John Goodman Opens Up to Sam Jones About Moving to New York City, His Addiction and His Idols

Actor John Goodman, who recently eased back into the comfortable role of Dan Conner after 20 years in the Roseanne reboot, sat down with Sam Jones of Off Camera to talk about his early years as an actor. Goodman opened up about first moving to New York City after spending his whole life in Missouri, his years as a struggling actor, succumbing to alcohol and cocaine addiction at that time, the strong influence of his childhood idols and the performance anxiety that still hits him even after all this time.

I’d like to say I still steal from everybody I can because I’ll see something that just inspires me to do something else. With me – I’m open for anything. A lot of times I’m desperate and I got to remember to relax and just let the peace take you, let the room take you wherever it’s gonna take you. Every time I try to force it to be better, our preconceived notion what I’m gonna bring in, it fails.

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Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.