Heading for self-imposed exile. Roseanne Barr is moving overseas partly because she doesn’t want to be in the United States when ABC debuts The Conners, the spinoff of her hit show Roseanne.
“Oh, yeah, I don’t want to be around because I’ll get drawn into a negative thing of defending myself or being angry for being mischaracterized,” the 65-year-old said in an episode of The Dr. Oz Show scheduled to air on Thursday, September 20. “I want to stay away from it. I want to stay in a joyous, positive, happy place that I’ve worked my way to again in my life.”
ABC canceled Roseanne in May after the comedian likened former presidential aide Valerie Jarrett to an ape on Twitter, and the network condemned the racist tweet as “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent” with its values. The following month, ABC ordered The Conners, bringing back the entire Roseanne cast with the exception of Barr.
The Emmy winner announced earlier this month that she’ll be moving to Israel, and she elaborated on that decision in her sit-down with Dr. Oz.
“Well, I want to be able to learn Hebrew, speak Hebrew fluently, because I read very slow, but I know the letters and I love the letters, but I want to speak it,” she said. “Also, I have quite a few teachers over the years that live there, and I want to study.”
Barr’s former costar John Goodman, who played her husband Dan Conner, revealed in August that her character would be dead when The Conners starts. And in a recent episode of YouTube show #WalkAway With Brandon Straka, Barr gave away the cause of death: “They have her die of an opioid overdose.”
In that YouTube interview, Barr said she resented that story direction, but wouldn’t fight it. “They had to so cruelly insult the people who loved that family and that show,” she opined. “There’s nothing I can do about it. It’s done. It’s over. There’s no fight left.”
Barr’s episode of The Dr. Oz Show airs on Thursday, September 20 — check local listings for airtimes. The Conners premieres on ABC on Tuesday, October 16, at 8 p.m. ET.
