Roseanne'due south Lecy Goranson on How She Feels Nearly Trump and Returning to the Bear witness for the Second Fourth dimension

While all of the original bandage of Roseanne is dorsum for the blockbuster revival, merely Lecy Goranson, who originated the function of Roseanne Conner's oldest daughter, Becky, has the distinction of returning to the show for the second time. Goranson played Becky for the first five seasons of the bear witness before leaving to attend Vassar. She was replaced by Sarah Chalke for seasons six and vii, only returned for season eight, and now, once again, for the show's tenth season, 11 years after its first run. We got a gamble to talk to Goranson minutes after she learned that the series was picked up for an 11th season, subsequently its two-hour premiere clocked a whopping 18 meg viewers.

Congratulations on your renewal. How practice you feel?
I just feel so excited. You know, I was just spending a few days with my TV family unit doing press in New York. Nosotros honey beingness together. What can I say? We love each other'due south visitor and we have and so much fun. This is what we were hoping for. The ratings accept been such an unbelievable please for us. Merely, in addition, in just a couple days, getting picked upward for some other flavor is pretty fantastic.

So are you ready to dedicate all of your life to Roseanne?
I've already washed that. Well, I judge I had a long break at that place just I'm used to information technology. We used to do 20-plus episodes a season, and so 12 is not like shooting fish in a barrel, just information technology's certainly not the work haul I had as a teenager.

Like yous said, the ratings have been huge. What do you think has been backside the popularity of the show coming back?
Well, I call back people just relate to things that are authentic. I think that'due south what people crave in terms of entertainment. It's the human being condition to feel lonely and confused and perchance disenfranchised, or feeling similar you lot don't fit in. Our testify says, "Hey, nosotros don't fit in," and, "We have some big bug." It's like catharsis most, for people to see people who are like them.

What was it like for you the first time you came dorsum onto the set?
It felt like going home to my parents' firm or what I used to feel like when I would step into my grandparents' house. Information technology was just existence totally surrounded by familiarity and of course, I was on set with Michael Fishman and Sara Gilbert, my TV siblings, and then there was that feeling of beingness kids over again. And then seeing everybody, all the crew who were back and some of the writers and directors that were back. It reminded me that I had this big family.

This is the second time you've come back to the evidence. How was this fourth dimension unlike from the concluding time?
Well, the final fourth dimension, I would say things on ready were pretty tense. The climate on set these days has been so different. Anybody's really mellowed with age in a positive way and cultivated parts of themselves that and nurtured parts of themselves. It makes it less intense in terms of the fame elements or the pressure level. I feel like everyone can weather the sitcom storm more finer at present.

The first time I came back, I was hoping  I would have some kind of resolve from when I left. But I gauge I felt like I had already moved on from information technology.

What did yous call up was unresolved from the beginning time you left?
Information technology was similar leaving a family unit, so when you think about what happens when that happens, information technology'southward not just, "Oh, we'll miss you. Farewell." Information technology's sadness, it'due south loss, it's frustration. I recollect rightly then, people were concerned almost the show itself and missing such an integral character and free energy, so information technology was all those things. It'due south not similar I felt guilty going to college. I didn't feel I made the incorrect decision, only possibly I wanted to check in with that other life and revisit it.

This time was totally different. It felt similar a clean slate, even with all the familiarity. I merely really felt loved and appreciated by everybody. That'south really reflective of the prove. Whatever happens with the Conners, they have each other, for ameliorate or for worse.

You finally got to share a scene with Sarah Chalke, who played Becky when you were gone. What was it like acting together for the first time?
It was really fun. I hateful, Sarah is great. She's a sweetheart and she has a dandy humour. In one case we were on Amy Schumer together and nosotros went out to dinner afterwards and we talked about our experiences, and I was really curious about her experience after I left and what it was like for her. She was really honest about everything. Considering of that, we already had a bond and an understanding of each other and where we were coming from.

How do yous remember Becky has inverse over all of these years since we've seen her last?
Well, she'southward actually tough. I think of her as a very strong woman and I experience like she'southward gone through a lot. She'due south lost her married man and, every bit America will see in upcoming weeks, that really took a cost on her. Part of how that has manifested is that she hasn't really dealt with the pain of information technology. Every bit a consequence, she's a niggling bit of arrested well-nigh to the time where Mark passed away. I actually feel similar that happens to people. Facing pain is a very hard thing to do. Sometimes the but fashion we can move forward in life is if we really face some of that sad stuff, yous know?

Has that pain made her a more interesting character to play?
She'south always been a really interesting graphic symbol. Information technology's funny because part of the process is the fact that the prove is on constantly every day. Sometimes I'll be clicking through the channels and I'll see my scrunchy and pink pants run past. Even though Becky is kind of goofy and she'due south a niggling bit of a nerd, she'southward ever been complex. That'due south one of the wonderful things about our show, you get to play a existent person with then many different personality traits.

One of my favorite things about the new episode was seeing that the dynamic betwixt Becky and Darlene was exactly the aforementioned every bit when we left them. Did you lot ii just fall right back into that pattern?
That is non only something that is fun for Sara and I, but also Michael Fishman. Information technology's just classic Roseanne. Yous'll run into in this season and I imagine in the next flavour likewise, because Sara and I really realized what a big part Becky and Darlene'southward relationship really is. As adults, they need each other more as people to become through life. They really aren't happy about that. They're so used to being at each other'due south throats and constantly bickering, then to accept to come up around and say, "I demand you," let alone, "I love you."

Since the show started, that'due south probably the primary matter I've heard from women who come upward to me — the human relationship betwixt Becky and Darlene is e'er, "I was Becky and my sister was Darlene," or "I was Darlene and my sis was Becky." I hear information technology all the fourth dimension and I've been hearing information technology for years.

Roseanne was famous for its Halloween episodes. Are we going to get some other Halloween episode?
In that location are some relics from Halloween past this year, but in that location'south not a full-throttle Halloween episode. At to the lowest degree from the cast's point of view, we were wildly disappointed most that. I just don't know if nosotros could do two seasons without a Halloween episode — information technology's not like us.

No, you admittedly cannot! At that place should exist a police.
It'southward near like why even bother without one? I don't feel that way, it's not that extreme. Our inside joke with the cast is that the Conners are always poor, but somehow $100,000 dropped from the sky around Halloween and then they can have all their candy and their costumes. You know, their makeup artists come.

A lot has been fabricated about the politics of the show and Roseanne being a Trump supporter, both onscreen and in existent life. How practice you lot experience virtually all that political attention surrounding the show?
Well, I actually wrote an article about it. Basically what I said in information technology is that I disagree with Roseanne's politics in that regard. I voted for Hillary. I'm a Democrat, but I respect her every bit a person, and as a feminist and as an American citizen, I recollect everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

I also recall that only because y'all voted for Trump doesn't mean y'all're a bigot or a racist or someone who hates homosexuals. I don't experience you tin equate a vote to all those other things. To me, the reason some people voted for Trump is because he idea if you were wealthy, he would save you coin in taxes, but if you weren't wealthy, people idea he would become you a task. I don't think those things have anything to do with bigotry but I feel like we live in a very knee-wiggle society where it'south all about soundbites. People like to say, "Roseanne's a Trump supporter" considering they don't want to say, "Roseanne, who voted for Trump, who disagrees with many of his policies, but agrees with the fact that the working form should accept more job security" is not as fun for people.

People are angry. People are clinging to acrimony. At that place's a rigidity on both sides and my statement is our show has always been a source of social dialogue. It'due south a reflective testify that makes families look and reflect on their ain lives, but it'south also nigh talking near things. Roseanne didn't want the show to come back to spread her own propaganda. She wanted the prove to come back to create a dialogue among these two rigid sides. I know for people who detest Trump, they don't want to think that someone who voted for him would have that intention, simply that'southward the truth.

And I think what'southward actually interesting nigh the show is that, like you said, it has always been provocative and political.
And she has been.

At least in the showtime two episodes, a lot of families are struggling with what Roseanne and Jackie are struggling with — that we accept these dissimilar political ideas, only we nevertheless love each other and nosotros're withal family. How do we get by that and how practise nosotros become forwards with these differences?
Exactly. Whether you're a liberal or you're conservative, I just don't sympathize how you feel like someone else would understand your bespeak of view if you're stuck in acrimony and you're not open to some other view. How could there be progress?

Even for me, people call me and say, "Oh, did you lot hear that Trump chosen Roseanne?" and I said, "Yes, well people call each other." Who knows what their conversation is? Each piddling affair is blown up or used towards this acrimony. I'm not addicted of him. I'm not addicted of our president. I feel like nosotros could practice a lot meliorate. That's my view, but does that mean I'thousand furious about the woman who plays my mother on a TV show? No.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Roseanne'due south Lecy Goranson on How She Feels About Trump