John Goodman Doesn’t Regret Standing Up For Roseanne Barr After Racist Tweet Controversy: ‘I Felt Bad For Her’

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Actor John Goodman has no regrets about defending former costar Roseanne Barr after she sent out a racist tweet in 2018 leading to the cancellation of the pair’s TV reboot of Rosanne.

The comments came from a Variety interview with Goodman at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival where Goodman was promoting the third season of his HBO show The Righteous Gemstones.

During the interview, he was asked about the 2018 reboot of the 90’s sitcom, Roseanne, which was cancelled after Barr posted a racist tweet about former President Barack Obama’s aide Valerie Jarrett, referring to her as the offspring of the “Muslim Brotherhood & Planet of the Apes.”

The show would eventually be rebooted again as The Conners, with Barr’s character killed off.

Goodman recalled defending Barr during the backlash she faced after making the post.

“I was surprised at the response. And that’s probably all I should say about that … I know for a fact that she’s not a racist,” Goodman told The Sunday Times back in 2018.

Even now, years later, Goodman says he still has no regrets about his decision to speak up for Barr.

“No. At the time I remember going to some kind of junket where they saw the pilot, and then the interviews, and it just turned into attack. And that made me very uncomfortable with them just attacking Roseanne,” he told Variety. “Yeah, I felt bad for her. I just feel terrible about the whole thing. We had a great time. And I love her. She’s just her own person.”

But whether the pair would ever reunite for a project is up in the air.

“I don’t know. If she’d liked to…I just don’t know. I miss her. I wish her well,” Goodman said.