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John Goodman is getting real about the downside of starring in one of the biggest sitcoms of all time.
During a conversation with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, the 74-year-old actor admitted he was “frightened” by the level of fame he achieved following his starring role in “Roseanne” and other projects.
When asked what his biggest pitfalls were that he wished he would have foreseen, he replied he wished he would have understood fame better.
“I wish I would have taken to it better,” he said. “I didn’t. I was frightened … I’m my own worst enemy, by far.”
Earlier in the conversation with interviewer Joe Neumaier, Goodman was asked about the way his career picked up in the late ‘80s and early ’90s, and how he shifted from being a more independent actor to being a celebrity.
“It changed,'” he said. “That’s when I was told, ‘You better get a publicist and get a hold of this stuff.’ And I just … I had a bad time dealing with how famous I got all of a sudden, and just [said], ‘Well, that ain’t me.'”
He added, “It took a long time to deal with it, so I got that out of the way. But just the negotiations you have to go through, the things you have to do to sell a film, they’re not ideal, but they need to be done. People put a lot of money into these things, and let’s help each other out and get this done. They have a job to do, and you have to support it.”
At another point in the interview, Goodman shared he agreed to do “Roseanne” “to quit living out of a suitcase,” adding that he “hit it off with [Roseanne Barr] immediately, to the point where, and not in an arrogant way, I just knew when I left that I had the job.”
“Roseanne” aired on ABC for nine seasons from 1988 to 1997, releasing 222 episodes in its first run and winning four Emmy Awards.
“At the time, the hot shows in television were all wealth porn, like ‘Dynasty,’ ‘Dallas,’ stuff like that. And we were sober reality,” he said. “Rose said something early on that ‘just because we’re poor doesn’t make us stupid.’ And the reason that family stayed together was because of laughter and obvious love. And I think that showed on the screen in a real way.”
Following his time on “Roseanne,” Goodman starred in many successful movies, including “The Flintstones,” “The Big Lebowski,” “Monsters Inc.” and others, before returning to the role of Dan Conner in the “Roseanne” reboot in 2018.
While successful, the reboot only lasted one season, as it was quickly canceled after Barr made a racist statement on social media in reference to President Barack Obama’s senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett.
Just a few weeks later, ABC announced that the show’s cast would be returning for a new spin-off, “The Conners,” without Barr. The show aired for 112 episodes from 2018 to 2025, with Goodman filming that and “The Righteous Gemstones” at the same time.
“I didn’t think [the ‘Roseanne’ reboot] was going to go beyond the initial five or six episodes. I thought it’d be a one-off thing, and then we got picked up, and Roseanne got fired,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in July 2025. “I thought that was it, and as soon as they dismissed the cast, I picked up ‘Righteous Gemstones.’ Then we got to do the show again as ‘The Conners.’ I didn’t know how long it would last, but I sure enjoyed it while I was there.”
When speaking to the outlet, he also shared that he and Barr had not spoken “for about seven or eight years” at the time, adding “I’d rather doubt if she wants to talk to me.”
Barr told listeners of her podcast, “The Roseanne Barr Podcast,” in March that she felt “betrayed” by Goodman due to his decision to scale back his appearances on the show in the later seasons.
“I don’t think I heard it from his agent, I think I heard it from the producers of the show actually [that] he doesn’t want to be on the show anymore,” she explained. “I think they said he’ll do six of the 24 or something like that.”