Variety.com – John Waters
John Waters recalls the men who brought famed femme to life.
Divine as ‘Hairspray’ hausfrau characters Edna Turnblad in the 1988 motion picture.
In the beginning, Divine played the role of Edna Turnblad. And the first day on the set of “Hairspray,” I didn’t recognize him. I thought it was another neighborhood woman watching the shoot. We were filming in East Baltimore, and all the housewives were talking to him. Divine looked normal, not weird. It was a moment of truth. It was so anti-the-Divine-character that we started with. Divine said, “Nobody can call me a drag queen, because what drag queen would allow themselves to look like this?”
If there’s a template, that’s it for everybody who has played the role of Edna. And they’ve all taken that to heart. Edna Turnblad isn’t a drag-queen part. It has become a tradition for men to play her, as with Peter Pan, where it is always played by a woman. Why, I don’t know. It gives it an edge. It’s all about outsiders. Divine played Edna realistically. The movie (1988) I made was actually realistic.
Harvey Fierstein made the role his own. God only knows, his voice is his own. And he sings! You have to sing it out. Everything has to be bigger onstage. Harvey, though, always played it as a real woman.