Oct. 4, 2026, 9:15 a.m. ET
Here’s a fun fact about John Goodman: He’s a big London guy.
While in the English metropolis promoting his new movie “Digger” (in theaters now), Goodman chats with USA TODAY over Zoom and reveals that he takes “a couple of trips” there annually just to see theater. He enjoys watching British thespians “because I love their commitment and their professionalism. They’re always working.”
And that ties into why, at age 74, Goodman still adores his job. “I’m a huge fan of actors,” he says. “If possible, that’s all I would ever talk about or read about. I’m a fanboy. I get excited working with these guys. So that’s what keeps it fresh.”
Director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s disaster movie satire “Digger” pairs Goodman for the first time with Tom Cruise. Cruise stars as oil tycoon Digger Rockwell, whose company inadvertently sends a rogue ice shelf nicknamed “Judy” careening toward Europe, while Goodman is President Compson, who tasks his buddy Digger with fixing the situation.
With a red tie, American flag lapel pin and plenty of bluster, and surrounded by nitwit sycophants, one might wonder if Compson and other power players are based on certain real-life political figures. Goodman suggests instead that “Digger” is a “timeless” story in that politicians “have always been good at spinning things” in their favor.
“I mean, from the founding of the country, it came from so many different visions, and they hammered out a government, which almost collapsed in 10 years, so they had to make a constitution,” Goodman says. “But it was the same people jockeying for power, for their constituencies. These were all white property owners in the beginning and they hammered everything out for themselves.”
Although Compson is also dealing with his mortality in the movie, Goodman plays him as a goofy, comedic character. And no one enjoyed watching him as much as his director.
“Every line he said is so much fun. So truthful and so wild and so funny, only John Goodman could do what he did,” Iñárritu says. “John Goodman is an icon. He’s such a relatable guy, which is the genius of humor.”
Goodman has been a beloved character actor since the ‘80s: On film, there was the fiery football coach in “Revenge of the Nerds” that was followed by loose cannon Walter Sobchak in “The Big Lebowski” and cyclopean “Big Dan” Teague in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” Generations of kids have grown up hearing his voice as Sulley in “Monsters, Inc.,” and of course, Goodman is probably best known as TV dad Dan Conner in the long-running sitcom “Roseanne.”
“Digger” gave him exactly what he looks for – something totally new – and “this was a bonanza. This was Christmas doing this film. It was such a gift, to make a fool out of yourself.”
Goodman has dropped 200 pounds in the past decade and looked pretty spry with his wife Anna Beth on the red carpet at the “Digger” Hollywood premiere. He still has a zest for performing, yet acknowledges “it’s really been changing” in the last few years: “It’s fascinating to me, and I noticed that about myself, that my goals are different now. I’m just trying to go with the flow, and basically pare down and make it easy as possible. To make it more graceful.”
“I’m getting up there in years and it’d be great to be able to work in the States, but now you’ve got to go where the work is,” adds Goodman, who next stars in Season 3 of HBO’s sci-fi hit “The Last of Us.” “I can’t do it the way I used to do it. I used to love living out of a suitcase. I don’t want to do that anymore. So, yeah, I’m adapting with my own needs.
“I’ve never had the luxury of being able to mold what I want to do. I’ve always had to wait for somebody to want to use me, or audition for something. I don’t pick and choose. I just get picked and chosen.”
