John Waters Runs Deep

Hollywood's eternal AGITATOR reflects on his ventures latest and looks back at 50 FILTHY YEARS IN SHOW BUSINESS.

- Leah Greenblatt

Your new book is called Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder. What is a filth elder exactly?

JOHN WATERS Well, I think it’s someone who is still curious about the newest radical movement, even if it might be against you yourself. You can never think that only the music of your generation was good or “Oh, I had more fun than they did when they were young.” A true filth elder knows that today’s juvenile delinquent is having just as much fun shutting down Baltimore with a hacking thing as we did stealing hubcaps in the ’50s.

The book is mostly memoir, but with some very Waters-y advice. How would you feel about seeing it filed under self-help?

That would be terrible because people wouldn’t find it! The worst place ever to be on a bookshelf is in the humor section; then you’re next to Peanuts books. And I always say I don’t want mine only in the gay section either, because that’s usually next to true crime by the bathroom in the back. It is a self-help book, yes. But it’s also essays about subjects that obsess me, like brutalism, opening a hideous foodie restaurant, and taking LSD, which I did as a sort of dare to myself.

You write about planning your acid trip very carefully. You didn’t want to go for something easier to manage, like MDMA?

See, I always hated that drug. Loving everybody is my idea of hell. Sitting around with a pacifier, sucking my thumb in pajamas with a bunch of strangers who want to hug me? Oh my God, that sounds like the most horrible experience. [Laughs]

It’s been nearly 15 years since your last movie, A Dirty Shame, which was sort of sunk by its NC-17. Do you think you’re done with filmmaking?