Roseanne Barr disgusted over support for James Gunn: ‘the same people blacklisted me’

The director was recently fired by Disney over resurfaced Tweets from between 2008 and 2012

(AFP/Getty Images)

Roseanne Barr has condemned the support James Gunn has received since being dropped by Disney.

Barr was fired by ABC – the Disney-owned network that cancelled Roseanne – earlier this year after making a racist comment on Twitter about Valerie Jarrett, the former Obama adviser. Gunn was removed as director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 after a series of Tweeted jokes concerning paedophilia and rape from between 2008 and 2012 resurfaced.

“I’m disgusted to read all of the support for James Gunn’s pedophile jokes-as the same people supported blacklisting me for a joke they didn’t even understand,” Barr wrote on Twitter.

Gunn’s Tweets were unearthed by alt-right commentators in response to the filmmaker criticising the Donald Trump administration. Those to have defended Gunn include Guardians of the Galaxy actors Dave Bautista and Sean Gunn, while a petition asking Disney to re-hire the director has reached over 250,000 signatures.

Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn said in a statement over Gunn’s firing: ”The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James’ Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values, and we have severed our business relationship with him.”

Gunn later released an official statement taking “full responsibility” for his actions: “My words of nearly a decade ago were, at the time, totally failed and unfortunate efforts to be provocative. I have regretted them for many years since – not just because they were stupid, not at all funny, wildly insensitive, and certainly not provocative like I had hoped, but also because they don’t reflect the person I am today or have been for some time.”

Meanwhile, Barr has recently claimed that the offending Tweet about Jarrett was not the reason she was fired by ABC, instead blaming her outspoken support of Trump. She has also claimed that she initially thought Jarrett was a white woman.

ABC previously issued a statement, reading: “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,”

Barr has said she “horribly regretted” sending out the tweet, but recently acknowledged she had been offered “many things” since being fired. “I almost already accepted one really good offer to go back on TV and I might do it,” she added. “But we’ll see.”

Roseanne’s first episode was watched live by over 18 million viewers, AMC’s highest-rated and most watched series this year, leading to the show being immediately renewed. The network has since begun work on a Roseanne spin-off titled The Conners, which would feature all the main cast minus Barr.