John Waters: “I’m so respectable I could puke”

Apr 16, 2026

John Waters, cult filmmaker known for Pink Flamingos and Hairspray, chats about the BFI Trash season and his boundary-pushing career. He recalls drive-ins, midnight screenings, and why trash cinema delights. He debates respectability, censorship, and how shock has changed. Expect witty, provocative stories about making films to provoke and entertain.

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INSIGHT

Trash Cinema Becomes Cultural Treasure

John Waters frames trash cinema as rule-breaking that eventually becomes culturally reappraised.
He says many exploitation films weren't made as irony; their tone took decades to be understood and celebrated by institutions like the BFI.

ANECDOTE

Making Films For Friends Not Critics

John Waters made Pink Flamingos to make himself and his mixed group of friends laugh, not to shock critics.
He describes the crew as a racially and socially diverse clique that delighted in comic rule-breaking and censorship-busting at midnight screenings.

INSIGHT

You Can't Manufacture A Cult Classic

Waters warns that trying intentionally to make a 'cult' film usually fails.
He praises accidental cult makers like Ed Wood and Herschell Gordon Lewis who weren't trying to be ironic but ended up defining genres by sincere extremity.

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On this week’s Take, Mark and Simon are back with more box fresh film reviews of the latest big screen releases. And we are still reviewing three brand new films out this week, even though it’s Easter holibobs and the show is pre-recorded—because the Good Doctors are actual time travellers now, ICYMI.

First up, they head to the Highlands for Glenrothan, Brian Cox’s whisky-soaked directorial debut family drama—does it live up to its lofty ambitions, or get lost in the Scottish mist? Then it’s Rebuilding, a quietly affecting portrait of second chances and fragile hope starring Josh O’Connor as a cowboy without a ranch. And finally, Wizard of the Kremlin—where Vladamir Putin is played by… Jude Law?!

Plus Mark talks to ‘The Pope of Trash’ John Waters, director of cult classics like Pink Flamingoes and Multiple Maniacs, and high priest of bad taste. He’s celebrating the BFI’s Trash season. Expect a gleeful and provocative conversation on the art of trash cinema, the pleasures of the disreputable, and why good bad films might just be the most honest kind of all.

Plus, as always, there’s the latest correspondence from the faithful, a few choice diversions, and the sort of cinematic enthusiasm (and exasperation) you’ve come to expect.

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And here is the link to the Faith for Holy Places article as promised in the episode: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2026/20-march/faith/faith-for-holy-places/faith-for-holy-places

Timecodes:

00:00:00 Show starts

00:13:01 Glenrothan review

00:36:46 John Waters Interview pt 1

00:38:51 John Waters interview pt 2

00:50:51 Rebuilding review

00:57:08 Laughter Lift

01:02:29 Wizard of the Kremlin review

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