ACTING icon John Goodman says his dramatic weight loss hasn’t involved jabs, but that they would have been helpful in shedding the pounds.
The Hollywood star – known for sitcom Roseanne and movies The Big Lebowski and this year’s Tom Cruise flop Digger – has revealed his relationship with food had become “dangerous”, leading him to lose weight.
John, 74, has lost over 14 stone over the years, giving up booze, “forcing himself” to go to the gym, and undergoing stomach surgery.
Speaking to The Sunday Times’ Culture magazine, he spoke about his battle with alcohol, and how he treated food in the same way as he did booze.
“I was eating alcoholically – it was just something to up the ante.
“It was dangerous; my joints were shot from the weight I was carrying.”
Asked whether he used weight loss jabs at all during his health journey – which started in 2007 after entering rehab, having started to drink behind-the-scenes on his acting projects – he admitted: “No, because it’s got to be co-ordinated with other things.
“But it would have been a godsend; they cut down on the addiction part and I understand it works for drinking as well.”
By 2023, he had dropped over 14 stone, but admitted: “I have to force myself [to the gym]. If it was just me, I’d skip it.”
John’s weight led to his need for two knee replacements, tipping the scales at 28.5 stone at his heaviest.
John’s size went hand-in-hand with his character on the sitcom Roseanne, in which he starred as Dan Conner, the husband of the titular character played by Rosanne Barr.
The show told the story of a working-class American family, with both Dan and Roseanne known for enjoying fast food and spending copious amounts of time on the couch.
The sitcom ran initially for nine seasons, from 1988 through 1997, before being rebooted in 2018 for one season (before writers killed off Rosanne’s character amid a real-life controversy, and continuing the show without her, rebranded as The Conners).
But between the show’s initial end, and the 2018 revival, John came to realise how his weight issues were causing problems in all areas of his life.
“It was 30 years of a disease that was taking its toll on everyone around me and it had got to the point where, every time I did it, it was becoming more and more debilitating.
“It was life or death… it was time to stop.”
He shed the first 100lb by 2010, totally ditching sugar and working out six days a week with Mackie Shilstone, known as tennis star Serena Williams‘ trainer.
The PT also placed John on a Mediterranean diet, and he was tasked with taking between 10,000 to 12,000 steps per day, using a treadmill, an elliptical trainer and walking his dogs.
Portions were reduced and slowly he was eased into low-intensity workouts, as well as boxing.
John was in London in September for the premiere of Digger, Tom Cruise’s latest film, in which he played the President of the United States opposite Tom’s oil magnate, Digger Rockwell.