Mary Vivian Pearce gives John Waters's early films peroxide glamour and an understated delivery amid the commotion. We value the contrast, though his later films give her too little to do.
Fi1m perspective
In Pink Flamingos (1972), Mary Vivian Pearce's Cotton wears fur in company where respectability is hardly the priority. The peroxide-blonde glamour is part of the joke, but so is her relatively understated delivery beside the more flamboyant performers. John Waters makes use of that difference: she gives us someone quieter to watch without making the company seem any less peculiar. We rate her as a distinctive supporting presence, rather than a reason on her own to recommend the film. Cotton's voyeurism puts a useful limit on any temptation to mistake the blonde for an innocent.
We laughed when Divine took charge in Pink Flamingos, because the comedy offered more than another attempt to disgust us. Pearce supplies a quieter contrast, but she cannot do much about the repetitive gags or the crude images. There is pleasure in a performer who need not compete to be the loudest person in the scene. The film still earns only a qualified recommendation for the curious, and her contribution should not be inflated to conceal that.
Her work with Waters began with Hag in a Black Leather Jacket (1964), before the more prominent parts in his early features. Multiple Maniacs (1970) belongs to that first stretch, followed by Cotton and then Donna Dasher in Female Trouble (1974). As Donna, she is paired with David Lochary as a wealthy, amoral salon owner, giving the glamour a nastier purpose. Desperate Living (1977) gives her Princess Coo-Coo, one of her last major roles.
By Hairspray (1988), where she plays the Hairhopper Mother, the prominent early parts have given way to brief appearances. The continuity is pleasing, but a familiar face in a brief appearance offers little evidence of what an actor can do. Her early deadpan and glamour give us more to consider than the later cameos, which have little effect on the plot. Waters plainly found a lasting place for her; we wish he had left her more to play. Do not choose the later films just to see her.
Biography
Mary Vivian Pearce is an American actress. She is a childhood friend of filmmaker John Waters and has appeared in every one of his films, from the 1964 short Hag in a Black Leather Jacket onwards, as a core member of his regular ensemble, the Dreamlanders. She is also known by the name Bonnie.
Her roles include Cotton in Pink Flamingos (1972), Donna Dasher in Female Trouble (1974) and Princess Coo-Coo in Desperate Living (1977). She has taken smaller parts or cameos in later Waters films such as Hairspray (1988), Cry-Baby (1990), Serial Mom (1994), Pecker (1998), Cecil B. Demented (2000) and A Dirty Shame (2004). Pearce studied creative writing and has lived in Baltimore.
