Former “Roseanne” executive producer Whitney Cummings said in a recent interview that Hollywood is making a mistake when it dismisses those on the right instead of empathizing with their point of view.
In addition to serving as a creative force on the “Roseanne” revival, Cummings is a successful stand-up comedian and co-creator of the CBS hit “Two Broke Girl$”
She shared her thoughts in a recent interview with the Daily Beast.
On getting into the mind of a Trump supporter:
As executive producer of the “Roseanne” revival, Cummings had to think like a Trump supporter to ensure realistic dialogue.
“Even though I don’t agree with somebody, I don’t think they’re dumb.” Cummings said. “I’m a comedian who tours all over the country, and I see why people make the decisions they make. And as a writer, you have to be able to do that.”
Cummings also said it’s weird to her how Hollywood writers are so dismissive of people on the right: “You’re a writer! You’re supposed to want to empathize with characters you don’t necessarily agree with because you have to write them. I just try to take the judgment out of it.”
On why she quit “Roseanne”, and Cancel Culture:
The “Roseanne” reboot was a ratings juggernaut, but ABC canceled the show after just one season after star Roseanne Barr tweeted an insult about Obama’s chief of staff Valerie Barrett. (Roseanne compared Barrett to a character from the Planet of the Apes but denied that it was intended as a racial insult.)
ABC is owned by Disney, which has been criticized for turning a blind eye to the ethnic cleansing of minority Uighurs in a remote region of China where the live action “Mulan” remake was filmed.
Cummings previously said in another interview that she quit the show over Roseanne’s habit of sending offensive tweets, and that she had already quit the show before Roseanne sent the infamous tweet that ultimately got her fired. The show later killed the title character off due to an opioid overdose and ABC rebranded the show as “The Connors.”
While Cummings doesn’t give Roseanne a pass for her actions, Cummings also said in the more recent Daily Beast interview that she doesn’t understand why people are listening. “Why do you follow her? You’re the one listening, responding, and just retweeted it. Just ignore her,” Cummings said. “I don’t even think Roseanne believes what she says half the time.” Later in the interview, Cummings observed that it’s a comedian’s job to rile people up.
Cummings has a theory that humans have a basic need to take sides. The comedian pointed out that people used to watch other people fight to the death in the Roman Colosseum for entertainment. “We’re a very dark species,” she said. Cancel Culture is a modern-day extension of that.
Cummings said that the pandemic amplified things, because “we didn’t have sports, and it got so much worse.”
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