Actress, singer, and activist Sandra Bernhard is going on tour! The triple threat has already had a huge year, appearing on some of the hottest shows on television like RuPaul’s Drag Race, Severance, and Survival of the Thickest. Now, the LGBTQ icon is hitting the road for her Shapes and Forms tour!
Bernhard joined GLAAD’s Anthony Allen Ramos to talk about this busy whirlwind year she’s having!
She talks a bit about her upcoming tour, sharing that the show will include “wonderful little monologues that lead in and out of songs that I’ve been excited about covering.” She adds that on top of the music and comedy, “Then, of course there’s commentary about what’s going on in our country and in the world.”
She adds that while it’s of the utmost importance to her to use her platform to speak out against injustice, “I never like to like to hit people over the head with that because they’re getting a deluge every day of stupidity, of the ignorance of the shocking disregard for democracy… It’s all shocking, it’s all horrible, but at the same time, I want to entertain people and lift them out of it.”
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Bernhard also speaks about how excited she is for her upcoming Best of Sandra Bernhard shows at Café Carlyle in NYC! She shares that these shows, taking place April 29th – May 3rd, are “a more musical show. It’s hit songs that I’ve always wanted to cover, with a little bit of chit chat and commentary, but more music heavy than the other shows.”
Without spoiling too much, she reveals a song she has always wanted to cover is Hello by Lionel Richie.
With Apple TV+’s Severance easily being the most talked about series of 2025, Bernhard, who played a nurse at Lumon named Cecily, talks a bit about what it was like getting to be a part of that project. She shares that she had no idea what a huge success the season would be, “We shot it a year ago and when you’re in it, when you’re on the set, when you’re working, you don’t really think about it. You immerse yourself in whatever that scene is… it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, I’m a part of this iconic show.'”
She explains, “I was really excited, but more important to me was that I brought something different and unique to the role, which is why they wanted me to do it to begin with. And I really feel like it came off and I’m very excited about that.”
Bernhard also appears in the second season of Netflix’s Survival of the Thickest. On working with the show’s star and creator Michelle Buteau, she says, “I love her advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community, for her own community, and the crossover. She’s just groovy and fabulous and fearless. She’s somebody who I think is very in line with my whole take on comedy… and being totally comfortable with who she is and that to me is worth its weight in gold.”
On top of all this, Bernhard appeared as a guest judge on this season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. She spoke a bit about her love for drag queens. “When I first came to LA, I was very involved with the drag world. It’s always been second nature to me to be in that community.” She adds that, “I think that drag is such an important way of disseminating the unsophisticated aspects of our society. What I like the best about drag is the fierceness and the confidence.”
She explains that to her, drag is telling the world; “F*ck you, I’m fabulous, and nothing’s gonna stop me.” It breaks her heart to see this rise in anti-LGBTQ legislation and anti-drag hate, “I think this whole absurd use of trying to destroy that community through drag, or anti drag, is just so just dumb, it’s just dumb.”
She is hopeful for the future of LGBTQ Americans, despite the current administration’s constant attacks. “I think the important thing to remember is that we’ve come so far.” She adds that, “The people that are advocates and allies, we’re all still here. Nobody’s moved… We’re entrenched in rights for everybody. You have to know that everything is cyclical and we’ll move out of this and get back to a more comfortable place in our society.”
To close, she teases a bit about her role in Josh Safdie’s upcoming film Marty Supreme, where she stars alongside Timothée Chalamet, Fran Drescher, and Gwyneth Paltrow. She shares, “Josh Safdie who directed it, is just a funny, kind of loose cannon kind of guy but, he really has a vision.” She doesn’t say much, as the team is excited “to leave a little element of surprise.”
Don’t miss Sandra Bernhard on tour in a city near you! Get tickets here. RuPaul’s Drag Race, Severance, and Survival of the Thickest are all streaming now!
