Bette Midler Talks To Rolling Stone Magazine

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BETTE MIDLER
The acclaimed act­ress, comic, and singer, 80, on find­ing her way to star­dom, the love of the gay com­munity, and fight­ing Trump
Rolling Stone (USA)
Inter­view by CT JONES
2 Jun 2026

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Photo by VNina: Stephen Colbert with Bette Midler at his wrap party, the final night

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BETTE MIDLER
The acclaimed act­ress, comic, and singer, 80, on find­ing her way to star­dom, the love of the gay com­munity, and fight­ing Trump
Rolling Stone (USA)
Inter­view by CT JONES
2 Jun 2026


“I wanted to be up there in the light.”


What was the moment you thought act­ing might be for you?
The first time I ever saw a show, I was about 14 years old. I was help­ing the lib­rar­ian of my school col­late books. She didn’t pay us, but she gave us two tick­ets to see a show. It was [Rodgers and Ham­mer­stein’s] Carou­sel. The cur­tain went up, and the lights went on, and I just couldn’t believe what I was see­ing. I never for­got it. I wanted to be up there in the light.

When did you have an ink­ling you could make a liv­ing at it?
I went to col­lege as a drama major, but only las­ted about a year. I was cast in [the 1966 film] Hawaii, with Max von Sydow and Julie Andrews, and they brought me to L.A. along with a bunch of other loc­als. And I thought, “Oh, I can man­age this.” I earned enough money on that movie to move to New York. I star­ted going to audi­tions on Broad­way, and I got into Fid­dler on the Roof.

In the early Sev­en­ties, you star­ted per­form­ing at the Con­tin­ental Baths, a gay bath­house in New York. How did that come about?
One day, I got a call from my old act­ing teacher. He asked me if I wanted to sing at the baths. And I said, “What’s the baths?” When I was in Fid­dler, I was work­ing for $200 a week and I had asked them for a

$25 raise, and they said, “Never.” He told me what [the baths] paid, and I dropped everything. I put the show on in the gay bath­house. I would be my most out­rageous self. When I went on the stage in front of all those gays, they threw their hands up and screamed. And it was great fun. We went from 30 people in the house to hun­dreds. Because it was such an odd venue, and trans­gress­ive in those days, we were a huge hit.

As a young woman in show­biz, how did you look out for your­self?
I got a very aggress­ive man­ager named Aaron Russo. He thought I was the greatest thing, and he just pushed, pushed, pushed on my behalf. I was so grate­ful. We were a team. I was really not a schmoozer, so he did all the social­iz­ing. That went very well until it didn’t go very well. Things between us got very feisty because he wanted 50 per­cent. I’m dumb, but I’m not that dumb. I know 50 per­cent means half, and I didn’t think that was fair. Sure, he was doing the schmooz­ing, but I was doing the sweat­ing in high heels. So I said, “Abso­lutely not. You’re fired.”

Given how close you became with the gay com­munity, how did it feel to wit­ness the AIDS epi­demic?
That was one of the worst things that ever happened to me. I must have lost 200 people that I knew, many close friends. It’s funny, the older I am, the angrier I get — the cruelty of it, that the gov­ern­ment didn’t do any­thing. Five hun­dred thou­sand people were dead before they did any­thing. It’s uncon­scion­able.

Do you think that exper­i­ence is why you’re so dir­ect about call­ing out the gov­ern­ment now — includ­ing Pres­id­ent Trump?
I lived in New York dur­ing Don­ald Trump’s [rise], and every­one in the city felt the same way about him. Every­body knew his game, and every­body thought he was hil­ari­ously dubi­ous. Every­body just thought he was a joke. So why do I feel like it’s my duty? Because I know what the truth is. When I see someone who’s not just undeserving, but incom­pet­ent, it infuri­ates me.

What are some roles that you wish you hadn’t turned down?
I turned down Misery. I [didn’t] think I wanted to have it on film that I cut off someone’s foot, because audi­ences identify the actor with the event. My hus­band still says I’m a damn fool. And I turned down Sis­ter Act because I said, “My fans don’t want to see me in a wimple.” And Whoopi [Gold­berg] said, “Bring on the god­damn wimple.”

What’s the first lav­ish pur­chase you made with show­biz money?
It must have been shoes. When I was a kid, I had one pair of saddle shoes I wore year after year after year until my feet got too big for them, and then I got another pair. So, I coveted high heels. I star­ted col­lect­ing heels and vin­tage clothes. As far as a huge pur­chase, I think it was my house. I bought it in 1980, and I’m still there.

Who’s inspired you?
Female com­ics! Phyl­lis Diller and Joan Rivers, who are not just inspir­a­tions, but who lif­ted me when I was in the doldrums. I can’t wait to join them in that big com­edy club in the sky.

What are some rules you live by?
Fair­ness. Be fair. Not just a day’s work for a day’s pay, but also don’t put your­self above any­body. And after that, kind­ness. My dad was a fuck­ing house painter. My mom stayed in the house. I wore homemade clothes until she dis­covered the Sal­va­tion Army. That stuff imprints itself on you. I identify with the work­ing class, and I don’t intend to budge. I want there to be a middle class. I want people to thrive. I want people to be treated fairly. These assholes treat them­selves really well, but treat every­body else like shit. What kind of a world is that?