In a brief profile in British publication the Times on Sunday, actor John Goodman finally weighed in on the controversy from earlier this spring that saw his former costar Roseanne Barr fired from her eponymous show’s revival after making a racist comment on Twitter.
Barr was ousted from Roseanne after comparing Valerie Jarrett, a former Barack Obama White House official, to an ape.
President of ABC, Channing Dungey, called Barr’s comment “abhorrent, repugnant, and inconsistent with our values.”
Subsequently the show was canceled, but that was short-lived as it was revived just weeks later, sporting a new name: The Conners.
That show will debut this coming fall without Barr.
Goodman told the newspaper that he “was surprised” by how the network handled Barr’s transgression, and he maintained that he knows “for a fact that she’s not a racist.”
The actor also said that he was “broken-hearted” and went through a month where he was “very depressed” about the situation.
After Barr was let go, Goodman said he thanked her in an email for relinquishing “all her rights to the show so that we could go on.”
“I did not hear anything back, but she was going through hell at the time,” Goodman said.
“And she’s still going through hell.”
“It’s an unknown,” said Goodman, talking about how his character, Dan Conner, will move forward with Barr being absent. “I guess he’ll be mopey and sad because his wife’s dead.”
