Earlier this year, Roseanne Barr's recently revived ABC sitcom Roseanne was abruptly canceled when she directed a racist tweet at Barack Obama's former senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. In a new interview with The Sunday Times, Barr's co-star John Goodman has opened up about his thoughts on the whole situation after previously keeping silent in the immediate aftermath.
"I was brokenhearted, but I thought, 'OK, it's just show business, I'm going to get it go,'" he said. "But I went through a period, about a month, where I was very depressed. I'm a depressive anyway, so any excuse that I can get to lower myself, I will. But that had a great deal to do with it, more than I wanted to admit."
Not only did he explain how he felt when the news was announced, he also took a moment to defend his co-star. "I know, I know, for a fact that she's not a racist," he explained. "She had to sign a paper saying that she relinquished all her rights to the show so that we could go on," he said, referencing ABC's upcoming spinoff show, The Conners. "I sent her an email and thanked her for that. I did not hear anything back, but she was going through hell at the time. And she’s still going through hell.”
As for his reaction when the cancellation was initially announced, he says he was "surprised." He later says of Roseanne that him and her are "work friends," but didn't say much more. He did, however, hint at Barr's character being killed off in The Conners, teasing, "I guess he'll [Goodman's character on the show, Dan Conner] be mopey and sad because his wife's dead."
