At nearly 400 pounds, John Goodman faced a choice: grow up, or give up.
Now, the “Roseanne” star is shedding light on the deep-seated fears that fueled his unhealthy, self-destructive habits.
By letting go of the “big kid” persona that mirrored his on-screen characters, he finally found the strength to turn his health — and his life — around.
“I would overeat, because that was comfort. Trying to fill up whatever hole that was. Same thing for drinking,” the Golden Globe Winner, now 74, told The New Yorker. “It’s been better said before by other people, but just trying to fill up that vacuum with kicks.
However, by his mid-50s, he decided to finally pay attention to his alcohol addition and overall physical and mental health.
“I got sick and tired of being sick and tired,” he remembered.
A snowballing addiction
Goodman recalled moving to New York City in 1975 without much of a plan. As a young, aspiring actor with no prior experience, he survived on odd jobs until a string of commercial gigs for soda, beer, tooth paste and deodorant finally offered him financial stability
“I got some dough, which later on kind of turned on me, because I had the money enough to start drinking,” he said.
Looking for camaraderie, Goodman started going to Broadway bars where he would connect with fellow actors, which “turned it into home.” But his lifestyle began to catch up with him.
“I started gaining weight at an alarming rate,” he said, a physical transformation that soon defined his early career. Hollywood pigeonholed him, Goodman argued, consistently casting him as “the fat guy who fell down a lot.”
His big break came with the role of Dan Conner on the megahit sitcom “Roseanne,” a character that changed his life. Yet, while the steady income was welcome, the accompanying sudden fame and recognition proved “scary”.
By the final season of the original run, the pressure had peaked. Goodman said he’d “tried to quit the show” by the final season, describing that period as a “misery tour with alcohol.”
He observed how drastically his personality had changed, remembering himself as a “38-year-old depressive alcoholic.”
A mix of “guilt” and anxiety soon took over, as Goodman found himself paralyzed by the “fear” of “being judged by strangers” and “his private life being out there” — but also keeping the secret of how “dependent” he was on drinking.
Turning the ship around
The first problem Goodman tackled was his drinking, driven by a turning point where he simply “got sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
“The thing about instant gratification is you don’t really care what’s going to happen right after it—which always led to bigger hangovers or me getting the shakes, and having to drink to get rid of the shakes, and that vicious cycle,” he revealed. “I was in a position, when I quit, where I had to be hospitalized one way or the other.”
For chronic heavy drinkers, the withdrawal process carries severe medical risks, including life-threatening seizures and abnormal heart rhythms. Consequently, health professionals highly recommend supervised medical detox to ensure patient safety, according to American Addiction Centers.
Goodman’s crisis culminated in 2007, when, at age 55, he achieved sobriety.
However, his complex relationship with food remained a major hurdle. His weight loss journey had actually begun before he quit drinking, marked by a “tiring” cycle: “I’d lose sixty pounds in a summer, gain it all back. Seventy pounds, eighty pounds.”
Even after he stopped drinking, Goodman found himself “eating alcoholically,” his weight eventually climbing to nearly 400 pounds.
“I took steps so I wouldn’t have to do that anymore,” he explained. “I had an operation on my stomach. But I also turned anemic and lost a layer of fat under my skin, and I’m cold all the time.”
While Goodman didn’t specify which procedure he had done, some weight loss surgeries can cause iron deficiency anemia, which affects up to 49% of patients who undergo bariatric surgery.
Bariatric surgeries often reduces stomach acid, making it harder for iron to absorb, and procedures like gastric bypass skip digestion in the small intestine, where most iron is usually absorbed.
With the loss of fat, the body has less insulation to keep heat in, and anemia reduces oxygen delivery, making it harder for the body to generate heat.
Goodman said in 2023 that he’s lost 200 pounds since.
