From pioneering the one-woman show to portraying one of television’s first openly bisexual characters on “Roseanne,” Sandra Bernhard’s never shied away from the spotlight. The actor, comedian and singer has proudly broken barriers for fellow LGBTQ artists for decades.
In recent years, Bernhard has used her platform to advocate for equity and equality as the host of SiriusXM’s “Sandyland,” her radio show launched under Andy Cohen’s Radio Andy in 2015. She also returned to her groundbreaking “Roseanne” role for its 10th and final season ahead of the reboot’s 2018 cancellation, prompted by its titular star’s racist tweets.
The entertainer appeared on another groundbreaking series that year, FX’s “Pose,” in a role that expanded throughout the drama’s three seasons. She played Nurse Judy Kubrak, who ran the AIDS ward in 1980s New York and organized for LGBTQ rights beside the show’s other stars, the largest cast of transgender actors to ever lead a series.
Now, Bernhard is heading back to her roots and hitting the road again. She’ll bring her unique mix of cabaret, stand-up, rock-n-roll and social commentary to a live stage performance at The Palladium on June 12, a key part of St Pete Pride’s 20th anniversary programming.
“So delighted to come shake up Florida,” she announced in April. “We’re coming to save the gay!”
Watermark spoke with Bernhard ahead of her St Pete Pride set about her breaking barriers, returning to the stage and more.
WATERMARK: We last spoke when you performed in Orlando for Gay Days 2016. A lot has changed since then, so what are your thoughts on the last few years and where do you find yourself now?
SANDRA BERNHARD: I’ve spent the last six years deeply concerned. Between the government and gun violence, and women’s reproductive rights, and LGBTQ rights, which are always being threatened. The list is a mile long; there’s an environmental disaster looming on the horizon. We’re all day-to-day, you know, and what can you do?
You can’t help but be concerned and feel emotion about it. And try to do the best you can as a performer and as an artist to speak out about it to support the people who are in the trenches really doing the hard work. So that’s a big part of my life.
But you know, also a bigger part is being creative – writing and staying connected to humor and fun and celebration. I think that as artists, especially somebody who does comedy, that’s part of our job, to elevate and lift people up. I try to do that every week on my radio show “Sandyland” on Sirius XM, I do it when I perform.
I’m also a mother and my daughter graduated from college, and my partner is a very creative person. She just started a big job a couple years ago, so we’ve been full on. Then of course, COVID and being at home and being vigilant by taking care of ourselves and respecting people around us by getting vaccinated and wearing masks; doing what we need to do to keep other people healthy, even though people seem to fight that. If anybody has extra time or energy to fight protecting their fellow man, then God bless them. I don’t know what they’re not doing, but they’re obviously not doing much of anything.
So this is all very longwinded, but as opposed to stopping and starting I just thought I’d just jump right in and give you an overview of where I’m at … and where I’m at right now is I’m excited to be going back on the road, doing my shows. It’s been a very, very, very creative time for me despite all the limitations. I’ve really kept my mojo going.
You’ve done that as an actor, author, comedian, radio show host, singer and more. What do you find comes the most naturally for you?
Well, I think being funny and being a performer, obviously, because that’s something that I’ve just done naturally since I was a little kid. I always knew how to engage, whether it was with my brothers and my family or friends or at school. So having an audience has always been what I’ve needed.
I love to get up in front of people, entertain and sort of take people by surprise to cover the whole sort of gambit of what I’m capable of doing as a performer. I think that’s definitely what comes easiest for me.
What’s the most challenging?
As an actor it’s harder because I’m very improvisational, and even when I write a show, there’s so much room in there night to night to mix it up. So as an actor, when you have to stay on your lines, hit your marks and be present with another artist, it’s hard sometimes, because it’s fun for me to stand on stage and space out and like, go on these flights of fancy. But you can’t do that in a film or television, so that can require a little more discipline than sometimes I like. But it works another muscle which is good, too.
You’ve broken a lot of ground as an actor, particularly on “Roseanne” which in the 90s was ahead of its time with LGBTQ representation. What message do you have for fans who have a difficult time reconciling their love for the show with its creator’s personal views?
Well, it’s not hard to reconcile now because Roseanne’s been totally erased from the show. They’ve erased her from their life on [ABC’s sequel series] “The Conners,” which I find totally bizarre. Roseanne created the show. Roseanne was the backbone of the show. She was their mother and the wife and everything, and she’s just gone? She’s gone as Roseanne the artist, the person, and she’s gone as Roseanne the mother in the story? I mean, the whole thing is totally bizarre. I have a hard time reconciling it, so I don’t really have any advice for people watching the show at this point.
Even though I’m disappointed in Roseanne, and I know she has certain issues emotionally, I still believe that she was the person who created that show – and honestly, that when she went off the rails that the show should have ended. I don’t think it’s fair to her or the audience that it exists in its present state without her in it, or at all. I don’t know, it’s a mixed bag.
But I guess if they called me tomorrow and said, “Hey, we’ll pay you like $500,000 an episode,” maybe I’d go back to it. I don’t know. I mean, I really like everybody on the show so it’s hard to criticize, because everybody wants to work. It’s a very complicated, multi-layered situation.
Do you still talk to Roseanne?
I don’t. I haven’t talked to her in ages. I’m sure if I reached out, maybe she would respond, I don’t know. I’m just sort of afraid to talk to her to tell you the truth. I don’t want to get into a fight with her about where I stand with things. I just don’t understand how she could possibly have turned into a [supporter of former President Donald Trump.] I mean, it just doesn’t make any sense to me. It’s hard for everybody. For those of us who were friends with her and still care about her, the whole thing is just cockeyed. It’s just very upsetting.
The legacy of the show remains. When you look back on such early LGBTQ representation, what does it mean to you now?
I think the most important thing was that it was really, really fun. It was done with such candor and such wit that it kind of broke through in so many ways. It wasn’t hitting you over the head with the obvious, yet the message was there. I just thought, what a great way of presenting the whole idea of gayness and the sort of nonchalantness of it all. I just loved the way it was all done and presented.
“Pose” was another groundbreaking show for LGBTQ representation, elevating a part of our community that doesn’t get the spotlight enough.
Right!
What drew you to the project and what was that experience like?
Who wouldn’t have been drawn to the project? It was hard to find a role there for somebody like me because everyone was trans or a person of color, so the fact that there was a role that had impact – playing a nurse in the AIDS ward – was just such a no brainer.
Of course I was going to jump in and do that, or anything that [“Pose” Co-Creator, Executive Producer and Writer] Ryan Murphy puts his print on or just everybody involved with it, like [Co-Creator, Executive Producer, Writer and Director] Steven Canals and [Co-Executive Producer and Writer] Our Lady J and all the wonderful writers.
Just the inclusivity of it was just so exciting and so fresh. It was just fun. It was always fun to be on the set. The people were groovy. It was just a great, wonderful, very familial experience, like “Roseanne” in its way.
What was it like to see it end?
I think had it not been for COVID, it might have had another season, but it got truncated with all the COVID rules and they had to kind of wind it down. You know, historically it had its limitations, so it made sense that it ended when it did, but I just think if we had been on schedule, they probably could have gotten one more season. But you have to move on and you tell your stories. You try to tell them to their completion and then it’s on to the next.
It was a real highlight for me in my career. It sort of brought full circle the experience and the memories of being in the AIDS trenches with all my friends who died, and some who survived, but not many. It was a beautiful tribute to that time, to the resilience of the whole LGBTQ world and how it brought everybody together. It’s interesting to watch the evolution of different marginalized communities and how we get on our feet and how we grow from it and evolve and mature. I think that’s what you take away from all of it.
Do you have any plans to work with Ryan Murphy again?
I do. It may be a little bit premature, something is coming up very soon, but because they haven’t announced it yet I won’t. But I’m 99%, if not 100%, sure that I’ll be involved in another show of his coming up this summer.
Before then you’ll help St Pete Pride mark 20 years. Why are you excited to join the celebration?
First of all, I think right now Florida – for the LGBTQ community – has been very, very incendiary and challenging with [Governor Ron] DeSantis’ attacks. It’s so cynical and so cheap. I mean, I’m sure that he’s not in any way, shape or form really anti-LGBTQ, he’s just using [Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” law] to appease his base. And I don’t even believe that the base really cares that much. It’s just always a constant deflection on the right to find cheap tropes, to pull focus from what really matters.
So it’ll be fun to be down there and just say, “hey, you know what? We’re here, we’re not going anywhere. This is post-revolution and you can’t push it back. It’s just not going to happen.” Also, just to know that you just look at people and they come and they go, they float in, they float out. These moments, these cultural firestorms, they come up with the community and through our unity, smartness and fight, we put out the fires. So it’s just great to come down there right now to just have a fabulous Pride.
What else excites you about performing live right now?
I think it’s more important than ever, because after two years of people being isolated and communicating virtually and watching every known TV show and film alone in their house, you want to be in a live situation. There’s just nothing like it. It is a communing with your entertainer and your artists. As much as the artists give, the audience receives and it’s a flow. It’s just such an incredible experience every time I get on stage and I know whenever I go to see some of my favorite performers, how inspired I am. It’s something you look back on for years and think about that night, and there’s just kind of nothing else like it really.
What fans can expect from your set?
Well, I’m coming down with Mitch Kaplan, my musical director, so it will be musical, it’ll be eclectic. It’ll be covering lots and lots of topics and thoughts and fun and a little introspective. It’s just a classic Sandra Bernhard show but up to date, up to the moment and sort of taking you on a little tour of my life in the past couple of years to where we’re all at right now.
What else do you want readers to know?
The most important thing is that we are coming together in a time where it’s starting to feel oppressive again. So just remember that we control the narrative and that nobody can take that away from us. We have to stay unified and really on top of things politically, and also support other people on the margins and always remember that it’s not just us, it’s a global experience, like when you look at Ukraine and all the people around the world who are really being just crushed. It’s more important than ever to be there for each other.
Sandra Bernhard will be performing at The Palladium June 12 as a part of St Pete Pride’s series of events leading up to its parade and festival June 25.
