Roseanne Barr, the 65-year-old disgraced actress – whose sitcom ‘Roseanne’ was axed by US network ABC earlier this year after backlash over a racist tweet she posted – has insisted she wanted to do what was right for her former co-stars.
Asked about reports her character could be killed off, she told ‘Entertainment Tonight’: “I just have to be neutral and walk away. I did walk away, so people can keep their jobs.”
The programme needed Roseanne’s blessing to be made, as she helped create the characters, and so she had to agree to forfeit her financial interests and sign off on the project.
The actress added that it was important to find a “silver lining” after ABC took the decision to end her sitcom after her remarks about former White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett.
She added: “You know, there’s always a silver lining in every cloud, and the tough part is to find it.”
Though Roseanne insists she doesn’t “wish bad” on anyone involved in ‘The Conners’, she also doesn’t have anything positive to say either.
During a recent appearance on Rabbi Shumley Boteach’s podcast, she said: “I’m not going to curse it or bless it. I’m staying neutral. That’s what I do. I’m staying neutral. I’m staying away from it.
“Not wishing bad on anyone, and I don’t wish good for my enemies. I don’t. I can’t. I just stay neutral. That’s what I gotta do. “I have some mental health issues of depression and stuff.
I got to stay in the middle or I’ll go dark, and I don’t want to go dark again. I’ve done it. After all, I was married to Tom Arnold.”
And Roseanne still maintains her tweet – in which she compared Valerie Jarrett, a former advisor to Barack Obama, to an ape – was misunderstood.
She said: “I’m so sorry that you thought I was racist and that you thought my tweet was racist because it wasn’t.”