John Goodman Declares Roseanne Barr Is 'Not a Racist' and Teases How 'The Conners' Will Explain Her Absence

"I know, I know, for a fact that she's not a racist," he told U.K. publication The Sunday Times in a new interview.

When the subject of the now infamous tweet ("Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj") arose, he said he was "surprised," but suggested it had more to do with the public outrage than the tweet itself.

"I'll put it this way, I was surprised at the response," he said. "And that's probably all I should say about it."

The 66-year-old actor, who played Barr's on-screen husband Dan Conner in sitcom's original nine-season run as well as the rebooted season that scored massive ratings before being canned, added he went through a bout of depression after the tweet screwed over the entire cast and production crew, too.

"I was broken-hearted, but I thought, 'OK, it's just show business, I'm going to let it go.' But I went through a period, about a month, where I was very depressed," he said. "I'm a depressive anyway, so any excuse that I can get to lower myself, I will. But that had a great deal to do with it, more than I wanted to admit."

Another interesting tidbit: When asked if he became friends with Barr over the years, he specified, "We were work friends."

And he has yet to hear from his colleague since ABC dumped the successful reboot over her tweet.

"She had to sign a paper saying that she relinquished all her rights to the show so that we could go on. I sent her an email and thanked her for that. I did not hear anything back," he said, with the caveat that "she was going through hell at the time. And she's still going through hell."

Goodman and the rest of his TV family will be back soon on the rebranded reboot "The Conners," but he didn't spill many details about what to expect for his character. He did, however, tease how the writers will explain Barr's absence -- she's dead.

"It's an unknown," he said. "I guess he'll be mopey and sad because his wife's dead."