He is our editor in chief of pop culture, and he is not afraid to help liberate his audience from the traps set by our buzz-killing superegos. “I prefer to think of John’s work not as bad taste becoming good taste,” Boesky says, “but more as an evolution-or a revolution, maybe. He is the Karl Lagerfeld of Baltimore, on the pulse of what’s great before anyone else,” says Blair. What’s the real trash? “John is a gentle man. Here’s a test: Who is more lovable and relatable, Edith Massey in every role she ever played for Waters, or any character in the last 20 Marvel superhero films. Like Parton’s, his vision of the country, it turns out, with all its polyester and prurience, has more soul than most of the milquetoast Academy Award winners for Best Picture. Called outrageous, revolting, and “a clothesline to hang his filthy laundry on” by one critic, Waters’s body of work is now seen as a celebration of American originality. After decades as the objects of dismissive wisecracks, their talent, tenacity, and nerve prevailed. In many ways the reappreciation he’s experiencing is like that of another firmly canonized icon, Dolly Parton. PRADA suit ($2,580) and shirt ($680) SAINT LAURENT by Anthony Vaccarello adrian oxfords ($1,095) Douglas Friedman From his first full-length film, Mondo Trasho, to his most recent, A Dirty Shame ( starring T&C’s May cover star, Selma Blair), not to mention his books and shows-even the one-liners and film clips of his cycling through TikTok-there are few artists as easily recognizable, or as beloved and embraced by battalions of fans. Perhaps unexpectedly, Waters has been elevated, by both Hollywood and his critics, to the highest echelon of film culture: an auteur.

At 75, with a backlist of cult films he readily admits didn’t make much money, the Bard of Baltimore has never been more in demand. Suddenly I think, Oh my god, how did I ever do that-19 cities in 22 days?” Waters says all this with a nonchalant exhale, almost as if he still smoked (he quit years ago), displaying zero stress. There are also art exhibits of his visual work staged by his New York gallerist Marianne Boesky, and more dates for his long- running one-man show, This Filthy World. He is the host act for alt-country fabulist Orville Peck at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, and he is expected to do the same at the California indie music festival Halloween Meltdown in October. It is summer, and he’s looking ahead to appearances on Search Party and The Marvelous Mrs.

John Waters is rattling off a list of upcoming projects.

The john waters collection