From ‘The Big Lebowski' to ‘Smurfs,' John Goodman Reflects Candidly on His Life in Comedy
The actor, known for his booming voice and being a go-to for filmmakers like the Coen brothers, also finds himself far away from Hollywood, living in Charleston, South Carolina, after losing his Palisades home in the wildfires in January. 'It's been 10 years since I've done a play, so I have to get back into that,' says the former theater major during an upbeat Zoom with THR in late June.
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Despite an open schedule looming, there will be plenty of Goodman arriving on screens in the coming months. Earlier this year, he shot a part in Alejandro González Iñárritu's upcoming Tom Cruise movie, and he is in full promotional mode for Paramount's animated film Smurfs, which hits theaters July 18 and sees him voicing patriarch Papa Smurf alongside Rihanna's Smurfette. The actor has quite the legacy of voice work, notably bringing to life the lovably frightening Sulley in Pixar's Monsters Inc. franchise.
But of course, there has been no shortage of standout live-action performances from the actor, including big-screen collaborations with Steven Spielberg and Coen brothers favorites like The Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, not to mention a run in the 2010s that gave Goodman the rare distinction of appearing in back-to-back best picture winners (The Artist and Argo).
In a chat with THR, Goodman looks back at his relationship with Roseanne Barr, bombing at his Saturday Night Live audition and the time Spielberg announced Goodman was going to star in Flintstones, without asking him first.
In the past few months, you've said goodbye to both and . How does it feel to no longer play Dan Conner after all these years?
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. 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.
The Conners finale ends with Dan alone on the couch, saying good night directly to the camera.
I wanted to do it, and they let me, and they kept it. I thought it was just us saying, 'Good night, folks. Thank you.'
Dan visits Roseanne's grave in the episode. Have you connected with Roseanne about the end of the show?
No. I'd rather doubt if she wants to talk to me. We haven't talked for about seven or eight years.
Did that aspect of make it a tough show to navigate?
No. We got a good cast, and everybody stands out.
You and Roseanne had electric chemistry from the start of the show in the late 1980s. What do you remember from those early days?
We hit it off from jump street. She made me laugh, and I made her laugh, and wow, it was so much fun. We'd get so many viewers for the show back then — 20, 30 million people. Things are so different now, but it was a special time.
For Gemstones, what was the most uncomfortable situation that Danny McBride put you in as the televangelist family's patriarch, Eli?
I read the final season, and there was one particular scene that I said, 'I can't do this.' It involved the soixante-neuf [French for '69'] position with my girlfriend. I said, 'I'm not going to do it.' [But]they set the sexual position up in a way that it was just funny. I was only uncomfortable for an hour or so, and I'm no good naked.
Your career isn't slowing down. You recently shot Alejandro Iñárritu's new comedy with Tom Cruise that's out next year.
There are a lot of funny moments in it. Tom is a force of nature, and it's fun to just hang on and see what he's going to do. He's a 63-year-old professional athlete and artist. He's got the drive and the energy, and I wish I had half of it.
Did you know him prior to this project?
No. We'd met before, but it was like 35 years ago at Bruce Willis' house in Malibu. I had no idea he would remember that, but he did. He's just easy to talk to and a great guy.
You made headlines earlier this year with your on-set hip injury. Was it for an action scene?
It was a real accident. We had been working on the scene for a week and a half. I wasn't quite getting it right, and through a process, I finally made a breakthrough. But after that, we were blocking it, and I was wearing stocking feet, like I had been for the last week and a half. I was passing Tom, and my legs just went on the floor, and I came up parallel to the ground and landed on my hip. I tried to get back up, and when I couldn't do that, I started fearing the worst. I didn't know I had fractured it until we got X-rays.
So sorry to hear. How are you now?
There was a brilliant doctor on set, and he got me into the Cleveland Clinic [in London]. They operated the next morning, and so far, so good. Unfortunately, I was down for about a month there where I couldn't do anything, and it was driving me nuts. They found other things to do, and I finally got back into it.
Is there a role from your career that makes you the proudest?
There probably is. People seem to enjoy The Big Lebowski, and since everybody else likes it so much, I'll take that. But anything I did for Joel and Ethan [Coen]. I wish I could go back and do Barton Fink because there's some things I would do different now, but I can't. And the Babe Ruth movie [1992's The Babe]. I would have worked a lot harder on that.
I went to see with my baseball team at the time, and scenes still stick with me.
Well, great. It was hard to do. I used to do this when I started Roseanne. I'd do the series, and then I'd get two films for the summer, and that actually continued for a while, until I was just trying to turn water instead of really digging into it.
Is that a tough feeling when a film doesn't connect with the audience?
Yeah, I always blame myself: 'What did I do wrong?' 'What could I have done better?' After a while, you have to let it go, and I did.
It appears that has been embraced by new fans through social media.
Oh, good. It might have been a little ahead of its time. It didn't feel like that when it sank, but that's one thing about film. It's there forever. If people dig it now, that's just great and means the Wachowskis knew what they were doing.
What was it like as a young actor to collaborate with the Coens?
It was great because I was in their second film. They had just done Blood Simple, and I didn't really know who they were. I went in to an audition for Raising Arizona, and we just goofed around for an hour. I got the role, and a lot of my other friends that went in just couldn't believe it because I really didn't have much experience. When we were shooting, I would go to the set on my day off just to goof around and watch these guys, watch how they work, feud with [cinematographer] Barry Sonnenfeld just for the hell of it. I wish I could say it was a great learning experience, but I was having too much fun.
You became a fixture on SNL in the 1990s. What do you remember about your unsuccessful audition to join the cast?
That was 1980 when the original cast left, Lorne [Michaels] left, and I didn't put a lot of thought into it, unfortunately. I didn't have any improv or stand-up background, and I had a terrible audition, but for some reason, I still thought I'd get cast. Nine years later, I got to host the show [for the first of 13 times]. That was always the best part of my year, going to host the show for a week.
Did you have a favorite castmember?
Oh, golly. I don't, but Phil Hartman stands out. Jon Lovitz. I'd have to say Phil because he was always solid gold, 100 percent.
Among your notable characters was Linda Tripp. Was that tricky to navigate at a fraught time for the nation?
No, I just put a dress on. I did it because it was funny and didn't really think too much of it. She's a public figure, and she did what she did.
Speaking of genius filmmakers for your catalog, Steven Spielberg handpicked you as the star of 1994's , which he produced.
It wasn't something I wanted at the time. He cast me in a couple of movies, and then when we were sitting down to read [1989's] Always for the first time, he made the announcement, which surprised me. Nobody asked me, but it worked out. It was perfect at the time, and I love Rick Moranis [who played Barney Rubble]. He's just a lovely man and so funny and smart.
You have quite a legacy of animated roles already, including Sulley from . How do you approach such a familiar part as Papa Smurf?Everything I planned for went out the window just as soon as I stepped up to the mic, so it was just as well. I just let them guide me and tell me what they wanted. For me, doing animation can be tough because I find if I put my whole body into it, it sounds more believable. So I'm pretty much rung out by the time a four-hour session ends. Right now, all that kids know me from is, 'That's Sulley!' It's great. I started doing animation for Steven Spielberg [with 1993's We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story]. Steven would sit right in the booth with me, and we'd go through the script. I'd go, 'God, is this what it's like?' (Laughs.) I got lucky the first time.
s Walter comes up among your fans as a role that many wish could have earned you your first Oscar nomination. Are awards ever on your mind?
If they come along, that's great. Early on, I would get nominated every year for Roseanne and lose every year, so I got the idea that maybe they ain't for me. [He later won an Emmy for guesting on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.]
It's hard to believe.
No, it's a job, and we all can't be best plumber every year. We just plug along and feed the machine, and we're lucky we get to do something that we love for a living.
You had a memorable arc on . Is it strange to think back on a time when depictions of American politics were more idealized, given our chaotic current moment?
This is like taking a Conestoga wagon from the prairie to the desert. I don't know what's going to happen. It's frightening that things are turning out the way they are, but it's cyclical, and the wheel will turn. I don't have any politicians that look like me, so I think I'm safe. I played a senator on Alpha House [which launched its two-season Amazon run in 2013], and Garry Trudeau wrote it. Things were starting to happen then [in real life] that were going into a cultish phase, win at any cost. My guy just wanted to help people and was a decent man, and I enjoyed doing that.
Did it take you a while to get used to the concept of celebrity?
I hated it from day one because it just made me uncomfortable. I don't consider myself a celebrity. It's an overused word that means nothing now. In the beginning, I was insecure enough that I couldn't handle things, and it made me defensive. In the '90s, tabloids were very active in setting people up to sell stories, and it made me paranoid. I found a guy with a video camera sleeping outside my house in Encino one day. It was awful because Roseanne was a magnet for that stuff, and I got a lot of the residual stuff.
Roseanne has been credited with speaking to an everyday viewer that Hollywood might sometimes overlook.
It was basically playing myself and people I know. Roseanne said it perfectly: 'Just because we're poor doesn't make us stupid.' And that went a long way with me for the show.
Do you see Hollywood as having impacted our political divide?
I think the damage has been done by the news cycle. There's always been a stigma about being an actor, and they'll label anything as Hollywood. It was purposefully exploited because people will hate anything that's different. 'These people are freaks. They're rich. They don't care about you.' There are a lot of loons in the business, but that's not the standard, I found. People work their asses off.
Do you plan to live in California again?
Unfortunately, I lost my house in January. My wife has taken care of a lot of that because she's a lot better at it than I am. But eventually, I need to get back there. I don't know what's going to happen with filming in Southern California, but people are crazy not to. It's got everything.
Have you always been motivated by getting a laugh?
I was the funny kid. I did a lot of it for attention, but I loved the response. I loved getting laughs, to the extent where that might have been all I thought about in elementary and high school, was goofing. Things were happening fast and furious, and I just had a different slant on things.
Over the years, you've been open about getting sober, and it seems now that you've never been in better shape. What goes through your mind when you think back on health challenges?
Mostly regrets [while drinking], but there's nothing I can do about that. It happened, and I just try to apologize to the people I've hurt, rectify the things I did wrong. It was such a long period that I was out there, and just try not to repeat it. It's actually made me a better person. You can't blame yourself, really, because it is a disease.
Is there a favorite note you've gotten from a director over the years?
Probably, but I can't remember it right now. My favorite review was from The Village Voice. I won't name the film, but when it came out [during the Roseanne era], the critic said, 'With this film, John Goodman wears out his welcome.' I thought that was the best review I've heard.
Little did they know that there was no getting rid of you.
Yep. My welcome may be gone, but I'm still here. The guest that wouldn't leave.
This story appeared in the July 9 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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