[Click image to enlarge]
Photograph by John Waters
Take note...
![[2] - Hot Male Couples!](http://www.unzipped.net/images/logos/2mag.gif)
©2002 SPLLC. All rights reserved. All images which appear on this site are watermarked and can be traced. All models are at least 18 years of age or older. The publisher is exempt from the record-keeping requirements and disclosure statements mandated by 18 U.S. Code § 2257(a) through (c) and the pertinent regulations, 28 C.F.R., Chapter 1, Part 75, since all of such material falls within the exempted material set forth in either § 75.7(a)(1-3) or § 75.7(b) of the pertinent regulations.
Copyright Infringement Notification
|
|
|
Sex In Crummy Houses
We still find it hard to believe that John Waters's accidental family film, Hairspray, is now a broadway musical. It's almost as shocking as watching Divine eat dog poop. So when we sent famed smut manufacturer Gino Colbert to talk to our hero, they didn't bother to plug the show. They talked about porn.
John, all of your movies still stand up; the shock of them is still strong. Seeing them again is like seeing them for the first time. What's your secret?
I don't have a secret. But there is this: Nobody had to OK them. I never pitched them; I never had notes from a studio person. I didn't know you had to do that. I raised the money from my father, and he didn't want to know what they were about. Also, back then, an "X" rating helped, where today it would hurt. When Female Trouble first came out, you exploited the "X." It helped you. And the DVD release just got an "NC-17," which kind of surprised me. Pink Flamingos did too, of course. In fact, we told them for Pink Flamingos, "Look, you don't have to watch this. We'll take the 'NC-17,'" and they said, "No,we have to watch it."
What's flawed about the studio system today?
I don't know. I know that my competition is my past. If I get negative reviews today, they say, "Well, it's not like Pink Flamingos." But who makes shocking movies anymore? The gross-out comedies maybe. Jackass. I'm a big fan of Johnny Knoxville. He would have eaten dog shit. But he quit it because even he thought he'd taken it as far as it could go.
What was the most enjoyable movie you ever made?
Well, Serial Mom was the only time I ever had enough money. Obviously, I enjoy making them, but they were all hard, really. To me, enjoyable would be a good night in a good bar in Baltimore with no one writing about it. Even Glitter was probably a hard movie to make, you know? I paid to see that movie, by the way.
What's next?
The one I'm trying make now, Dirty Shame, is about sex addicts. Can I make a movie totally about sex? I've never really done it, you know, about the compulsion of sex. I've had sex scenes in my movies, but never have I had a movie that was about sex addicts. And these sex addicts, their sex addiction is caused by a concussion--a Three Stooges sex addict movie.
How hard-core will it be?
Not very. You won't want to see it. If it's a John Waters movie about sex, then it's going to be about uncontrollable compulsions and the humor of that. Sex addicts are funny when they don't want to be. Like when you've fucked the whole neighborhood--it's hard to start over. My movies are always about people who think they're normal, but in reality they can't control themselves. So what's new in porn? How's it going?
Well, with Viagra and Caverject--
What's Caverject?
It's a drug to treat impotence, and it's injected into the shaft of the penis. It causes a three-hour erection. We used that with John Wayne Bobbitt. He needed some.
So Viagra and the injection thing just produce a "dumb" hard-on rather than a "smart" one, yes?
[Both laughing] Yeah. I should have brought some, and we could have experimented. What's new with you and porn? I know you're a fan.
Well, I'm not a fan of porn on DVD. It doesn't work right when you want to fast-forward. It's always jumping; it's not smooth. And you need fast-forward with porn--it's important. I mean, sure, if you don't like the guys you turn it off and jump to the next one. But they have to think of a better fast-forward just for porn DVDs.
Speaking of DVDs, almost all your films are now available in that format. But wasn't there some lost footage involved in Female Trouble?
When it first came out theatrically, the whole scene of Divine swimming across the river was cut because they thought it was too long. Then it came out on 16mm, and they forgot to cut it. So some people saw it. Every video of it that came out would have random stuff cut out of it to fit on a 90-minute tape. It had never actually come out in its complete form, not because of censorship, but because of cheapness on the part of video companies--and not New Line [Cinema], mind you--they just sold the video rights to companies. So we restored the whole thing for DVD. It looks better now. You can hear it now.
Now you know what we go through in porn.
Really? You mean after you're finished, they just cut it up?
Yeah. I'll rent one of my old movies and find that one of the last scenes is missing. Or they'll lay down music over dialogue that I didn't OK. You have no control sometimes.
And don't they also just take scenes and make compilation tapes of them? Is that legal? Like those "best of" tapes--do you get a share of that?
Nope. They'll take different scenes from different videos with similar themes--blonds who get fucked by black guys, for instance.
[Laughs] GENRES!
Would you ever film outside Baltimore?
I hope not. Well, if they take my house away or if I'm in jail or something--if I have to shoot somewhere else. I've shot in jails before. Chris Mason did all the hair for my early movies--she was a tough lesbian--and when we shot in a men's jail once, she said, "They're so horny in here, they're trying to cruise ME!"
Who do you want to work with?
I have a wish list, of course. My wish list I always try to get.
I remember bringing Jeff Stryker to dinner with you once.
Oh, I remember that. And then after that he invited me to his play in New York. Jeff and I walking up the street in New York together--I felt like Don Knotts walking next to Jayne Mansfield. Heads were spinning!
I remember he said he wanted you to direct a porn movie. I thought he was going to ask if he could be in one of your movies.
I know, that's what I loved: He didn't care about crossing over into my world, he wanted me to cross over into porn.
And if you were to direct a porn movie. . .
I could make a great porn movie. Maybe I will one day. It's something I haven't done.
What would you bring to a porn movie that we haven't seen?
Not humor. I don't think you need too much of that. I wouldn't make a satire of a porn movie. I'd try to make the real thing, with a certain blue-collar sensibility. You don't see that. It's always in L.A. It's always in fancy houses. I think it should be in crummy houses. My favorite pornographer is Bobby Garcia.
Bobby Garcia?
He does those ones with Marines. He's the best. He does Warhol's Blow Job, basically--the same camera setup. And the guys are all straight. That's interesting, even though I always feel a little odd watching straight guys shove dildos up their asses. What else would I do? Well, I'm not for shaved--that's a turn-off for me. I like amateurs. I would take the best amateurs and put them in a real porn movie. I wouldn't do unsafe; I know too many dead people to ever do that. And to me, the sexiest people are the ones who don't know they're sexy. I'd somehow try to put that in a porn movie.
Hair plug: Hairspray is now playing at the Neil Simon Theatre in New York. Go buy an insanely expensive ticket, why don't you?
Interview by Gino Colbert
Experience the sextraordinary in the latest issue of Unzipped Monthly, on sale now.
|
