Actor John Goodman showed off a further slimmed-down appearance when Wizards of Waverly Place actor David DeLuise met him at a supermarket this week. DeLuise posted an Instagram selfie with the 74-year-old star that left viewers flabbergasted by his physical transformation.
DeLuise, whose parents Dom DeLuise and Carol Arthur were comic actors famed for their work in Mel Brooks films, shared his excitement online. "He was my childhood !!" DeLuise gushed on Instagram with a heart emoji, adding: "Legend ! I love that I get to say that to someone 😉 if you know you know."
Goodman won a devoted fanbase during the original run of the sitcom Roseanne from 1988 to 1997, playing family patriarch Dan Conner opposite title character Roseanne Barr. The actor's portly figure was frequently the subject of jokes and plot points on the show, and he subsequently revealed that he weighed 400lb at his largest. The Daily Mail has contacted Goodman's representative for comment.
Sobriety and early fitness journey
Goodman began losing weight after entering rehab in 2007, putting an end to decades of alcoholism during which he would drink on set. "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," Goodman told the Guardian five years later. "It was time to stop."
By 2010, he had lost 100lb after cutting sugar from his diet and working out six days a week with Serena Williams' trainer Mackie Shilstone, according to People. Goodman noted that being heavier had been "a waste. It takes a lot of creative energy to sit on your a** and figure out what you’re going to eat next." Shilstone observed to the New York Post that The Big Lebowski star "remembers what it feels like to be extremely heavy and it’s something he doesn’t want again."
Shilstone placed Goodman on a "Mediterranean-style eating plan" and required him to take 10,000 to 12,000 daily steps with the help of a treadmill and elliptical trainer. Goodman told AARP magazine that he attributed his trimmer frame to "portion control," calling it a radical departure from his past habit of "just shoving everything into my mouth."
Portion control and pandemic routines
He added wryly to AARP: "But I don’t want to be an example to anybody when the weight comes thundering back on - when I start eating Crisco out of the can with a spoon and a side of confectioner's sugar." Goodman avoided that eventuality, announcing by 2023 that he had shed a total of 200lb.
By that stage, his workouts consisted largely of low-intensity activities such as walking his dogs. He told Rolling Stone that the COVID-19 pandemic caused his previous boxing regimen to lapse "because I’m lazy." He explained: "I haven’t been exercising, but I’m going to start a routine again this summer where I can get some stuff done. I’ve just let everything go just because I haven’t had the energy because of the jobs."
Upcoming film and podcast projects
Goodman now maintains a busy schedule with several projects in various states of completion. He plays Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes on the podcast drama Hindsight: The Day Before, voicing the figure famous for stating that "free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic."
His upcoming screen projects include playing himself in the film The Hollywood Hitman and starring in the horror movie Skeletons alongside Brie Larson and Willa Fitzgerald. By October of this year, American moviegoers can also see Goodman alongside Tom Cruise and Riz Ahmed in Digger, an oil industry satire by Birdman and The Revenant director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
