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AE: One of the things that your fans really connected to in WYIN was definitely your talking about your parents and especially your Mom. Everyone loves your mom in that show.
SB: Yeah, it’s a great character.

AE: Just your imitation of her chocking on those dusty mints…
SB: Ah ha, ah ha, absolutely.

AE: What are your parents up to now?
SB: My Mom lives in Arizona, and she’s still doing her art and she’s great.

AE: Did she ever get remarried?
SB: No. My Dad’s been remarried a couple of times.

AE: What kind of art does your Mom do? Does she paint?
SB: She’s done everything over the years--sculpture and painting and photography. She does abstract work.

AE: How did your Mom feel about being immortalized choking on mints?
SB: Oh, she loved it. She thinks it’s great.

AE: 15 years ago we were on the tail end of Reagonomics, we were in the first George Bush era, and in WYIN you sing the Sylvester song “Do you wanna funk” and talk about this gay through line of gays in music and art and televangelists like Jimmy Falwell and Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker kind of fighting it.
SB: Yeah.

AE: 15 years later is it better or is it worse, because it seems like now the pulpit has quieted and now it’s actually the administration doing most of the damage.
SB: We’re in a much more regressive time than we even were then, because it’s definitely trickled into the policy-making of our government, and I think it’s much more potent and dangerous and ignorant and I think it’s affected a lot of younger minds and people who should be evolved and much freer. I think it’s really done some serious damage.

AE: Do you think part of it is that in those 15 years, gays have not only gained acceptance but progressed into gay and lesbian moms and dads…
SB: Yeah.

AE: …And people want to get married and there’s domestic partnership and you can legally marry in Massachusetts. I think because we’ve grown so much that the backlash or whatever you want to call it is trying to slow it down. I don’t know if it’s just a bump in the road or if it’s really going to do harm.
SB: People have got to step back from it, and try to have a much wider view of culture and you know where we’re at as a society. I think that it’s going to take a lot of educating.

AE: What do you think of that argument against gay marriage, what will the next thing be you can marry a kid or a goat?
SB: It’s kind of stupid, how can you even address that as a thinking person? It’s just ignorant.

AE: In WYIN you talk about being younger and seeing the ideal, this white bread, American, Christian, wanting to have your mom bake a ham for Christmas and sing carols or something.
SB: Yes.

AE: So has the appeal of that worn off at all?
SB: Very much so. I was much more fascinated by that in my 20’s and 30’s then I am now.

AE: What was the change?
SB: I guess you just kind of observe it, and then all of a sudden it doesn’t seem to really hold all that much glamour anymore. But it was funny, I think everybody can kind of relate to it.

AE: Do you observe or celebrate any of those holidays that aren’t Jewish with your family?
SB: No, not in my family.

AE: So as far as if your daughter (seven year old Cicely) wanted to have a Christmas tree or any of that.
SB: No, no. I mean my girlfriend (and) I always get like a little living tree. It’s chic and cute, but no, there’s no religious celebration, my girlfriend’s definitely not attached to any of that.

AE: At the end of the movie you’re draped in the American flag, at the time what kind of reaction did you get to it?
SB: I had a bunch of people ripping me off.

AE: You mean doing it also?
SB: Yeah.

AE: Were you trying with the flag that you’re part of the cultural landscape too.
SB: Yeah, and here we are, we’re all under the same flag you know and we’re all supposed to be protected by it and we’re all vulnerable because of it.

AE: You reference Warren Beatty in WYIN and say, “Nobody ever promised you it would be easy being celebrity communists." You’re kind of in that realm basically.
SB: Yes.

AE: So is it still difficult or is it a good position to be in nonetheless?
SB: Yeah, of course it is, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

Sandra Bernhard’s performance schedule, merchandise, photos, blog and more can be found on her official website sandrabernhard.com

Lydia Marcus has been a Film Critic and Entertainment Journalist since 1994. This native Los Angeleno has written numerous cover stories for Frontiers (where she serves as Senior Film Critic), Girlfriends, the Lesbian News (LN), and has contributed articles and photos to Los Angeles Times Calendar Section, AOL City Guide Los Angeles, The Advocate, indiewire.com, and many more sites and publications devoted to independent and queer film.

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