John Goodman Reacts To Sudden 'Roseanne' Fame, Hosting 'SNL' 13 Times & Hollywood Memories

People

Legendary actor John Goodman looks back on his iconic life and career, from unforgettable roles to deeply personal moments. As he reflects on old photos, John shares candid stories — from discovering his passion for acting in college to filming 'The Big Lebowski' in a now-demolished bowling alley. He recalls hosting 'Saturday Night Live' 13 times, voice acting in 'Monsters, Inc.,' and trading Scrabble games and life advice with Alan Arkin on the set of 'Argo.' With humor and heart, Goodman opens up about the friendships, family moments, and on-set memories that helped define his journey.

Transcript

00:00I buckled at the fame part of it at first.

00:04I didn't think I deserved it, and it was embarrassing.

00:07But that's part of the deal.

00:09You have to get used to it and be nice about it.

00:12And that's something I didn't understand for a while.

00:15It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

00:17Hey, everybody. I'm John Goodman, and this is my life in pictures.

00:22This is me posing with my glasses on for a high school football picture.

00:27Particularly fearsome.

00:29I wasn't a particularly good football player,

00:31but I was large and slow enough that I could block things.

00:35And I did like to hit, and I thought I could walk onto a football team

00:39at the college I attended.

00:40And that didn't work out because I didn't have the grades.

00:43And by the next year, I was in the theater department,

00:46and I found a passion.

00:50And then I started paying attention for the first time in my career.

00:54The first role I really clicked with was I was in college,

00:56and I did a lot of research on it and made it kind of my own.

01:02And it was very successful.

01:04But I didn't think I could make it professionally

01:06until after I graduated, and I had to find out for myself.

01:13I went straight from school to New York City 50 years ago this summer.

01:19I had to go because if I didn't,

01:22I would kick myself in the rear end for the rest of my life.

01:25So it was just a matter of saying that I tried.

01:29And I got hired within a month,

01:31but the next year I'd gotten my union card,

01:34and, you know, still slippery and undecided,

01:37but I kind of knew I could do this.

01:42This is, I believe, the first sketch I did on Saturday Night Live

01:45with Phil Hartman.

01:46I was a Cajun chef,

01:48and it was the highlight of my life up until then.

01:52I was just drawn into this great circle of people,

01:55the great writers, the performers,

01:58and I just felt like I was home.

02:00And they made every effort to make me feel that I was home.

02:03And it used to be the highlight of my year

02:05when I would get to do Saturday Night Live,

02:07and it'll always cherish those memories.

02:10I think I hosted 13 times.

02:12Also, if I happened to be in New York,

02:14they would call me to fill in for a sketch,

02:16which I was more than happy to do.

02:18It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.

02:20If they ever want me back, I'm there in a heartbeat.

02:22I'd make every effort to do that

02:24because I feel like I owe Lorne

02:27for letting me into that world for just a little bit.

02:31I've always loved it since I came out.

02:33Fifty years ago.

02:35And I feel kinship to it.

02:39This is the Flintstones.

02:41It was my great and good pleasure

02:43to work with Rick Moranis,

02:44who I just thought was brilliant,

02:46and he was a lovely man to work with

02:48and full of ideas.

02:49Yeah, I would follow him anywhere.

02:51Wilma, I'm home!

02:54Elizabeth Taylor was my mother-in-law

02:56in the Flintstones,

02:57and I just got her talking about Burton a little bit.

03:00She was on the floor.

03:01She took a fall in the film,

03:02so we were just squatting around her,

03:04talking to her,

03:05and it was, wow.

03:09This is the episode of Sesame Street

03:12that they let me do.

03:13It was in the early 90s,

03:15and my daughter was a little girl,

03:16and took a picture with Elmo,

03:18and he signed it for Molly.

03:20That was nice.

03:21Yeah, I was in first year of college

03:23when Sesame Street came out, I think.

03:25I still watched it.

03:26This is Jimmy Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, and myself.

03:32This is the Super Bowl in New Orleans,

03:34and I was living in New Orleans at the time,

03:37so everybody came over to the house,

03:38and the band was there,

03:41and we had a lovely time.

03:43I don't know how I got involved

03:45with the Blues Brothers.

03:46I can't remember.

03:46I remember wanting to be in it.

03:49I heard there was going to be a sequel, maybe.

03:51I had to deal with the Universal at the time,

03:53and it probably came out of that.

03:55I just don't think I was a good fit in it,

03:58but I never had more fun in my life.

04:01It's the best band ever.

04:05This is in a bowling alley

04:06on Western Avenue in Santa Monica

04:09that was demolished shortly

04:11after we finished The Big Lebowski.

04:13This is the film that most people identify me with

04:15or, quote, foul lines from to my face

04:19when I'm walking down the street.

04:20Everybody seems to love the film.

04:22It's one of the films I'm proudest of

04:24because any film that I did for Joel and Ethan Coen,

04:28I was very proud to be a part of.

04:30Yeah, it was the most fun I've ever handled my pants on.

04:34You brought a f***ing Pomeranian bowling?

04:36You brought a bowling?

04:37I didn't rent his shoes.

04:39I'm not buying it a f***ing beer.

04:40He's not taking a f***ing turn, dude.

04:42I had no idea that the film would become

04:45what it has become.

04:46I thought it was the funniest thing I had done,

04:49just script-wise.

04:51We were given two weeks to rehearse

04:53before we got into it,

04:55which was enormously beneficial.

04:57Just because of the intricacy of the dialogue,

04:59people still think we were improvising,

05:02which is a compliment because it looks like that.

05:04But the script is so well-written

05:06that you wouldn't even think of changing a thing.

05:09This is Monsters, Inc.

05:13I'm Sully, and Billy Crystal is Mike Wazowski.

05:17Yeah, this was fun, and it really took off.

05:19We'd been recording our lines by ourselves,

05:21and Billy suggested that they put the two of us together,

05:24and the energy just exploded.

05:26It was a great idea on Billy's part.

05:28And it was fun, and that's what kids know me by now.

05:34Oh, this is from a film called Argo,

05:37but it won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

05:39It's with Ben Affleck, myself,

05:41and the incomparable Alan Arkin.

05:44Alan and I had a lot of downtime on Argo,

05:46and we play Scrabble, talk about music, art,

05:49what it was like in the 50s in New York.

05:52Did nobody quite like him?

05:54Crabby as hell, and I just loved him.

05:58This is a movie that George Clooney put together

06:01called Monuments Men,

06:02and it paid tribute to the men and women

06:05who went to Europe after D-Day

06:08to try to rescue the art

06:10that the Nazis pillaged from Jews

06:12and churches and everything else.

06:17They had them in salt mines in Germany

06:20and France.

06:23It's something that I knew nothing about

06:25when I went into it,

06:26and we had a great cast.

06:28I got to work with Bill Murray.

06:30I'd met him before.

06:31I actually auditioned for him in 1983 or something.

06:35Yeah, it's the first time we hung around together.

06:37It was a lot of fun,

06:38and George was always a party.

06:40He was the pilot episode,

06:42George Clooney was, of Roseanne,

06:45and we had a great year,

06:47and he wisely took off afterwards.

06:50That was a smart move,

06:51but he came back in ER.

06:53He's got such a huge heart,

06:55and he's so damn funny,

06:57and it's just always a pleasure

06:59to be around George.

07:01This is my wife and a disgruntled Molly.

07:04She was still Molly Goodman at the time,

07:07and me receiving a star

07:10on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

07:12I think it's outside of a wax museum or something.

07:15I haven't been over there lately,

07:17but that was a thrill and an honor.

07:19It was a treat.

07:20I mean, it's something I never would have dreamed of,

07:22being among all those other stars.

07:25It was thrilling,

07:26and Jeff Bridges came to make a speech that day.

07:2945 minutes late,

07:30he brought his dude sweater

07:32and put it on and did a speech.

07:34It meant the world to me.

07:35It was just so touching and funny

07:37and just indicative of Jeff Bridges.

07:40He's got a heart of gold, man.

07:43This is from the Conners,

07:45some of my favorite people in the world.

07:47My acting hero, Laurie Metcalf,

07:49was worth the price of admission.

07:51It was worth showing up every day for work

07:53just to see what that woman would do.

07:55She's magic.

07:57She's just, she's amazing.

07:59And, gosh, she made me laugh.

08:01You know, my jaw would drop when I'd watch her.

08:02She's so good.

08:03Turn that light on, will you?

08:04Roseanne changed my life because it made me famous.

08:15It was a hit show.

08:17First time I'd ever done anything like that,

08:19a three- or four-camera comedy.

08:21I was cast for it.

08:23I went in to read with Roseanne the first time.

08:26And I'd never do this,

08:27but I walked out of there knowing I had the job.

08:29It was just too good of a fit.

08:31Man, the first couple years, we just had so much fun.

08:34And Roseanne and I have always been able

08:36to make each other laugh.

08:37I would try to get her to pee her pants laughing,

08:40which she'd oblige me with time to time.

08:43The kids were wonderful.

08:45It was a great home for eight or nine seasons for me.

08:49And then there was a chance that we could do a reunion.

08:52A couple of things got bumpy, but we finally did it.

08:55We wrapped it up last year.

08:56And that is one that I will miss.

08:58It makes my heart sad that it's over

09:00because it's leaving family.

09:04This is another show that wrapped last year,

09:07The Righteous Jumpstones.

09:08I think we cranked out four seasons

09:10in the span of maybe seven years.

09:14Yeah, I'm going to miss that.

09:16It's like losing a family again,

09:18especially the crew, the location, and the writers.

09:21Everybody was special, and it was so much fun.

09:24And boy, am I going to miss it.

09:26Let's go get our money.

09:28Oh, God.

09:30What?

09:31That was Jesus, Daddy.

09:32No, that was a karate person.

09:35No, that wasn't a karate person.

09:37That was Jesus.

09:38Oh.

09:39Once we had the basic scene itself,

09:42somebody would go off, Edie or Walton or Danny.

09:47We'd just come up with stuff.

09:49And I just, I can't compete with this man,

09:52but I'm just going to hang on and see what happens.

09:54And mostly, I'd put my head down or turn my head,

09:57bit the inside of my cheek because it was so funny.

10:01And yeah, I'm really going to miss that.

10:04This is Papa Smurf.

10:08This is Smurfette.

10:09And this is no-name Smurf,

10:11who finds his identity sometime during the making of the film.

10:15I was in several different cities.

10:16I think I recorded this in London,

10:18in Santa Monica, Charleston, South Carolina,

10:21and probably New Orleans.

10:23So I was a well-traveled Smurf.

10:25There's a theme of family and community in the Smurfs,

10:28not to get too serious about it,

10:30but it is important because they are part of community.

10:33And things do get rough,

10:35and things are rough right now for a lot of people.

10:37But if we hang in there,

10:39at least we'll write it out together,

10:41if not help to make things better.

10:44And if you're together with loved ones and friends,

10:48it makes everything better.

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