October 14, 1986. Page 6.

Pi eS ee ta Lee ee ee

 

The Other Press

 

 

Interviewed by Matt Hayes

In 1972 independent film maker
John Waters released a film called
Pink Flamingos. The film featured a
three-hundred.... pound — star, __ then
virtually unknown. The character
was ‘Divine - The most disgusting

person in the world’. The film
played repetory cinemas across
North America and __ eventually

Europe and Waters and Divine both
gained notoriety for their work. The
final scene was particularly note-
worthy: in order to prove his title as
the most disgusting person in the
world, Divine picks up still steam-
ing dog feces and eats it. A star is
born.

Divine continued to make films
with John Waters, the last one being

Polyester, which co-starred ~Tab
Hunter. Polyester was filmed using
a brand new. cinematic device:
odorama - audience members are

+

_ Career.

~ recieved excellent

given scratch ‘’n sniff cards, allow-

“ing them to ‘smell along’ with the

action. Divine then worked with
director Paul Bartel (Deathrace
2000, Eating Raoul) on Lust in the
Dust. ;

In 1978 Divine began his singing
He has since recorded such
pop disco hits as Love Reaction and
You Think your a Man. His records
sell well internationally, in fact he
has several gold and | platinum
albums. He _ has toured virtually

everywhere to sell out crowds, in-:

cluding Israel, and, before the end
of the year, Japan. In 1984 he appea-
red on the British TV series Top of
the Pops. After the program aired,
the TV _ station was flooded with
12,000 calls all protesting his
appearance. The producers of Top
of the Pops decided Divine could
not again appear on their show.

_ Divine’s latest film is Trouble in
Mind, directed by Alan Rudolph, in
which Divine has his first male role
- aS a gangster. The film has
reviews, as has
Divine for his performance.

Divine was performing his night-
club act at ‘Goose Loonies’ last
summer. I interviewed him in_ his
hotel room. As I spoke to him it stuck
me that everything I’d ever read in a
Divine interview is true. Divine was
charming, witty, polite and above all,
candid.

We discussed his film work and
rumours of a Network TV series.

Gateway: After coming out of Tro-
uble in Mind someone said to me
that you'd stolen the film.

D: One reviewer from the Holly-
wood Reporter said that. I was quite
flattered.

Gateway: In Trouble in Mind you
play a mob leader. Did Alan
Rudolph write this part with you in
mind? j

D: Yes. The part was written for me.
I was his first choice. He came to
Bernard’s (Bernard Jay, Divine’s
personal manager) office, and_ sort
of plopped this thing in my lap.
Gateway: He had seen your work
with John Waters and Paul Bartel.

D: Yes, and was a fan of that work,
and said that he thought I would be
good in this man’s part. I’ve
looking for a man’s part for about 8
years.

Gateway: You'd had a male role in
Female Trouble though - you
played-a man who raped yourself,
or the female character you played.

D: Yeah, but this was a few seconds.
I really didn’t get to do any acting or
dialogue besides humping someone
- a stand in - which wasn’t that en-

joyable, this four hundred pound
bonster...she wasn’t the prettiest
woman.
Gateway: Will a sequel to Pink

Flamingos ever be made? I’ve heard
a lot about it.

D: What did you hear?
Gateway: I read John Waters’ article
in American Film Magazine about
his attempts to get someone to back
the film financially.

D: I think the whole thing was
scrapped after Edith Massey died.
John said he would never try to find
a replacement for her or for me or
for anyone. As far as he’s concerned
there aren’t any.
Gateway: Certainly not
Massey. ~-

D: Or me. (laughs) Your talking to
me! No, that’s true. There aren’t any
more Ediths around. But really, it
wasn’t my favorite script. We did
enough with dogshit.

Gateway: I’d heard the proposed
script was full of shit. It doesn’t
have to be, it just appeared in the
last scene of the first film.

D: I agree. We already did that. It’s
been hard enough to live that down.
Gateway: You've had a lot of press
with that.

D: Yes. Whether it was real or not,
I’m not going to say, but the scene
sticks in peoples minds...stuck in
my throat. :
Gateway: I’ve heard that the scene
estranged your parents.

D: For about nine years we didn’t
speak.

Gateway: How’s that now?

D: It’s great

Gateway: I was happy to hear you’d
reconciled. I read that in the New
Music Express.

D: It’s real good now. They’re fans.
Which makes feel so much better

for Edith

    
 
 
 
 
   
  
   
 
 
  
  
 
 
  
  
   
 
 
  
  
   
 
  
  
  
  
 
    

because I am an only child and of
course we were very close and spent
a lot of time together. Then all of a
sudden you don’t speak, and as far
as I was concerned, it was for no
reason at all. I think they finally
realized that to because I’m _ just
doing what I love and do best and
that’s being a comedian and an actor
and making people laugh.

Gateway: How did you and John
Waters meet and how was it that
you established a __ professional
relationship?

D: We were neighbors. We grew up
in Lutherville, Maryland. John was
quite a movie buff as I was to. John
just always wanted to make movies.
He had a Browning Super 8 camera
that his parents bought him as a
present, and we _ used to. get
together on Sunday afternoons,
about ten or twelve of us. He would
write scripts during the week and
we would act them out on Sundays.
Actually we did it out of sheer bore-
dom. When I was a teenager we
didn’t have discos or anything to go
to. Sounds like I came out of a cove-
red wagon or something!

There were teen centres, but they
were for the nerds, no one really
wanted to go to them. On Wednes-
day night we would all get together
and have Coke and chips - Coca
Cola that is - and watch the rushes.
We thought they were the hottest
thing since sliced bread. Finally,
someone said. ‘You should show

Weird Waves: on

reprinted from The Gateway

these to other people. These films
are funny!’

There’s a spring festival in Balti-
more and John rented a hall and
showed the film. It was 49¢ to get in.
Some people from the University of
Maryland filmmaking school saw
the film and thought it was fabu-
lous. They asked John and I if we
would come to the school and give
the kids there an incentive to make
movies because ours was made for
about $250.00

I went all done up and John
would come out first and he would
give this long speech about movie-
making and then he would _intro-
‘duce the most beautiful woman in
the world almost (almost because
I’m a man) and I would come out
having a modeling fit and _ then
answer questions about acting,
which I thought took a lot of balls.
That was our routine.

He would also help me out with
my first club act in San Francisco. I
would push out a shopping cart.
There was ground beef and fish and
a telephone book in the cart. I would
spin the fish around. and rub them
on my body and throw them into
the audience. They would break
open and splatter all over people. It
was a horrible mess. Then I would
throw ground beef at the people,
and then I would rip the telephone ©
book in half. Three guys all dressed .
in black would come out and lie
head to foot, I would walk over top