On the occasion of Criterion Collection’s home video release of Multiple Maniacs and the publication of the filmmaker’s new book Make Trouble, Violet Lucca chats with John Waters—director, writer, artist, sometime actor (most recently of FX’s Feud: Bette and Joan), and Christmas card sender extraordinaire. Waters talks about the freedom of writing across multiple media, film critic Parker Tyler, his early days abusing zoom lenses and getting arrested for Mondo Trasho, and how his bad taste movement has been folded into the mainstream, from reality television to raunchy Hollywood comedies to the current occupant of the White House. Waters called in from his home in Baltimore (where there’s a special word for the likes of Trump).

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