When the Roseanne-free new version of the literally DOA reboot of the reboot of “Roseanne” (“The Connors”) airs, the former star of the show will not be in the country to witness it, she says. She’ll be half a world away in Israel working on some spiritual and emotional issues with one of her favorite rabbis.
The comment, highlighted by The Hollywood Reporter, came during Barr’s interview with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach for his podcast in which she mentioned recently cutting a record in Nashville and expressed some regret about publicly apologizing to Valerie Jarrett for calling her the love child of the Muslim Brotherhood and “Planet of the Apes.”
“My friends told me at the beginning, ‘Oh my god, you made a fatal mistake, and that is you apologized to the Left and once you apologize they never forgive, they just try to beat you down until you don’t exist.’ It’s just sad,” Barr told Boteach. “I should never have said I’m sorry in their world. In my world, I had to because I was sorry. For crying out loud, I was sorry.”
She continued: “People were so angry and, I have to say, a little bit ill-informed about me that they would put me in the same box where they have people who call for the death of all Jews and want to enslave all black people — real racists that actually exist.” In this “unprecedented period in American history,” she said, people need to arm themselves with facts rather than acting on their emotions.
As for clearing out of the country before “The Connors” airs this fall, Barr said she has the opportunity to study for a few months under one of her favorite teachers, something she described as “my great joy and privilege to be a Jewish woman.”
Barr said that while she holds no ill will for the show or those making it, she doesn’t plan on watching it, nor does she want to suffer through hearing commentary about it — which she predicted would inevitably involve trashing her.
“I’m not going to curse it or bless it,” she told the rabbi. “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.”
Barr also brought up her “mental health issues,” which she has suggested at times were to blame for some of her controversial comments in the past. Saying she suffers from depression, she said she must “stay in the middle or I’ll go dark.”
“I don’t like Hollywood,” she said. “I’m leaving California because I’m sure it’s going to fall into the sea soon.”
Speaking with The U.K. Times last week, John Goodman, who plays Roseanne’s husband on the show, broke his silence over the firing of Barr, presenting a partial defense of her and hinting at how “The Connors” would explain the glaring absence of the show’s former star.
“I know for a fact that she’s not a racist. I’ll put it this way, I was surprised at the response. And that’s probably all I should say about it,” Goodman said. He also hinted that Barr’s character would be killed off. “I guess he’ll be mopey and sad because his wife’s dead,” said Goodman of his character.
Related: In Wild Interview, Roseanne Tells Hannity What She’d Say To Valerie Jarrett
Partial transcript via THR.