{"id":633902,"date":"2026-04-28T10:21:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T10:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/633902\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T10:21:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T10:21:15","slug":"laurie-metcalf-talks-scott-rudin-roseanne-barr-in-new-yorker-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/633902\/","title":{"rendered":"Laurie Metcalf Talks Scott Rudin, Roseanne Barr In New Yorker Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLaurie Metcalf<\/a>, currently starring in the hit Broadway<\/a> revival Death of a Salesman<\/a> co-starring Nathan Lane, speaks emotionally about the show\u2019s producer (and her frequent collaborator) Scott Rudin<\/a> in a lengthy New Yorker profile out today.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s so touchy,\u201d she tells writer Michael Schulman, who notes in the profile that Metcalf teared up when speaking about a rift with Chicago\u2019s Steppenwolf theater company over her involvement with the controversial producer. \u201cIt\u2019s so hard.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tSchulman writes, \u201cWhen I asked Metcalf about her decision to work with Rudin again, she fumbled for words before taking a piece of notebook paper from her fanny pack. She had reread his [New York] Times interview and jotted down notes. \u2018He talked about his therapy, he apologized, he owned what he said, he reflected on it,\u2019 she said, haltingly. \u2018He was in the process of rehabilitation. So I just think that, unless we think there is no possibility of real rehabilitation, then we shouldn\u2019t ask people to try and do it.\u2019 She sighed, unsure of herself. \u2018I knew you would ask me at some point.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRudin recently returned to producing on Broadway following what proved a temporary hiatus prompted by bullying and workplace abuse allegations in 2021 from former staff members. His first post-break Broadway production was Little Bear Ridge Road last fall, starring Metcalf and directed by Joe Mantello, who also directs Salesman and has worked frequently with both Metcalf and Rudin.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLaurie Metcalf and Micah Stock in \u2018Little Bear Ridge Road\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMichael Brosilow<\/p>\n

\n\tLittle Bear Ridge Road premiered at Steppenwolf in 2024, and an impressed Rudin offered to transfer the production to New York; the Chicago theater company, where Metcalf began her career decades ago, but Steppenwolf refused to collaborate with Rudin. Metcalf, according to the New Yorker, threatened to quit her longtime theatrical home unless it gave up the rights to the play to allow the Broadway staging, which ultimately was produced by Rudin and Barry Diller.<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked about the Steppenwolf situation, Metcalf tearfully tells the New Yorker, \u201cI can\u2019t really go into that, because that\u2019s something I haven\u2019t even figured out for myself, my relationship back there.\u201d She is not involved in the Chicago company\u2019s current and 50th season. Crying as she folds up a piece of notebook paper, Metcalf tells the magazine, \u201cI want my own celebration of that, and I want to celebrate it with some of the Old Guard. I want to go back in time, and I want to be brave with the people who taught me to be brave. I don\u2019t want to worry if something is not P.C. \u2013 not to trigger people. Just to be daring. Controversial, if it wants to be. Back then, we didn\u2019t have to be so scared that we were going to step on somebody\u2019s toes and get brought down. We won\u2019t call it the fiftieth. We\u2019ll call it something else. It\u2019ll be like getting the band back together for one last tour, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMetcalf discusses another controversial colleague in the New Yorker piece. On meeting Roseanne Barr<\/a>, with whom she would costar as sister Jackie on her TV career breakthrough Roseanne, Metcalf says, \u201cI was intimidated by her, because she was self-made.\u201d The two got along well and reunited for the 2018 revival series, which was canceled after nine episodes when Barr, increasingly given to QAnon-style rants, posted a racist tweet about Barack Obama\u2019s former adviser Valerie Jarrett. <\/p>\n

\n\tMetcalf, who at the time was in New York performing in the Edward Albee play Three Tall Women, learned of the series\u2019 cancellation from a news chyron. On returning for the re-branded The Conners, Metcalf recalls, \u201cThere was just a general sadness around the whole place.\u201d She says she has not spoken to Barr since.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s nothing controversial,\u201d she tells the New Yorker. \u201cWe just haven\u2019t spoken since we said goodbye at the end of the reboot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked if she was angry at Barr \u201cfor blowing up her own show,\u201d Metcalf \u201claughed ruefully and replied, \u2018I don\u2019t even know how to answer that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Laurie Metcalf, currently starring in the hit Broadway revival Death of a Salesman co-starring Nathan Lane, speaks emotionally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[65293,49,48,361,237118,75,225848,42384,237119],"class_list":["post-633902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-broadway","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-death-of-a-salesman","tag-entertainment","tag-laurie-metcalf","tag-roseanne-barr","tag-scott-rudin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}