Laurie Metcalf Says She Hasn’t Spoken to Roseanne Barr Since “Roseanne” Was Canceled

Victoria EdelWed, April 29, 2026 at 7:29 PM UTC

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Roseanne Barr (left) and Laurie Metcalf on 'Roseanne' in 2018Credit: Greg Gayne/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty -

Laurie Metcalf revealed she hasn't spoken to Roseanne Barr since their series Roseanne was canceled

Metcalf starred on the series from 1988 to 1997, and then reprised her role for the 2018 revival series

After that new season, the show was rebooted as The Conners, and Roseanne was killed off

Laurie Metcalf hasn't been in touch with Roseanne Barr since Roseanne was canceled.

Metcalf, 70, opened up about her long career in an April 27 interview with The New Yorker. Metcalf's career began at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago and took her to both movies and TV. In 1988, she was cast as Jackie Harris on Roseanne, the TV series anchored by Barr, 73, who played Roseanne Conner. Jackie and Roseanne were sisters. The original series ran until 1997, and it returned in the spring of 2018 for a tenth, successful season.

But after that season aired, Barr posted a tweet comparing Barack Obama's former adviser Valerie Jarrett to an ape, and the show was canceled. In the fall, ABC brought back the series as The Conners while killing off Roseanne's character, who died of an opioid overdose.

The New Yorker reported that Metcalf was the last person to agree to join The Conners. Sara Gilbert, who starred on both shows as Roseanne's daughter, told the outlet, “We'd all had a personal relationship with Roseanne, and it was just not an easy decision for Laurie, or any of us.”

Laure Metcalf (left) and Roseanne Barr on 'Roseanne' in 1989Credit: ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

Metcalf said of the new series, “There was just a general sadness around the whole place.” Still, The Conners ran for seven seasons, from 2018 to 2025.

Metcalf has also not spoken to Barr. “There's nothing controversial,” she said. “We just haven't spoken since we said goodbye at the end of the reboot.”

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Metcalf won three Emmys for her role on Roseanne, with five total nominations for the show (including one from the 2018 revival season). But originally, she wasn't interested in doing a sitcom. “I thought, Oh, my God, I'm going to be typecast for the rest of my life,” she told The New Yorker. She was also “intimidated” by Barr, because she was “self-made.”

Laurie Metcalf on 'The Conners'Credit: Eric McCandless/ABC via Getty

Eventually, their chemistry fell into place. “On the page was a very strong sister relationship, which Roseanne has in real life,” she said. “So my jumping-off point was to try to show that bond and then hit the jokes.”

Roseanne also starred John Goodman, Michael Fishman, and Lecy Goranson. Goodman revealed in 2025 that he also hadn't spoken to Barr in “about seven or eight years." The actor, who played Roseanne's husband Dan, told The Hollywood Reporter, "I'd rather doubt if she wants to talk to me.”

Metcalf opened up to PEOPLE in October 2018 about returning to The Conners. “It was awkward but not awkward,” she said of the first day back on set. “It was right but not right, wrong but not wrong. We were sort of looking at each other like, ‘How do you feel? How is everybody?' Checking in.”

Metcalf noted that she and Gilbert had a scene in the first episode where they discussed the fictional Roseanne's death. “Sometimes when you're an actor and you have to go to that place, you substitute something, but in this case there was no need to do that, because it was there,” she said. “And it was real. And still makes me choke up, because that part of it's been really hard.”

Metcalf currently stars in Netflix's Big Mistakes, which premiered April 9. She's also starring on Broadway in the revival of Death of a Salesman, opposite Nathan Lane. A Broadway veteran, she won two Tonys, for 2017's A Doll's House, Part 2 and 2018's Three Tall Women.

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