Sara Gilbert, John Goodman, and Laurie Metcalf are speaking out about their decision to continue with the ‘Roseanne’ reboot, ‘The Conners,’ without their controversial, titular star.
Sara Gilbert, 43, John Goodman, 66, and Laurie Metcalf, 63, sat down for an interview with PEOPLE Magazine to discuss the reasons why they agreed to the Roseanne reboot, The Conners, after it was cancelled by ABC, following a racist tweet by Roseanne Barr, aimed at former White House adviser, Valerie Jarrett. Goodman explained that he felt indebted to his character and his fictional family. “There was the feeling of not wanting it to go away until we were ready,” he told PEOPLE. “There was a debt owed to this fictional family. We want to finish telling this story.”
They also all revealed where they were when they first heard about Roseanne’s awful tweet. “In my kitchen and maybe my daughter or my wife told me,” Goodman said. “It just didn’t seem true. Then it got true. I was consciously trying to accept it.” While Gilbert took a more methodical approach to processing the news. “I don’t remember too much,” she said. “It was more just, ‘Okay, what are we dealing with today?’ I was just kind of taking things one step at a time as they came.” Metcalf recalled that she worried right away about the fate of the show. “I [first] thought, ‘Oh, I wonder if we still have a show.’ Because of how heavy everything became.”
Once the show was officially cancelled, back in back in May, the stars were heartbroken, but quickly learned that the idea of a reboot was being tossed around. The cast decided collectively that they would continue the show without Roseanne. “There was a lot of risk involved,” Metcalf said. “But we all decided as a group to take the risk, knowing that we could be judged by deciding to come back.” The show was given the green light with a promise from Roseanne that she would have no financial or creative ties to the show.
It has been reported that the Roseanne character will be killed off and The Conner family will be left to deal with the aftermath of her death. “Any sadness that we feel over what we’ve lost we’re hopefully channeling in an honest way into the show,” said Gilbert. “And our show has always been able to deal with heavy topics, particularly for a sitcom. It’s been kind of built into the mix.”
We are excited to see how the next season plays out and The Conners cast is, too! ‘We’re leaning on each other when we do this show,” said Goodman. “And supporting each other — that’s a very strong feeling among us. It’s different, but we can create something new from it. Let us finish the story on our own terms. Come along with us and see how we do.”
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