Expect John Waters on 'Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' But Not on Grindr

John Waters has always looked like a pervy guidance counselor from some 1950s Sandra Dee movie, so it makes sense that he would turn up on "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," Amazon's impeccable period comedy headed for its fourth season. Variety reports that "Waters will be appear in a guest starring role in the fourth season of the critically-acclaimed series, with the exact nature of the character he is playing being kept under wraps. Season 4 is currently in production in New York."

Waters has appeared on series television before, most notably playing schlock film director William Castle on "Feud: Bette and Joan" and even "Law and Order: SVU" where he appeared on two episodes as a character called Pornmonger Man.

Long a renegade filmmaker, Waters made his name in a series of independent films in the 1970s and 1980s with his muse the late drag queen Divine. Over the years Waters has become the go-to guru for all things camp, but as he told Vulture in a 2019 interview, it wasn't a word he had spoken in 40 years. "It started as a secret gay word that only gay people understood. I had the book 'The Camp Followers' Guide.' I stole it on 8th Street. But then, everything evolved from that. Camp was a hidden thing only a few people understood."

He was interviewed at the time of the 2019 Met Gala, which had a Camp theme. And despite being the crown prince of Camp, Waters wasn't invited. "But I had the best of all worlds: I didn't have to pay $40,000. I didn't have to get in an outfit that I might've felt uncomfortable in. And I'm in every article about it. I didn't have to go through all that or pay anything and got the same amount of coverage."

In the interview, he also addressed current sexual practices, which he has said have changed dramatically since the 1970s. "Today you need a lawyer to ask somebody for a date. So, I have lived in the two most extreme ends of sexual manners. But I've adapted to the times, always. I'm certainly not going to a sex club now. I would be recognized. I'd have to be doing selfies. Part of a sex club was that it was anonymous, and that would be almost impossible for me. I did all that. I don't need to do it again."

Nor will you expect to see Waters on Grindr anytime soon. "I've never had sex from something on the internet. That was after my time. I live in Provincetown in the summer, and I realize now that if you went up to somebody after the bar is closed and said, "Hi, what are you doing?" they'd call the police. They wouldn't even know what cruising was if they were a certain age. "Why are you talking to me while I'm on the phone?" That's what somebody might say. And they're dancing with each other, looking at their phone while they're dancing. So it's a different world out there," he told Grindr.