John Waters was among the handful of celebs at the 50th annual Chaplin Gala in New York Monday night to tribute friend and collaborator Pedro Almodóvar. The Spanish Oscar-winning “Talk to Her” and “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” director received Film at Lincoln Center’s equivalent of a lifetime achievement award with remarks from his beloved screen muse Rossy De Palma, John Turturro, Richard Peña, and Dua Lipa, and even a flamenco dance from Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Waters’ speech, though, was the night’s most memorable and mischievous — no surprise from the “Pink Flamingos” director and Pope of Trash — with Waters praising Almodóvar as “the best filmmaker in the world” while singling out how generous the “Room Next Door” director is with complex roles for women. (Recall that “All About My Mother” ends with an onscreen ode to the world’s greatest actresses, specifically Bette Davis, Gena Rowlands, and Romy Schneider.)
Waters recalled “a completely insane club kid party for me when I appeared with my films in Malaga, Spain,” praising Almodóvar as “never pretentious, always a little bit rude, and ready to pull the rug out from under what we are comfortable with. George Cukor? He was a male chauvinist pig compared to Pedro when it came to working with women. Every actress I’ve ever met wants to be in his films. Pay or play? Hell no. Even the biggest ones offer to read for him, audition. Men, too! Hey, I want to be in an Almodóvar movie, and I’d pay him to be in it. No salary necessary.”
Speaking to IndieWire earlier on the red carpet of the Chaplin Gala, Waters singled out “I’m So Excited!” as one of his favorite Almodóvar films, the 2013 airplane comedy that met a mixed reception at the time.
“The 50th Chaplin award — past honorees Alfred Hitchcock, Elizabeth Taylor, Fellini, even the Three Stooges would know Pedro deserved this award,” Waters said in his speech. “He can tell a story without endless running time, make a dollar holler budget-wise, create screen goddesses out of non-traditional beauties that make other glamor girls look boringly bogus. Pedro has put his handsome one-time assistants in his movies in day-player parts, who I always try to identify and question him on.”
He continued, “Besides all these professional talents, Pedro also keeps old friends in the U.S. he’s had from the beginning, and sees them on each visit. He’s gay, but not rah-rah-rabid, and hetero-friendly in the best sense. He’s got a look, too. He’s got money. He even makes money. He even keeps his own real family in his business so he can control the distribution.” Waters also described Almodóvar’s 2024 short story and essay collection “The Last Dream” as a “real page-turner.”
Finally, he ended his speech with a nod to many of Almodóvar’s best titles: “Tie me up in high heels wearing the skin I live in. That’s right: We’re matadors on the verge of a nervous breakdown. No bad education here. I’m so excited. I mean, what have I done to deserve this? No pain, all glory, ladies and gentlemen, and everybody in between and upside down.”
Vincent Perella contributed reporting.
