Life Lessons From Divine

Divine by Eamonn J. McCabbe for Interview.

Welcome to Life Lessons. To kick off Pride Month, we revisit our February 1988 cover story featuring the drag legend Divine. Divine’s fame is intimately entangled with that of the iconic auteur filmmaker John Waters—in fact, the Los Angeles-based queen passed away three weeks after the premiere of the duo’s most acclaimed film, Hairspray, and a month after the issue hit newsstands. But for us, Divine is still the queen of raunch and spectacle, so sit back and grab your bong—you just might learn a thing or two. 

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“Americans love nasty—Audiences are still very much like Romans watching the gladiators. They want raunch, they want spectacle. Ninety-five percent of people who go to nightclubs want to see and hear what they can’t see or hear at home.”

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“Europeans are not uptight about the female attire. Men have always played women’s parts in the theater. It’s not questioned and no one really cares. It’s just a way to give people a good laugh.”

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“At this point, I can’t help it if others have a lot of misconceptions about what I do, if they’re not willing to believe I am a character actor and one of my characters just happens to be a loud, vulgar woman.”

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“No one has patience with fat people.”

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 “I don’t eat while I shop, mind you, because it’s not nice to get crumbs on the carpet at Bergdorf’s.”

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“I was addicted to marijuana. I thought the marijuana was helping me, because it’s no fun getting home from a show at 3 a.m. and not being able to fall asleep until 5. But soon I found I was stoned all day, until I passed out—I didn’t care about my career, my looks.”

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“When I was stoned I only ate once a day, but the meal lasted 24 hours. It certainly didn’t help my weight. “

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“My attitude was ‘Fuck it, let’s smoke.’ I became difficult to work with, and I had always prided myself on being so professional. I wasn’t happy.”

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“I realized that I had to do something. So I went to Malta, where I usually go in the summer, and spent a long time by myself. I did all the corny things: counted my blessings, recalled the bad times, recalled the good times—admitted that I was throwing away a good life, confronted the fact that I hadn’t accomplished what I set out to do, which is to be the biggest and the best.”

Divine, 1984. Photography by Greg Gorman. ©Greg Gorman. ©Divine Official Enterprises LLC.

“I was scared because I had lost friends and didn’t want to be left alone. I was alive, and couldn’t afford to waste time being negative.”

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“God, it’s hard enough when you turn 40 and all the hair starts to grow in strange places on your body—like you can curl the hair growing on top of your ears into a pageboy—without making it tougher on yourself. I’ve gotten rid of almost all my vices.”

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“I don’t mind people gaping, because I know if they stop gaping, then it’s all over. The dearest thing to me is my career.”

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“Maybe I can’t look thirteen anymore, but I have as much energy as Ricki Lake. I was afraid it was all past, but I’m ready to tear it up all over again. I feel confident that I can play anything, whether it’s sleazy Mr. Hodgepile or the big bad bitch.”