Roseanne Barr, who tweeted four days ago that she “abandoned the left in 2012,” recently signed off on ABC’s intentions to create a spinoff of her recently cancelled hit series, Roseanne. Barr will not be appearing in the series. Reports have claimed the actress was dealing with a guilty conscience in regard to having jeopardized the careers of her fellow co-stars over a racist tweet, prompting executives at ABC to cancel.
As to whether or not the actress truly regrets the tweet is between Roseanne and her conscience, but recently, old friends of the actress have expressed sympathy for her, citing her past struggles with mental health as the likely culprit for her bizarre behavior, including comedian and Real Time host Bill Maher. Judd Apatow, the creator of the show Freaks and Geeks as well as hit comedies like Knocked Up , recently expressed his concern for Barr, according to Vulture .
“I see it more as someone who’s crying out for help than someone who’s a hateful person … for the most part, I hope she’s okay and I feel bad for people who got hurt in that. Everyone who worked with her, it’s tragic… It’s as mysterious to me as anybody else. But there’s a lot of people who get pulled into these worlds of conspiracies and I really don’t understand it because all she was was a proponent of women … the only way I can process it is, in some way, Roseanne is in some sort of altered state of her mind. And I just hope that she finds her way back to the values that were really important to her when I first met her.
Judd Apatow’s expression of compassion for Roseanne Barr, who he has known for more than 20 years, appears in contrast to much of the public’s reaction to Roseanne’s outspoken demeanor and recent penchant for supporting the agenda of Donald Trump’s presidency, perpetuating conspiracy theories, and using racist language.
Users of the social media site Twitter, took to the platform, expressing outrage in unforgiving tones when Roseanne Barr expressed being under the influence of Ambien, a prescription sleep-aid while making her show-ending tweet. Being met with a collective eye roll from thousands of Twitter users, she was regularly mocked for using the medication as an excuse. Even Ambien’s official Twitter account sent out a message taking a shot at the actress.
Judd Apatow seems uninterested in further provoking his friend’s mental illness and instead appears more interested in helping the actress get the help she needs.
While Ambien officially stated that racism was not a known side effect of the drug, some side effects of zolpidem, the generic name for Ambien, do include confusion, unusual excitement, nervousness, or irritability, confusion about identity, place and time, feeling sad or empty, and memory problems, to name a few. As to whether or not those side effects could translate to Roseanne saying or tweeting racist sentiments, is ultimately unknown.
