From the sounds of things, John Goodman was going through a tough time while filming The Conners. The star said he was "practically having a nervous breakdown."
Goodman opened up to Sean Hayes, Will Arnett and Jason Bateman on their SmartLess podcast. He explained he was going through a tough time in his life. While Goodman doesn't blame The Conners for his mental struggles, it does sound like the actor took on a bit too much at one time. Goodman was starring on the sitcom and The Righteous Gemstones for the past few years.
"It's much different now. I feel like I'm still learning," he said. "The last couple of years have been goofy for me because I've been trying to be good — and it doesn't work that way.You know, like planning things way too much, and at the root of that was the fear of losing trust in myself."
Goodman said he threw himself into his work and that wasn't healthy. He added, "I overcompensated by working way too hard. I've just kind of come out of that in the last year or so. And there's so much to learn."
John Goodman Going Through Hard Time
Goodman has struggled to find the right balance in his life. Goodman said he had to learn to relax and to open up a bit.
"It was bad with everything. It just purged out of me when I went to the therapist one day. And then for the rest of the day it was horrible. Nothing worked. You've got to be relaxed when you do stuff. And open and listen," he shared. "You have to be ready to listen to yourself. You have to be relaxed. For me, that was the key. I already know this stuff, and that's one thing I didn't trust myself about. I don't know. I've been doing the same two roles for the last four or five years, and I haven't really had much of a chance to do everything else."
Goodman is still learning and still trying to improve upon himself.
"It's kind of to help myself and maybe to help somebody else. I've been clean about 16 years now," he said. "The last 16 years I've had to grow a lot into my normal age, and it's been a lot, but I'm glad I did it." The actor previously opened up about his sobriety and weight loss efforts.
