Film director John Waters makes the kind of movies his own parents would rather die than watch.

When the sultan of shock cinema told his mother that his next film would detail the exploits of blue-collar sex addicts, her response was, “Maybe we’ll die first.”

But Waters, who for decades has been pushing the boundaries of taste and testing audience tolerance for raunch, told a Kansas University audience Tuesday night that he would like to be a role model.

“Everybody young needs somebody bad to look up to,” he said. “I hope I can be that for some of you tonight. Kind of a filth elder, if you will.”

Before a packed house at Woodruff Auditorium, Waters delivered a quick-cadence, comedic rendition of his rise from watching flicks at a neighborhood movie theater in Baltimore to making independent films that have elevated him to icon status.

Waters’ directing and acting credits include “Hairspray,” “Pink Flamingos,” “Polyester,” “Serial Mom,” “Pecker” and “Cecil B. Demented.” His movies often go beyond raising eyebrows to sending people stomping out of theaters mid-show.

But good art probably should offend at least some sensibilities, Waters said. In fact, sex and violence should be a part of any budding filmmaker’s first movie, he told a group of film students earlier in the day.

“But you have to do it in a new way,” he said, opining that production companies are now more open to edgy ideas than they were when he first entered the scene in the 1960s. “In a way, it’s much freer for young people today. They (producers) are looking for the next little weird movie to come out of Kansas.”

Waters said he was optimistic about the future of independent film and eager to see how the next generation of filmmakers would respond to Hollywood’s recent willingness to embrace off-beat cinema.

“Now Hollywood makes it. When they make it, it’s really over,” he said. “That’s always the mystery of what the next generation is going to do.”

Waters signed copies of his books and movies and posed for photographs with fans Tuesday afternoon at Oread Books. James Hollaman drove from Independence, Mo., to meet the man whose career he’s been following for years.

“He doesn’t do things the normal way,” Hollaman said of Waters. “His movies go very obscure, very underground.”

KU film student Craig Brase said he had been a huge Waters fan since he was young.

“He’s pretty much paved the way for a lot of independent filmmakers,” the Shawnee junior said.

Olathe senior Jeff Ruggles doesn’t really care for any of Waters’ films, yet he wanted to see for himself the man William Burroughs once dubbed the “Pope of Trash.”

“It’s John Waters,” Ruggles said, as if the name alone were somehow mythical. “Listening to him speak made me want to go watch his films again.

“I like his spirit. He’s very trashy, but at the same time, he cares about the trash.”