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COVER STORY JW: No! Where would I run into Little Richard? I don’t think Little Richard participates in real life. G: Are there any role models whom you haven’t met, or who won’t meet with you? JW: Most are dead. But I’ve certainly met a lot of them, and I talk about many of them in the book. ... They’re usually effete homosexuals (laughs). Let’s see; I’ve met (porn star) Jeff Stryker. There aren’t any new porn stars I want to meet. I’m friends with Jeff. And my favorite go-go boy in the entire world is in New Orleans, named Chris, at the Corner Pocket. He’s also known as Bulldog. And he’s the best one in the whole world, so I always like to see him. G: One of the phrases from your movies — “teabagging” — has entered the political lexicon. I hear it on CNN, and I just read today that in the new biography of Barack Obama he actually uses that word.
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JW: Did you know Rachel Maddow on MSNBC showed the entire scene from Pecker, and said “Republicans: This is teabagging” — and it even showed Martha Plimpton saying “No balls on foreheads!” And they cut back to the set and you could hear the entire crew laughing in the background. She showed it in prime time! G: Are you proud of that? JW: Yes! Certainly! It crossed over! But now the Republicans don’t say that word any more. They changed it, because they know now. G: What do you think of the Tea Party movement? JW: Well, the day after the health care bill passed and Republicans were rioting and breaking windows, I thought, “That’s what we should’ve been doing.” I have to give them credit that they would get that mad because a poor person can now afford an operation! That’s startling to me. Yet at the same time, they hate Obama exactly the same way we hated Bush.
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G: Is America largely unshockable now? JW: I’m shocked every day — shocked by the terrible movies, and the stupidity and the racism, but I haven’t tried to shock anybody since the end of Pink Flamingos. If anybody tries to shock today, it’s old hat, or people try too hard. I’m trying to surprise you with wit, and that’s hard to do, but if I even do that once in a while then my goal has been done. What is shocking any more? I don’t know. You can go online to these websites and see the most hideous people naked ... and it could be your aunt
IN THE ENTIRE WORLD IS IN NEW ORLEANS, , AT THE CORNER POCKET. HE’S ALSO KNOWN AS BULLDOG. AND HE’S THE BEST ONE IN THE WHOLE WORLD.
G: Yes, except when Bush was elected, we said, “Well, we’ve got to accept this” —
and uncle. It’s hard to imagine Lenny Bruce once went to jail for saying f— when I was a teenager, and now you could look on Craigslist and see your next-door neighbor f—ing — for free! Pink Flamingos plays on television! On Sundance (Channel). Uncut!
JW: I never said that! I was the one who wanted to be out there settin’ fires! I’m older, but I still like a riot! I used to go to riots like kids go to raves.
G: For our younger readers: can you suggest some role models for the youth of today? Who should they be reading or studying?
G: Last I read, you were trying to get a movie called Fruitcake off the ground, to no success. JW: Yeah, and I don’t think anyone I know in the film business can get a midpriced Hollywood movie off the ground any more. They either want you to make a movie for $500,000 or make a movie for $100 million that’s going to have 12 sequels. I’m not whining — independent filmmaking goes through a lot of cycles — but right now, I think, is the worst cycle for independent films since I started. They liked Fruitcake; they paid me to write it, and I had a development deal. But New Line’s gone, and there’s about three companies now you can pitch to instead of 15 or 20. G: Has the movie industry ruined itself in some ways? I don’t really want to go to a mall and watch a really loud movie where people are texting and talking.
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movies on their iPhone. It’s never gonna go back. So I don’t whine about it — it’s not better or worse — but it is changing so rapidly nobody can figure out how to make money with the new media, except the people who think up the technology. I’ve said what I want to invest in: Avatar-quality 3-D for home porn. That person will be rich.
JW: It isn’t to me, but I promise you, it is to most people. Go to an art theater — have you ever seen anybody under 50 in there? (laughs) Kids would rather watch
JW: Oh, boy. If you really want to start a trend, you should horrify the people who are three years older than you. Not your parents. The people who are 21 when you’re 15. That’s the ones you should work to unglue their values. The music industry is where kids first do rebel — and I rebelled — but I just have youth spies to tell me about them. I give ’em poppers to pay ’em (laughs). G: Coming full circle: Today, would you be flattered or pissed if a kid lifted a copy of Role Models from the library? JW: Well, I hate to say it, because when someone shoplifts your book, you still get the money; the store doesn’t. But it’s true that if your book is one of the top shoplifted ones, they won’t reorder it. It’s not worth it. Shoplift the Bible. That’s still the biggest shoplifted book, you know. So keep stealing the Bible, not mine — I worked for four years on it!