John Waters talks Caitlyn Jenner ahead of Toronto Pride show

TORONTO – Cult filmmaker John Waters plans to cover a wide variety of topics and current events when he brings his lecture series, “This Filthy World,” to the Pride Toronto festival on Monday.

Crime, fashion and “how to be happy when you’re a neurotic” are all on the docket. Caitlyn Jenner’s transition from a man to a woman isn’t, said the riotous raconteur.

“To me it’s kind of a tired subject because I had transgendered women in my film ‘Pink Flamingos,’” said the openly gay writer-director-actor in a phone interview, referring to his 1972 comedy.

“I’ve known transgender people my whole life, so basically to me it’s not some new story,” he added from his summer home in Provincetown, Mass.

“But I recognize that it’s a very, very new story for most people, and they like this one because he’s hot-looking.”

Waters did offer some thoughts on Jenner, though.

“He said he’s not going to have sex. I hope he becomes a lesbian,” he said. “A lot of the transgendered women I knew do become that…. Then it gets really complicated.”

Waters also said he’s surprised that Jenner revealed she’s Republican.

“That shocked me. And also that he didn’t want to get bottom surgery. Well, don’t be a coward about it. If you’re going to do it, do the whole thing.”

Waters said he’s more interested in the transgender story of Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. Army soldier convicted of sending classified documents to WikiLeaks.

“She does not have the benefit of Annie Leibovitz retouching her picture,” he said, referring to the photographer who shot Jenner’s glamorous Vanity Fair cover.

That said, Waters does feel it’s good “when transgendered is talked about all the time.”

“It’s the reason that gay marriage passed,” said Waters, who’s known for his pencil-thin moustache and has earned nicknames including the Baron of Bad Taste and the Prince of Puke for his filthy films.

“That’s why Republicans don’t even fight it anymore, because they know someone that’s gay. So coming out and talking about it does work.”

Waters said he’s “secretly thrilled about the minefield of sexual correctness that you have to walk through” when it comes to discussing transgender issues these days, calling it “scarier than Vietnam in a war with mines everywhere.”

The writer-director of 1988’s “Hairspray,” who just finished a tour for his book “Carsick,” started “This Filthy World” as a one-man show/documentary in 2006. He’ll bring it to Toronto’s Ryerson Theatre on Monday.

In his downtime, the 69-year-old likes to go to the movies solo from time to time. He said he took in both of Justin Bieber’s films alone as well as Disney’s recent reimagining of “Cinderella.”

“I got up to a box office alone and said, ‘One senior for “Cinderella” please, and I was so mortified,’” said Waters with a laugh.

“‘Cinderella’ was really a good movie, by the way. But sitting in that theatre, people were moving away from me and stuff. There was no other adult male alone at a matinee of ‘Cinderella’ — on a beautiful spring day, too.”

The 35th instalment of Toronto Pride runs June 19-28.