Key points
-
John Goodman says he had a “bad time” when Roseanne made him famous in the late 1980s.
-
“I wish I would’ve taken to it better. I didn’t,” he said.
-
“It took a long time to deal with it,” he added.
John Goodman is reflecting on becoming a household name.
The Raising Arizona star discussed a turning point in his career when TV success made him famous on a scale he never expected.
“It changed in ’88 with Roseanne,” he said during a career retrospective with the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrDk8NKPqok” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>SAG-AFTRA Foundation. “That’s when I was told, ‘You’d better get a publicist and get a hold of this stuff.'”
Goodman said he had trouble adjusting to his new reality. “I had a bad time dealing with how famous I’d gotten all of a sudden,” adding that he recalled thinking. “Well, that ain’t me” at the time.
“It took a long time to deal with it,” he said.
Goodman said he eventually worked through it and “got that out of the way” but still sometimes struggles with “the negotiations you have to go through and “the things you have to do to sell a film” to audiences through publicity.
“They’re not ideal, but they need to be done,” he said. “People put a lot of money into these things, and let’s help each other out and get this done. They have their job to do, and you have to support it.”
Later, when asked about pitfalls in his career, Goodman returned to the topic. “Fame. I wish I would’ve taken to it better,” he said. “I didn’t. I was frightened.”
He added, “I’m my own worst enemy, by far.”
Goodman said he also had to adjust to getting a massive influx of offers for film and TV projects after Roseanne‘s success, noting that he learned “you don’t have to do everything” that is brought to you. “It’s nice to be in that position, though. Better than not. Better than waiting for the damn phone to ring,” he said.
Elsewhere during the conversation, Goodman shared a key value he thinks contributed to his success as an actor: reading.
“Read. Read widely and deeply and you will use, most of the time, whatever’s in there,” Goodman said. “Because something will spark your imagination and give you enough pleasure when it’s on the page to subconsciously hold on to it. And you can use a lot of things that way.”
Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with ourEW Dispatch newsletter.
He explained how his pursuit of acting inspired curiosity that enhanced his craft. “When I started taking an interest in acting, it became a passion, so much so that — well, I’m gonna need English, I’m gonna need music, I’m gonna need dance,” he said. “Start paying attention. And start learning, which I did at a terrific rate.”
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
