Laurie Metcalf Reveals the Last Time She Spoke to Former Costar Roseanne Barr After Reboot Drama

Laurie Metcalf is looking back on her time on Roseanne.

The actress was playing Jackie Harris on the famed TV sitcom when costar Roseanne Barr caused controversy by sharing a racist remark on X (then Twitter), prompting the comedian to be fired.

The show was then canceled all together before being reworked — without Barr — as The Conners.

When Metcalf, 70, was asked in a profile by the New Yorker published Monday, April 27, if she has been in touch with Barr, 73, since everything unfolded in 2018, she said she hadn’t.

Still, the Tony Award winner insisted, “There’s nothing controversial. We just haven’t spoken since we said goodbye at the end of the reboot.”

Asked if she was angry at Barr for the drama she caused resulting in Roseanne’s cancellation, Metcalf said, “I don’t even know how to answer that.”

However, the Broadway actress did note that there was “just a general sadness around the whole place” amid the fallout.

During her time on Roseanne’s first run, Metcalf said she saw Barr “refusing to settle for anything” when it came to aspects of the show, adding: “And it had her goddam name on it, and she knew what she wanted.”

“And I saw her being right by far the majority of the time,” she added.

In Barr’s headline-making 2018 tweet, she compared Barack Obama’s former adviser Valerie Jarrett to an ape.

Though Barr apologized for her words, the actress initially pushed back and said that she was making a joke and denied being racist.

The Conners, which picked up after the death of Roseanne Conner, ran for seven seasons from 2018 to 2025.