divine played tracy's mom in the original hairspray.
who plays tracy's mom in the original hairspray?
divine
after finishing his work on "trouble in mind", divine again became involved with a john waters project, the film "hairspray" (1988). set in baltimore during the 1960s, "hairspray" revolved around self-proclaimed "pleasantly plump" teenager tracy turnblad as she pursues stardom as a dancer on a local television show and rallies against racial segregation. as he had in waters's earlier film "female trouble", divine took on two roles in the film, one of which was female and the other male. the first of these, edna turnblad, was tracy's loving mother; divine would later note that with this character he could not be accurately described as a drag queen, proclaiming "what drag queen would allow herself to look like this? i look like half the women from baltimore." his second character in the film was that of the racist television station owner arvin hodgepile. in one interview, divine admitted that he had hoped to play both the role of mother and daughter in "hairspray", but that the producers had been "a bit leery" and chose ricki lake for the latter role instead. divine went on to state his opinion on lake, jokingly telling the interviewer that "she is nineteen and delightful. i hate her." in reality they had become good friends while working together on set. reviews of the film were predominantly positive, with divine in particular being singled out for praise; several commentators expressed their opinion that the film marked divine's breakthrough into mainstream cinema. he subsequently took his mother to the film's premier in the miami film festival before she once more accompanied him to the baltimore premier, this time also with several of his other relatives. after the screening, a party was held at the baltimore museum of art, where frances milstead granted an impromptu interview to the english film critic jonathan ross, a friend and fan of divine's.
divine (performer)
dani harmer plays the title character, tracy beaker, while montanna thompson plays her arch-enemy justine littlewood. justine's best friend, louise govern, is played by chelsie padley and a young boy that looks up to tracy, peter ingham, is played by joe starrs. the eldest resident, adele azupadi, is played by rochelle gadd and the youngest resident, maxy, is played by jerome holder. sonny muslim and jay haher play twin brothers ryan and zac matthews. nisha nayar plays the residents' social worker, elaine boyak - nicknamed 'elaine the pain' by the children - and clive rowe plays stowey house's chef, duke ellington. sharlene whyte and connor byrne play careworkers, jenny edwards and mike milligan, with jenny being head care worker. lisa coleman plays tracy's potential foster parent, cam lawson and luke youngblood plays tracy's friend, ben batambuze, whom she befriends in the series premiere. stephen crossley guest stars as justine's father, steve.
the story of tracy beaker (series 1)