A source tells ET that Barr 'didn’t regret previous tweets she had to take down' and opened up about her on-set behavior.
Roseanne Barr is no stranger to courting controversy on Twitter, but a racist comment she posted on Tuesday morning, regarding former White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, led to her ABC revival sitcom getting cancelled and massive backlash on social media and throughout Hollywood.
A production source tells ET that the Rosanne crew is "in shock" over everything that has transpired regarding the cancellation and members of the staff have been texting back and forth as events unfold.
The cancellation came following the show's successful first revival season, and production on the next season -- which had already been picked up for 13 episodes -- was scheduled to begin filming in August.
However, when it came to the atmosphere on the Roseanne set, the source tells ET that the show's many producers -- which included Barr, Whitney Cummings and Wanda Sykes -- all had "strong opinions on how things should be run" and it was "hard to get things approved" because of the conflicting points of view.
This cloud of confusion was only exacerbated by Barr's alleged on-set behavior, according to ET's source, who claims that Barr had no filter about the things she would say, didn't care about who was around when she had an outburst and that it "would take a lot of coaxing to get her down when she would get riled up."
The source also says that the 65-year-old actress was not apologetic about her previous controversial tweets -- which included sharing numerous right-wing conspiracy theories and remarks supporting President Donald Trump and some of his more divisive political policies -- noting that Barr "didn’t regret previous tweets she had to take down" and would say that she still believed in what she'd tweeted.
Following news of the show's cancellation, star Sara Gilbert -- who also served as an executive producer on the series -- responded to Barr's controversial remarks and the subsequent consequences.
"Roseanne’s recent comments about Valerie Jarrett, and so much more, are abhorrent and do not reflect the beliefs of our cast and crew or anyone associated with our show. I am disappointed in her actions to say the least," Gilbert wrote in a series of tweets. "This is incredibly sad and difficult for all of us, as we’ve created a show that we believe in, are proud of, and that audiences love— one that is separate and apart from the opinions and words of one cast member."
The controversy began Tuesday morning, when Barr tweeted "Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj," referring to Jarrett, who is black and was born in Iran.
Barr quickly deleted the tweet and, after the initial flood of controversy, Barr took to Twitter to take back her remarks, writing, "I apologize. I am now leaving Twitter."
Minutes later, she added, "I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans. I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me-my joke was in bad taste."
ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey said in a statement on Tuesday, "Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show."
ABC removed all references to the revival series on its press site and Viacom has pulled all re-runs of the sitcom's entire run from all of its channels.
On Tuesday evening, Barr returned to Twitter hard, posting a slew of additional apologies -- beginning with one directed toward the show's "all liberal" writers and cast.
"Don't feel sorry for me, guys!!," Barr wrote. "I just want to apologize to the hundreds of people, and wonderful writers (all liberal) and talented actors who lost their jobs on my show due to my stupid tweet."
She also apologized to Jarrett directly tweeting, "I want to apologize to you. I am very sorry to have hurt you. I hope you can accept this sincere apology!"
She followed that up with another message, writing, "@ValerieJarrett i don't know if u saw it, but I wanted2 apologize to u 4 hurting and upsetting u with an insensitive & tasteless tweet. I am truly sorry-my whole life has been about fighting racism. I made a terrible mistake [which] caused hundreds of ppl 2 lose their jobs. so sorry!"
For more on the on-going controversy, check out the video below.
Reporting by Angelique Jackson
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