’s a cutthroat business, after all.
Additionally, the filmmaker has never wanted to be a “cult” director. He told The Guardian, “I never wanted to be a ‘cult filmmaker’ because in Hollywood, that means three smart people liked it and it lost all the money it cost to make it.”
He continued, “Making art is just a new way for me to tell stories; it’s all about writing, editing and noticing minute little details that I don’t think other people look at.”
While many people might consider Waters a “cult” director, this is arguably down to the fact that he has such a dedicated following who worship the filmmaker’s unashamedly bold and unorthodox approach to cinema. He has defined the rules of cinema for many (by ignoring them), and as a result, he has formed a passionate fanbase who feel seen and understood in contrast to the polished, mainstream Hollywood landscape.
