Waters

At 7:31 AM on Wednesday, September 13, 2006

The Toronto Sun brings us a short article on John Waters and his involvement in 'Hairspray.'

We like a man who can joke about unusual anal growths and Forrest Gump in the same routine.

He likes us right back: "That festival of yours is going to kick Cannes' ass one of these days!"

That's John Waters, of course, at the film festival this year as the star of the brilliant This Filthy World, which plays tomorrow night at the Ryerson Theatre. The film, directed by comic Jeff Garlin, is 90 minutes of Waters doing the nightclub act/standup chat that's evolved over the years he's played clubs and colleges.

"I was nervous about it, a bit," admitted Baltimore's favourite son over the phone yesterday. "I'm up there on stage a long time. It's hard to watch any movie that's just me."

Not for the rest of us.

Waters was in Toronto last week to do a cameo in the new production of the film Hairspray. "It's a re-invention of my movie and the Broadway show," he said, "and to stand there and see the new Tracey -- wonderful! Who would have thought that when I wrote the thing back in my old slum apartment that it would mean three generations of Traceys?" The 1988 Hairspray was Waters' first vaguely mainstream outing, but he claimed the film as his most subversive ever. "Pink Flamingos was like preaching to the converted," he said. "Hairspray was the one that tricked people into going to a John Waters movie and thinking it was normal."

Waters has been making films since 1964. He said, "It's lasted because I never make movies about things I hate. I learned long ago from the Yuppies that you can use humour as terrorism." -Liz Braun

Did we read write? A Cameo!?

Let's hope thats not a typo!

Love,
Hairhopper

Hairspray Movie Musical