John Waters Net Worth

John Waters's Quotes

• "My hobby is extreme Catholic behavior -- BEFORE the Reformation." (2000)
• "If you can make someone laugh who's dead set against you, that's the first step to winning them over to your side." (2000)
• Some call me director, producer, filmmaker. I prefer to call myself pube-king.
• Strive for art in reverse.
• To me, bad taste is what entertainment is all about. If someone vomits watching one of my films, it's like getting a standing ovation. But one must remember that there is such a thing as good bad taste and bad bad taste.

Interesting Facts about John Waters

1. His favorite childhood memory was seeing real blood on the seat of a wrecked car when visiting a scrap yard and fantasizing about lethal car crashes.
2. As a youth he would watch adult-only films at the local drive-in, with binoculars.
3. He is obsessed with true-crime and used to regularly attend gory trials all over the US, where he often saw the same faces in the public galleries.
4. Older brother of Steve Waters.
5. Subscribes to more than 80 magazines. Also goes to see just about every movie that comes out and hardly ever rents movies.
6. Has taught classes at the Patuxent Institution, a correctional facility located halfway between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The classes are meant as rehabilitation therapy for convicted killers, in which they learn to write about their violent fantasies rather than act them out.
7. Waters has always been very gracious in acknowledging his creative influences, such as Russ Meyer, Otto Preminger, Liberace, William Castle, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Jayne Mansfield, Robert Bresson, and Pier Paolo Pasolini.
8. As a youth, he made as much as $50 a week doing puppet shows for the neighborhood children, and was often hired to entertain at birthday parties. He stated that many of his puppet shows were inspired by the gimmick-heavy films of William Castle.
9. Bears such a strong resemblance to actor Steve Buscemi that as a joke, John Waters sent out cards with a photo of Buscemi made up to look like Waters.
10. Big fan of 1950s director Douglas Sirk and actually got to meet him while in Europe.
11. Grew his thin pencil-line mustache in honor of Little Richard.
12. Member of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 48th Cannes International Film Festival in 1995.
13. Waters originally wanted a man named "Mr. Ray" to be the narrator of Pink Flamingos (1972). Mr. Ray was famous for his hair-weave radio ads and for his Baltimore accent. Mr. Ray refused, so Waters recorded the voice-over himself, imitating Mr. Ray's voice as "Mr. J."
14. There is a special section of his immense book collection devoted to Liberace.
15. Was supposed to have a cameo in American Splendor (2003), as the David Letterman guest holding a alligator.
16. Maintains a home in north Baltimore, Maryland.
17. One of his closest friends is Baltimore based casting director Pat Moran.
18. Was member of the dramatic jury at the Sundance Film Festival in 2002.
19. Attended Calvert Hall College High School in Towson, Maryland.
20. Was considered for the role of Det. John Munch on Homicide: Life on the Street (1993).