Divine memories

>> The late great cult star graces a John Waters retrospective

by MATTHEW HAYS

The very first interview I ever conducted was for the student paper I wrote for in Edmonton. There I was, a young and innocent arts reporter, managing to land an interview with Divine, the 300-pound actor who had gained considerable notoriety on the gay concert circuit for his string of club hits.

But before "Love Reaction" or "You Think You're a Man," Divine (aka Harry Glen Milstead) had made a name for himself in the sick and twisted movies of Baltimore filmmaker John Waters. As Marlene Dietrich was to Josef Von Sternberg, Divine was to Waters. And Divine, who sat before me in his hotel room in 1986, explained that their beginnings were entirely humble. "We were neighbours. John just always wanted to make movies. He had a Super 8 camera that his parents bought him as a present and we used to get together on Sunday afternoons, about 10 or 12 of us. He would write scripts for us during the week and we would act them out. Actually, we did it out of sheer boredom. On Wednesdays we'd all get together and have Coke and chips--Coca-Cola that is--and watch the rushes. We thought we were the hottest thing since sliced bread."

Several short films later, someone suggested to Waters that he show the films publicly. Waters was asked to go to the university to discuss his craft, and how he made each short film for a mere $250. Waters managed to get his films screened in New York, where they soon became mandatory viewing for those in the underground art scene.

Strange scenarios

Waters' scripts usually called for Divine to end up in some very unusual situations. Whether he was crawling through pig manure, having raunchy sex with himself (via clever editing), or getting executed in an electric chair, Divine was always up for the challenge. Robert De Niro may have gained 50 pounds for Raging Bull and Dustin Hoffman may have gone without sleep for days for Marathon Man, but Divine was the ultimate Method actor. In Pink Flamingos, Divine must prove himself as the "filthiest person alive." To do so, he picks up still-steaming dog feces and eats it. Just to avoid skepticism about the validity of the act, Waters shot it all in one take: a dog excretes, Divine picks up the mess and shoves it in his mouth. This scene caused the star a certain degree of personal pain, as his parents refused to talk to him for nine years after seeing it. "That scene stuck in a lot of people's minds," Divine told me. "It stuck in my throat. But my parents are coming around now. They see that I'm simply a comic actor, someone who wants to make people laugh."

After Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble and Polyester, Divine began to take on a cult status. He was cast in stage plays in both London and New York productions, continued a recording career and pursued further film work, acting in Paul Bartel's Lust in the Dust and, perhaps most notably, in Alan Rudolph's Trouble in Mind.

Censoring the divine

His singing became notorious too. During his stage show, Divine would often ride onto stage on an elephant, get off and then perform. In London, Divine appeared on Top of the Pops, the British version of American Bandstand. He performed "You Think You're a Man," and the station was flooded with calls, overwhelmingly negative in nature. The producers said Divine could never appear again on their show. "Boy George had already been on the show," Divine told me. "It seems like people were offended by fat. The only people ever banned from Top of the Pops were The Sex Pistols, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, the Beatles and myself. So I felt this wasn't bad company to keep, when it all goes down in history."

Divine's biggest breakthrough would again occur with his old friend Waters, with Hairspray, in which the actor played mom to a young Ricki Lake (the film also starred Deborah Harry, Sonny Bono and Pia Zadora). Just months after the film's release to intensely positive critical reviews, the man who was Divine was found dead in his New York apartment.

The actor who wanted so badly to find mainstream acceptance would never quite find it. His legacy can still be viewed, however, in Cinéma du Parc's retrospective. And his Waters films, which remain radical to this day, are well worth screening again.

The John Waters retrospective begins this Friday, Sept. 1 at Cinéma du Parc. See repertory listings for showtimes