John Goodman revealed that his longtime former co-star Roseanne Barr probably doesn’t want to hear from him—and that they haven’t spoken in years.
Goodman was asked whether or not he’d spoken with Barr since the Roseanne spinoff The Conners aired its series finale earlier this year. “No. I’d rather doubt if she wants to talk to me,” he told The Hollywood Reporter, before revealing, “We haven’t talked for about seven or eight years.”
Barr has become a confrontational and controversial figure since her firing from the ABC reboot of her sitcom just about seven years ago 2018 for likening a Black Barack Obama aide to a Planet of the Apes character online. Barr has since taken back her public apology for the social media post, and said earlier this year that “God” told her to write it.
Goodman, who played her character’s husband on the show starting with its 1988 pilot and acted alongside Barr for 10 seasons, including her brief stint in its reboot, defended his co-star amid the controversy at the time.
“I was surprised at the response,” he told The Times that year. “And that’s probably all I should say about that… I know for a fact that she’s not a racist.”
That said, he barely sugarcoated his comments that seemed to confirm rumors that working with Barr was no walk in the park. “She was a force of nature when it came to getting what she wanted,” he said. “We were work friends,” he also told The Times in the past tense after her firing.
Goodman also revealed then that he’d reached out to “thank” Barr for signing over the rights to the show so it could continue without her as The Conners, but “I did not hear anything back.”
On Friday, Goodman confirmed that the iciness between the stars has remained. As Barr’s name has become synonymous with her devotion to Donald Trump and MAGA and her disdain for Hollywood, Goodman reflected on the nation’s “political divide.”
“I think the damage has been done by the news cycle,” he said. “There’s always been a stigma about being an actor, and they’ll label anything as Hollywood,” he said. “It was purposefully exploited because people will hate anything that’s different. ‘These people are freaks. They’re rich. They don’t care about you.’”
“That’s not the standard,” he added, but admitted, “There are a lot of loons in the business.”
