Sara Gilbert and Laurie Metcalf have both reached out to their former ‘Roseanne’ co-star Rosanne Barr – but she hasn’t responded.
The 65-year-old disgraced actress had her eponymously titled sitcom cancelled after she caused controversy with a racist tweet, and subsequently lashed out at ABC when they announced plans for a spin-off show called ‘The Conners’, which features the ‘Roseanne’ cast without the titular star.
Now, 63-year-old Laurie – who plays Jackie Harris on the show – has said although none of the cast have spoken to Roseanne since her tweet in May, both she and Sara (who plays Darlene Conner-Healy) have sent messages to her.
When asked if she had responded, Laurie said: "Not yet."
The cast of ‘The Conners’ are saddened by Roseanne’s firing, but 43-year-old Sara hopes that their emotions can be channeled "in an honest way into the show."
She added: "And our show has always been able to deal with heavy topics, particularly for a sitcom. It’s been kind of built into the mix."
The new show – which is set to air later this month – reportedly kills off Roseanne’s eponymous character, and Laurie says one scene in the first episode in which she discusses the "grief" with Sara’s character made her "choke up".
Speaking to People magazine, she said: "Sara and I had this scene in the first show where we addressed the grief. 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. And it was real. And still makes me choke up, because that part of it’s been really hard."
Last month, Roseanne branded ABC’s decision to kill her character off with a rumoured opioid overdose as "cruelly insulting" to the fans of the original program.
She said: "Oh ya, they killed her. They have her die of an opioid overdose.
"There’s nothing I can do about it. It’s done. It’s over. [But it] so cruelly insults the people who loved that family in that show."
Sara Gilbert has reached out to Roseanne Barr
