John Waters "always made fun of [his] culture" with his movies.
John Waters made fun of the world around him for his movies
The 78-year-old director and screenwriter made his name with underground cult films in the 1970s before finding further success with the 1980s films 'Hairspray' - which featured drag queen Divine and made a star out of famed talk show host Ricki Lake in the years before it was adapted into a record-breaking Broadway musical - as well as 'Cry-Baby' and admitted that his work was always meant to be a parody of the world around him.
He told Flickering Myth: "What we did was make fun of the rules outsiders lived by. Divine was thought up to be Godzilla and Elizabeth Taylor put together.
"I always made fun of the culture I lived in, not my parents. Now the culture I live in has more rules than what my parents had. It's a whole new world, it's a surprising world."
The 'Pink Flamingos' director noted that he had had some high school struggles and that his themes of teenage angst often come from that time but insisted that those who had an easy adolescence went "down hill" after graduation.
He said: "The first rebellion you ever see and then participate is the most exciting ever in your life. The first time you do culturally against your parents that they don't approve of is what rock 'n roll, teenage angst...everything is about.
"Perfect prom queens, football stars in high school, their life goes down hill [after that]. That's it. That's their peak.
"All the future leaders of the arts always had trouble in high school. But I'm also against home schooling, I think you have to learn to be out there and how to get through it."
Tagged in Elizabeth Taylor Ricki Lake