I interviewed Sandra Bernhard for The A.V. Club. Here's a part of it that didn't end up in the final version. It's about "The King of Comedy."
AVC: How did you get the role in "The King of Comedy"?[Read it]
SB: Along with about 500 actresses, I managed to sneak in there and meet with the casting director, a friend of mine, actually, hooked it up, and I went in there and improvised a bunch of stuff. Then I went out to meet with Scorsese and De Niro, and then they came to see me perform, and then they flew me to New York, and I auditioned with Jerry Lewis, so it was like a two-month, long, protracted experience, and then when I got it, of course, I was like over the moon. Then when I filmed it, it was equally exciting and inspiring. I think the film holds up as a real precursor to everything that’s happened in our culture. The man who wrote it, Paul Zimmerman, was so prescient. I mean, who could ever have imagined how crazy things really would go in terms of celebrity in our culture? He just really busted it open. It still is a benchmark film in that whole idea of reality television, and how anybody will do anything to become famous.